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

In 1856 the fledgling Republican party nominated as its first candidate for president John C.Frémont, the dashing explorer of the American West known as the Pathfinder and a radical opponent of slavery.He lost, but when the Civil War broke out, Lincoln tapped him for high command, setting the two on a collision course over how to deal with slavery during the conflict.The Pathfinder and the President explores their volatile relationship in all its political and military dimensions as well as its effects on the Civil War and the battle for emancipation. Lincoln had not supported Frémont’s nomination in 1856, favoring a more moderate Republican, but when the war came, the president recognized his importance - his morale-boosting value as a national celebrity and his political value as an ally of Radical Republicans - and gave Frémont command of the Department of the West, with the task of defending the vital border state of Missouri.There Frémont lived extravagantly, commanded like a tyra