Packing the Big Gun

Fremont and Carson set off in the summer of 1842.  Fremont had a deep need for instant glory and he could arrange situations where he was the center of attention and a hero.  In the 1840s he presented himself as a kind of frontier hero, a trailblazer for all.  He compared himself to John Jacob Astor and was an instant celebrity as he went west...why you might ask?

John Charles Fremont took along on his survey party a 12 pound cannon which he had gotten illegally from the army.  There was no possible use for a cannon on a survey expedition other than a photo op - it was fired on only one occasion at a herd of buffalo.  His military superiors were furious and his men who had to deal with him over the trails said he was "ridiculous".  Beginning to get a picture of why Captain Joseph Walker wanted nothing to do with Fremont's "survey" expedition?

Next time...An Explosion of Wagon Trains

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Today in History:  On November 3,  1883  authorities almost catch Charles Boles, California bandit and infamous stagecoach robber called Black Bart.  He manages to make a quick getaway, but drops an incriminating clue that eventually sends him to prison.