The Pathfinder and the President: John C. Fremont, Abraham Lincoln, and the Battle for Emancipation by John Bicknell

The Pathfinder and the President is a 2025 publication that narrates the political interaction between the Fremonts (more to come on that) and Lincoln, especially, with respect to the government’s evolving policies on abolition.  The author is not a Civil War specialist but rather a political journalist who has published previously on mid-nineteenth century politics, including a prior book on John C. Fremont and the 1856 presidential campaign.  Bicknell brings a fluid writing style and a fresh perspective on a highly important public figure, although one who became marginalized in military circles for most of the war.  Despite this fact, Fremont is presented as a flawed man and general whose activities nevertheless helped to push Lincoln toward emancipation and harder war policies. 

Fremont was in some ways an enigma.  His youthful adventures in Western exploration and his wife’s talent for publicity made him a national hero and an international celebrity.  He had the instincts of a maverick throughout his life – self-seeking and willing to embrace risk in his army career (where he was often insubordinate), in his business dealings (gaining and losing large fortunes in speculative enterprise), and in his personal relations (where marital unfaithfulness jeopardized the critical assets his wife brought to the partnership).  He was bold in his public life, ready to strike a dramatic posture or embrace a new and controversial policy, but one wonders if his abolitionist views were genuine or just a means to political prominence. While he was seen working long hours, he wasn’t a capable administrator.  He often surrounded himself with people of questionable integrity, although he himself did not appear to benefit directly from corruption.  Fremont exercised poor judgment in his relationships and was incapable of working as a subordinate as part of a team.  He had talent but less than he was credited with and certainly wasn’t qualified for the high military posts he held. 

But this is also a book about Lincoln and his relationship with Fremont.  Bicknell points out that in the chaotic early days of the war when Lincoln gave Fremont command of the Department of the West in St. Louis, he told Fremont that he was giving him carte blanche and that Fremont must exercise his judgment because he wouldn’t get a lot of assistance or oversight from Washington.  In light of that, Fremont might deserve a partial excuse for inventing his own policies and getting in front of the Administration.  In this book we see Lincoln, the cautious politician, reluctant to offend loyal slaveholders and voters in the Border States.  We see Fremont and various Republican figures and abolitionists pushing Lincoln further toward emancipation and harder war policies for a year until he was ready to announce it by September 1862.  We see Lincoln seeming to trust abolitionist General David Hunter and continue to give him military assignments despite Hunter getting ahead of government policy, in contrast to Fremont, who was always first a potential political rival and second a military subordinate.  The amateurish qualities of both Fremont and Lincoln are on full display in the first year of the war.  That a man like Fremont who had not risen above lieutenant in the pre-war Army and never commanded more than a few hundred volunteers in California could be promoted to third ranking major general and given a top post is a primary example of this amateurishness.  While Lincoln’s war policies evolved throughout the book, in part due to the efforts and influence of Fremont and his supporters, Lincoln’s administration also evolved into more professional management, which left no place for Fremont. 

Like many men, John C. Fremont was very fortunate in his wife.  Jessie Benton Fremont was the daughter of powerful antebellum Senator Thomas Hart Benton, who promoted Fremont’s career and protected him at times from his own poor judgment and reckless actions.  Jessie served as Fremont’s publicist, promoter, chief of staff, secretary, adviser, and gatekeeper; indeed, they had a rather modern marriage partnership.  She visited with Lincoln on Fremont’s behalf when her husband’s controversial administration in Missouri was under scrutiny; the meeting did not go well, and Jessie carried a grudge against Lincoln to her grave.  In reading about the Fremonts, I was reminded of when Bill Clinton somewhat controversially claimed that a vote for him was a “two-for” – elect him and you get Hillary as a bonus.  In terms of energy, ambition, and intellect, Jessie was more than a match for John.

Jessie and her father also brought Fremont into alliance with the similarly powerful Blair family.  Frank Sr., Frank Jr., and Montgomery Blair played significant roles in civilian and military politics during the period; they fostered Fremont’s career and endorsed him for high office but later turned against him when his progressive/radical policies clashed with their more conservative approach.  Much of Bicknell’s book covers the intersection of the Blair influence on Fremont and Lincoln’s relationship.  

One area where the book lacks depth is where most of us Civil Warriors focus our reading – the military detail.  The book could have provided more information in its coverage of Fremont’s brief campaigns in Missouri and Virginia, but the author’s interest is politics not military movements and battles.  Bicknell does discuss how Fremont was perceived within the officer corps, where he was uniformly unpopular with professional West Point graduates who saw Fremont as an unqualified show-off whose position resulted from political connections rather than military talent or achievement. 

After being relieved in Missouri, Fremont was given a command in western Virginia. But his short tenure ended with his resignation after being defeated by Stonewall Jackson and then asked to serve under his previous subordinate John Pope.  Being both ineffective and difficult, Fremont was placed on the shelf for good.  The next two years were spent intriguing against the administration as a possible presidential candidate in 1864.  He retained his popularity with abolitionists and, in an effort to appease them, seems to have been briefly considered by the Lincoln administration to lead a black corps, possibly to operate in the Southwest.  But the impression one gets is that Fremont would rather have been in semi-retirement with celebrity status than actually back in the arena with its responsibilities and risk of another failure. 

For me, The Pathfinder and the President sheds new light on some areas that were prominent to people at the time but have not received much focus since.  Fremont is an interesting character, and the book shows us the important human elements that often play as much of a role in outcomes as facts, numbers, and analysis.  With Fremont, people expected more from him than they got and were left wondering how things might have turned out differently.  He lived long after the war but faded from public view.  This quote from an 1890 obituary stayed with me, “General Fremont possessed all the qualities of genius except ability.”

Robert Fugate