Editing Kit Carson (section)

=== Bear Flag Revolt ===
In June 1846, Frémont and Carson participated in a California uprising against Mexico, the [[Bear Flag Revolt]].<ref name=":0" /> Mexico ordered all Americans to leave California. American settlers in California wanted to be free of the Mexican government and declared California an independent [[republic]]. The American rebels found the courage to oppose Mexico because they had Frémont, who had written an oath of [[allegiance]], and his troops behind them. Frémont and his men were able to give some protection to the Americans. He ordered Carson to kill an old Mexican man, [[José de los Reyes Berreyesa]], and his two adult nephews, who had been captured when they stepped ashore at [[San Francisco Bay]] to prevent them from notifying Mexico about the uprising.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25613577|title=Kit Carson in California: With Extracts from His Own Story|first=Charles L.|last=Camp|date=May 1, 2018|journal=California Historical Society Quarterly|volume=1|issue=2|pages=111–151|doi=10.2307/25613577|hdl=2027/uc1.b4505284|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Frémont worked hard to win California for the United States, for a time fashioning himself as its military governor until he was replaced by General [[Stephen W. Kearny]], who outranked him.<ref>Sherman, W.T., Memoirs</ref>

From 1846 to 1848, Carson served as courier traveling three times from California to the East and back. Frémont wrote, "This was a service of great trust and honor... and great danger also." In 1846, dispatched with military records for the [[Secretary of War]] in Washington, D.C., Carson took the Gila Trail, but was met on the trail by General Kearny, who ordered him to hand his dispatches to others bound east, and return to California as his much-needed guide. In early 1847, Carson was ordered east from California again with more dispatches for Washington, D.C., where he arrived by June. Returning to California via a short visit with his family in Taos, he followed the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Old Spanish Trail]] to Los Angeles. He was dispatched a third time as government courier leaving Los Angeles in May 1848 via the Old Spanish Trail and reached Washington, D.C., with important military messages, which included an official report of the discovery of gold in California.<ref name="Remley" />

Newspapers reported on Carson's travels with some exaggeration, including that he had been killed by [[Plains Indians]] in July 1848.<ref>{{cite news |title=Washington Union |issue=July 28, 1848}}</ref> Lt. George Brewerton accompanied Carson on part of this trip and published in ''Harper's Magazine'' (1853) an account that added to his now-growing celebrity status.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brewerton |first1=George |title=Overland with Kit Carson, A Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in 1848 |date=1993 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |isbn=0-8032-6113-6 |pages=xvi–xxi}}</ref> In 1848, as his fame grew, a Baltimore hat maker offered a "Kit Carson Cap", "after the unique style of the domestic one worn by that daring pioneer".<ref>{{cite news |title=Baltimore Sun |date=August 12, 1848}}</ref> A new steamboat, named the ''Kit Carson'', was built for the Mississippi-Ohio river trade, "with qualities of great speed".<ref>{{cite news |title=Boon's Lick Times |date=20 August 1848}}</ref> At the St. Louis Jockey Club, one could bet on a horse "as swift as the wind", named "Kit Carson".<ref>{{cite news |title=New York Daily Herald |date=November 9, 1848}}</ref>