The Pathfinder and the President

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Two towering figures of American history collide in this riveting account of how the struggle between Lincoln and his defiant general John C. Frémont shaped the Civil War and emancipation. "... a masterwork of history . . .Bicknell deftly interweaves Frémont's story with the grander narrative of the war and Abraham Lincoln's presidency." -Jon D. Schaff, author of Abraham Lincoln's Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy. In 1856, John C. Frémont—the famed "Pathfinder" of the American West—became the Republican Party's first presidential nominee on an anti-slavery platform. Five years later, now a Union general under President Lincoln, he sparked a national crisis by unilaterally declaring emancipation in Missouri. Drawing from extensive research, author John Bicknell masterfully chronicles the volatile relationship between these two leaders as they grappled with slavery, military strategy, and the future of