Stephen Watts Kearny -- Cont.
After a bitter disagreement with Commodore Robert Stockton and Col. Fremont over leadership of the new territory, Kearny served about three months as the military governor of the territory of California . The insubordinate Fremont was count-martialed in Washington D.C.for his actions, but the maps produced by the engineers under Fremont's command had created a following among frontiersmen, and his influential father-in-law, Thomas Hart Benton, may have prevailed to secure a pardon from Polk. The outcome of the controversial court martial and the politics were a blow to Kearny; He asked for a new command in the war with Mexico. In Vera Cruz, Mexico, Kearny fell ill with a tropical disease. He recovered briefly, but died of the illness on October 31, 1848.

Several place-names in the United States honor Stephen Watts Kearny or his nephew General Phil Kearny (a fellow frontier explorer and Civil War Hero):

A number of monuments have been errected as well:
In Arizona, in the Santa Fe Plaza, at the San Pasqual battle site in California, and at the site of Fort Kearny in Nebraska

Two sets of stamps were issued to commemorate General Kearny's expedition to New Mexico and the fort named in his honor:
SantaFeStamp.jpg 100th Anniversary Kearny Expedition
In 1946, the post office issued a stamp to commemorate Stephen Watts Kearny's expedition to Santa Fe New Mexico.
100th Anniversary Fort Kearny
In 1948, a US postage stamp was issued at the request of Nebraska citizens, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Fort named for the remarkable frontier soldier Stephen Watts Kearny.		 Ft-Kearny Stamp

Further reading:

Clark, Dwight L. Stephen Watts Kearny: Soldier of the West.
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1961

von Sachsen-Altenburg, Hans. Winning the West: General Stephen Watts Kearny's Letter Book 1846-47.
Pekitanoui Publications, Boonsville, MO, 1998.

Also:
Bryant, Edwin. What I Saw in California: Journal of a Tour 1846-47
Ross & Haines, Inc. Minneapolis, 1967.

Drumm, Stella M. (ed). Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847.
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1982.

Hughes, John Taylor. Doniphan's Expedition
Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 1997.

Pelzer, Louis (Ed.). The Prairie Logbooks: Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844, and to the Rocky Mountains in 1845
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. 1983.

(for young readers)
Norman, James. Kearney Rode West
G.P. Putman's Sons, NY, 1971.

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Comments to Author. -- Created 06/27/98 Last updated 06, 25, 2005

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