Page "Stephen W. Kearny" Paragraph 16

With all these reinforcements in hand Kearny assumed command, appointed his own territorial military governor and ordered Frémont to resign as and accompany him back to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

On Kearny and Frémont's trip back east on the California Trail, accompanied by some members of the Mormon Battalion who had re-enlisted, they found and buried some of the Donner Party's remains on their trip over the Sierra Nevadas.

Once at Fort Leavenworth, Frémont was restricted to barracks and ordered court-martialed for insubordination and willfully disregarding an order.

A court martial convicted Frémont and ordered that he receive a dishonorable discharge, but President James K. Polk quickly commuted Frémont's sentence due to services he had rendered over his career.

Frémont resigned his commission in disgust and settled in California.

In 1847 Frémont purchased the Rancho Las Mariposas a large land grant in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite, which proved to be rich in gold.

Frémont was later elected one of the first U. S. senators from California and was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party in 1856.