Then There Arose A Clamor For The Removal Of General
Fremont.
A semi-official account of his proceedings, which had
reached Washington from an officer under his command, was made
public, and also the correspondence which took place on the subject
between the President and General Fremont's wife.
The officer in
question was thereupon placed under arrest, but immediately
released by orders from Washington. He then made official
complaint of his general, sending forward a list of charges, in
which Fremont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of
fidelity of the interests of the government, and disobedience to
orders from headquarters. After awhile the Secretary of War
himself proceeded from Washington to the quarters of General
Fremont at St. Louis, and remained there for a day or two making,
or pretending to make, inquiry into the matter. But when he
returned he left the General still in command. During the whole
month of October the papers were occupied in declaring in the
morning that General Fremont had been recalled from his command,
and in the evening that he was to remain. In the mean time they
who befriended his cause, and this included the whole West, were
hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter for himself
and silence his accusers, by some great military success. General
Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that Fremont
would sweep General Price and his army down the valley of the
Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not be so swept,
and it began to appear that a guerrilla warfare would prevail; that
General Price, if driven southward, would reappear behind the backs
of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would not accomplish all
that was expected of him with that rapidity for which his friends
had given him credit.
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