Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Civil War Oddities #83




Mrs. John Charles Fremont was in Missouri with her husband when he aroused the wrath of Lincoln. On August 30, 1861, the Federal major general issued a famous “emancipation proclamation” concerning the territory over which he had military control. As soon as word about Fremont’s action reached Washington, the president firmly requested that he rescind it.

Furious, Fremont’s wife, the daughter of the powerful Missouri senator, Jesse Hart Benton, went to the capital to intercede. Lincoln is known to have seen Jessie Fremont on at least two occasions in early September, but he refused to modify his stand. Disappointed and angry, she returned to her husband in the war zone and remained with him until he was relieved of command in November 1861.