General Fremont Flag (1841): History of the Rocky Mountain Eagle

The Rock Mountain Eagle: General Fremont's Unique 26-Star Banner (1841)

Gen. John C. Fremont unfurled the General Fremont flag from the Rocky Mountains summit when he and his small party were on their way to California.

General John C. Fremont, who, at the head of an exploring expedition, had reached the Pacific coast early in 1846, received verbal orders from Washington to turn back in May.

He made his way to Slitter's Fort, which was on the site of the present city of Sacramento, where he established headquarters and raised a flag that had but one star in the canton.

On June 15, he captured a Mexican post at Sonoma Pass. On July 4, at a meeting of the Americans at Sonoma, under his advice, they proclaimed the independence of California and declared war against Mexico.

General Fremont did not then know that United States troops, under the command of General Taylor, had invaded Mexico early in the previous March.

An explanation for having only one star in the flag's canton that floated over Fremont's headquarters has not been given.

His "Rocky Mountain Flag," commonly known as the General Fremont Flag, which he frequently displayed, was a modification of the Stars and Stripes.

Mrs. Fremont made the Fremont flag on the eve of her husband's pathfinding expedition to the West.

It differs from the ordinary national emblem only in the canton field, on which a sizeable American eagle is wrought, done in the embroidery of great delicacy and beauty.

About the eagle, there are twenty-six stars, the number of States that had entered the Union up to 1841.

General Fremont unfurled the Fremont flag from the summit of the Rocky Mountains when he and his small party were on their way to California.

The General Fremont flag is now the property of P. M. Reardon of Redding, California, to whom it was given by Mrs. Fremont some years ago.

This historical relic is carefully preserved in the vault of one of the banks of Redding. Pinned to the flag is a silk scarf bearing this inscription in golden letters:

"Rocky Mountains, 1841."

The General Fremont flag is in a reasonably good state of preservation, considering its age of more than sixty years.