With a Friend Like That...

In December 1848, they reach Sangre de Cristo and were in trouble from the snow and severe cold.  Crazy Bill Williams in a sober moment began to reconsider his promise to lead them through the mountains and wanted to redirect them through New Mexico, but  John Charles Fremont wouldn't budge.  

The men began to weaken and by Christmas, Williams just wanted to "lay down and die", reported one man on the expedition.  On December 27, Fremont finally began to question the sanity of what he was doing and seeing how bad Williams really was, he dispatched him along with 2 men to return to Taos to find help.

With blizzards raging around camp and lack of food, Fremont's nerve finally gave out two weeks later.  Taking 15 men and some supplies, Fremont started out for civilization, leaving the rest of the men to fend for themselves!!!  When he met the first relief party outside of camp, he refused to offer his men any help! On January 27,  Fremont arrived in Taos where he sent a letter back East blaming Williams for the fiasco.  then he left for California through southern Arizona.   

For the record, Fremont left behind 11 of his men who starved or were frozen to death in the mountains.  Upon reaching California, he called the expedition "satisfactory".  

I am not saying that Crazy Bill Williams was an upstanding sober man, but in my opinion John Charles Fremont ranks up there as one of the sorriest excuses for a man in history...you can decide for yourself.

Next time...Traitor!

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On this Day in History:  On December 1, 1882,  Elfego Baca, legendary defender of southwestern Hispanos, manages to hold off a gang of 80 cowboys who are determined to kill him. The trouble began the previous day, when Baca arrested Charles McCarthy, a cowboy who fired five shots at him in at Frisco (now Reserve),  New Mexico.  For months, a vicious band of Texan cowboys had terrorized the Hispanos of Frisco, brutally castrating one young Mexican man and using another for target practice. Outraged by these abuses, Baca gained a commission as deputy sheriff to try to end the terror. His arrest of McCarthy served notice to other Anglo cowboys that further abuses of the Hispanos would not be tolerated.