It is 1847. General Kearney arrests Lt. Col. John C Fremont with plans of court martialing him for mutiny, among other things. The trial takes place in Washington, where Senator Thomas Hart Benton sits behind his son-in-law; the long break between Benton and his daughter Jessie is at an end. Fremont is found guilty and ordered dishonorably discharged. He counts on a Presidential Pardon, which comes but does not absolve him entirely. He resigns the army and sets out on his 4th expedition.
Kit Carson was unavailable, so Fremont hired Bill Williams (Anthony Zerbe) as guide. The expedition is a disaster as the men are stranded in the snows of the Rocky Mountains. Several die of starvation. When Fremont finally gets to California and reunites with Jessie, he is a rich man. There is gold on the ranch he purchased. With this, he financed yet another expedition, his 5th and final one, mapping a path through the Rockies for a railroad.
In 1856, Fremont is the first Republican nominee for the presidency. Abraham Lincoln (F Murray Abraham) is among the delegates who nominate him. He loses by a large margin.
1858. Thomas Hart Benton is on his death bed. Jessie visits. Her father agreed that she was right about Fremont all those years ago. She chose a very fine man.
In 1861, the Civil War has begun and President Lincoln named Fremont to command the Western Department, with a particular interest in preventing Missouri from joining the Confederacy. In St. Louis, Fremont immediately confronted the rebel sympathizers in the city. Time to stop treating them with kid gloves. He went so far as to post a proclamation freeing slaves from rebels. Lincoln viewed this as a huge overstep on Fremont's part and sent General Hunter (James Cromwell) to replace him.
It 1887, Fremont and his wife live a modest life on Staten Island. All their wealth was lost on bad investments in the railroads. They depend upon Jessie's writing to support them. In a final train journey back to California, they encounter a man and his son. The man gushes about Fremont and his book enabling his parents to travel west and thus provide him the prosperous life he now has.
The final chapter is a hodgepodge. Where the first two episodes had a smooth flow with the rise of Fremont (episode 1 covered 4 years or so) and Fremont at War (episode 2 covers 4 years or so), this one covers the rest of his life (40 years). That's a lot of time to cover and it feels rushed. The disaster of the 4th expedition is fully explored, even dragging at times. The 5th expedition, which sees the return of Kit Carson, felt rushed by comparison. The presidential campaign started with Fremont's nomination at the Republican Convention and ended almost the next scene with his defeat. Next thing you know, it's the Civil War. None of Fremont's battles are filmed; it is all camp and HQ. This chapter feels more like a history lecture than an engaging story.
Though I like F Murray Abraham, he is badly cast as Abraham Lincoln. He is in so much makeup that he almost looks to be wearing an Abe Lincoln mask. The look is unconvincing to the extent of being distracting. He lacks the towering stature of Lincoln. His conversation with Jessie where she chides him for withdrawing Fremont's emancipation proclamation made Lincoln look small.
Overall, the miniseries is good. It is too lenient on Fremont, but it is telling the story from his point of view. My reading of the man shows him to be brash and arrogant. He had a high opinion of himself and was not prone to humility. Chamberlain's Fremont does not come across as a man who grew up in South Carolina.
Recommended.
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