His wife, who is the daughter of Senator Benton, of Missouri, is a woman of great accomplishments and decided literary tastes. General Fremont, who was born at Savannah, Ga., January 21, 1813, is known to literature by his graphic reports, which were published by the federal government, of his Western explorations. Devoting himself in early life to civil engineering, he obtained an appointment in the government expedition for the survey of the headwaters of the Mississippi, and was afterwards employed at Washington preparing maps of the country explored. In 1842, at the head of a small force, he crossed the Rocky Mountains and opened to commerce and emigration the Great South Pass. His report of his adventures was so interesting that it was reprinted by publishers in this country and in England and was translated into various foreign languages. He next accomplished an expedition to Oregon, and, striking southward and westward, after incredible hardships, succeeded in exploring the region of Alta California, including the Sierra Nevada,
the valleys of San Joaquin and Sacramento and the gold region. Returning to Washington in 1844, he published another report, and upon its completion set out on another exi)edition to the Pacific, tlie result of which was the acquisition of California by the United States. He was sent to Washington in 1850 as the first United States Senator from California. In 1856 he was the Republican candidate for President of the United States and during the Civil War held a commission as major-general in the Union army. A superb edition of his reports, entitled "Fremont's Exi)iorations," was published in 1859.