PAGE
[“We Taught Those Thar Red Demons a Lesson They’ll Not Forget.” ] Frontispiece
[Christopher Carson]22
[John Charles Frémont]71
[The First Buffalo Had Fallen to the Crack of Kit Carson’s Rifle]104
[As the Boat Came Whirling Down, Helpless and Inert, Heads Broke Up Around It]130
[Kit and the Lieutenant Showed the Three, by Signs, How from the Rifles and Carbines Could Speed a Bullet and Bore Them Through and Through]232

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Christopher CarsonJohn Charles Frémont
Born Madison County, Ky., December 25, 1809.January 21, 1813, born at Savannah, Ga.
Father: Lindsay (Linsey) Carson, of North Carolina and Kentucky.Father: John Charles Frémont, of France and of Virginia.
Mother: Rebecca Robinson, of Virginia.Mother: Anne Beverley Pryor, of Virginia.
Reared without education, on the Missouri frontier.Educated by tutor and college at Charleston, S. Carolina.
Apprenticed to a harness-maker at Franklin, Mo.—1825.1833–1836—Teacher of Mathematics to Midshipmen on Sloop-of-War Natchez.
On the Santa Fé Trail at Fifteen—1826.1836—Commissioned Professor of Mathematics in the Navy, Assigned to the Frigate Independence.
Interpreter and Teamster, in New Mexico and Old Mexico—1827–1829.1837–1838—Railroad and Army Surveyor.
Trapper to California—1829–1830.1838—Commissioned Second Lieutenant, Topographical Engineers, U. S. A.
Rocky Mountain Trapper—1830–1838.1838–1839—Government Survey of Upper Mississippi River, under J. N. Nicollet.
Married an Arapahoe Indian girl—1835.1841—Married Jessie Benton of Washington.
Hunter and Captain of Trappers, at Bent’s Fort and Taos—1838–1842.1841—Survey of Lower Des Moines River.
Hunter with the Frémont First Expedition—1842.1842—First Government Exploring Expedition, to the South Pass and Frémont’s Peak.
Married Josefa Jaramillo of Taos—1843.1843–1844—Second Government Exploring Expedition, to the Salt Lake, to the Columbia, south through California, back by the Spanish Trail and the Rocky Mountains.
Hunter and General Assistant with Frémont Second Expedition—1843–1844.1845—Promoted by brevet to First Lieutenant and Captain.
Goes to Ranching in New Mexico—1845.1845–1846—Third Government Exploring Expedition, across the Great Basin into Northern California.
Guide and General Assistant with the Frémont Third Expedition—1845–1846.1846—As Major Commands a Battalion for the Conquest of California.
Scout and Express Bearer under Colonel Frémont, Commodore Stockton and General Kearny, in the Conquest of California—1846.1846–1847—Military Commander and Governor of California.
Express Service with Despatches Across the Continent to Washington—1847–1848.1846—Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of Mounted Rifles, U. S. A.
Commissioned Second Lieutenant of Mounted Rifles, U. S. A., but the Commission not confirmed—1847.1847–1848—Court-martialed at Washington for Insubordination, Found Guilty, but Recommended for Leniency.
Serves on Outpost Duty in California—1847.1848—Resigns from Army.
His Express Duty of 1848 Completed, Becomes Private Citizen at Taos—1848.1848–1849—Fourth Exploring Expedition, into the Southern Colorado Mountains; thence Forced Back, and to California by a Southern Route.
Seeks ranch life in New Mexico—1849–1850.1849–1850—Seeks ranch life in California.
Scout Duty against the Indians, with Army Detachments—1850.1850–1851—Senator from California.
Overland to California with a Drove of 30,000 sheep—1853.1851–1853—California and Europe.
Government Indian Agent over Utes and Apaches, Quarters at Taos—1854–1860.1853–1854—Fifth Exploring Expedition, across the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada to California.
Scout Duty against the Indians, with Army Detachments—1854–1855.1856—Nominated by the Republican Party for the Presidency. Defeated by Buchanan.
Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, First New Mexican Infantry, U. S. Vols.—1861–1862.1861—Major-General, Department of the West, U. S. A., headquarters at St. Louis.
Colonel of First New Mexican Cavalry, U. S. Vols., conducting campaigns against the Apaches, Navajos and Kiowas, New Mexico and Arizona—1862–1864.1862—Resigns from Army, after service in Command of the Mountain Department of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Military Service on the Santa Fé Trail and Special Commissioner to treat with Cheyennes and Arapahoes—1865.1864—Nominated for Presidency. Withdraws.
Lieutenant-Colonel (Brigadier General by Brevet, for Distinguished Service) in command at Fort Garland, Colorado—1866–1867.1866–1878—Railroad Construction, etc.
Resigned from the Army, on Account of Ill Health—1867.1878–1882—Governor of Arizona.
Special Commissioner to Treat with the Utes, at Washington—1868.1890—Appointed Major-General, on the Retired List.
Died at New Fort Lyon, Colorado, May 23, 1868.July 13, 1890, died in New York City.

WITH CARSON AND FRÉMONT

[I]
KIT CARSON TO THE RESCUE

It was the middle of November, 1840; and across the sandy face of southwestern Kansas was toiling, outward bound from Missouri, a Santa Fé caravan: fifty-two huge, creaking canvas-topped wagons, drawn each by six or eight span of mules or yoke of oxen.