John Fremont’s 100 Days: Clashes and Convictions in Civil War Missouri is a brief (216 pages) work that chronicles events that were critical in decisive days in a Border State, and reflect how political influences that are representative of other states but are often overlooked in Civil War books.

Its principal character of this play, John C. Fremont, is a significant figure in American history. Trained as a t, he had topographical engineer, he had participated in a two-year expedition to the Northern Plains departing in 1838. During the Mexican-American War he “stumbled and bumbled his way into becoming-in the public mind, at least-the conqueror of California by supporting a group of American settlers who had declared California an independent republic”. (p.9). His marriage to Jessie Benton, daughter of influential Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, brought him a forceful parter and connections into political worlds.  Service as one of California’s first two United States Senators and, in 1856, the first Republican candidate for president, left him well suited for a major role when sectional strife rent the nation asunder. 

Every protagonist needs its antagonist.  They are the Blair family of Missouri and Washington City (as the capitol was then known) who gave their name to the famous Blair House; Pater Familia Francis Preston, Sr., long-time political operative, and sometime ally of Benton; sons Montgomery, Abraham Lincoln’s Postmaster General; and Frank, Jr., Missouri legislator, Congressman and Union Army Major General.  Deeply interested in events in Missouri, the Blairs were supporters of Gen. Nathanial Lyon, who replaced Gen. William S. Harney as Commander of the Army’s Department of the West, charged with the defense of the St. Louis Arsenal, the best stocked federal arsenal in the southern and western states. 

The scene is Missouri, a state whose loyalty to the Union or the Confederacy would be hotly contested in 1861 and “has been a subject which has very deeply occupied the mind of the President” according to his secretary, John Hay.  With Lincoln relying heavily on the Blairs for advice regarding the border states, Fremont was, for 100 days, thrust into a factious state and an active war zone to deal with issues of military leadership, martial law and emancipation were all played out.  Complaints of performance, at least partly related to the conduct of a subordinate, having reached Washington, Secretary of War Simon Cameron traveled to St. Louis to investigate, armed with a letter from Gen Winfield Scott dismissing Fremontand authority to use it at his discretion.  Sight of the letter left Fremont “very much mortified, pained and…humiliated.”  After Fremont pleaded for time to bring Confederate General Sterling Price to battle, Cameron surprisingly agreed to hold the letter until he reached Washington, thereby disruption Lincoln’s plans for a smooth transition. 

Fremont’s hundred days in Missouri, July 25 through November 2, 1861 were days of consequence.  They included the Confederate victory at Wilson’s Creek, south of Springfield, Missouri at which Lyon was killed, Ulysses Grant’s appointment to command at Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Cairo, Illinois and his first battle in command at Belmont, Missouri.  On July 25, the destiny of Missouri was deeply in doubt.  By November 2, the pieces for eventual Union control were in place. 

Each chapter commences with a quote, an introduction of a personality, and the setting of the scene and concludes with endnotes of sources.  The index is helpful for reference and the bibliography is a guide to further reading. 

Although I have read widely on Civil war topics, I learned much from this book about the early war in Missouri, why it was a crucial theatre of operations and how personalities and rivalries intruded into the conduct of the War, disruptions not unique to Missouri.  I recommend this to War History Network members interested in the Trans-Mississippi theatre or insights into the stories behind the headlines.  Author Gregory Wolk has crafted a valuable addition to the Trnas-Mississippi canon.