The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West

by Robert J. Willoughby

  An American woman, Susan Shelby Magoffin, traveled to Santa Fe with her husband, Samuel Magoffin, on a trading expedition when the war with Mexico broke out. For most of their trip they were a few days ahead of Kearny's army, but at Bent's Fort they joined and continued on to Santa Fe in company of the troops. She kept a journal of her travels in 1846 and wrote of encountering Antoine. The Magoffin family had built some wealth and had important connections in Washington, D.C., including Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Samuel's brother James, whom Kearny had sent to give the message to Armijo, had done significant work for the United States in Mexico prior to the war. Naturally, when Kearny arrived in Santa Fe, he invited the Magoffins along with most of the leading citizens of the city to dinner. On Saturday, September 20, 1846, Susan recorded in her journal, “Our General gave us a toast, with the permission of our host, ‘The U.S. and Mexico—They are now united, may no one ever think of separating.’ It was translated into Spanish by Mr. Rubidor, the general's interpreter.”7

  On August 23, 1846, Antoine wrote a letter from Santa Fe to Benjamin F. Loan, a prominent resident of St. Joseph, where Antoine had come to live after abandoning the mountain trade. The entire letter appeared in the October 9, 1846, edition of the Gazette, the St. Joseph newspaper, and provides an excellent recount of General Kearny's capture of the city.

  Letter from A. Robidoux

  We are indebted to B. F. Loan Esq. for a copy of the following letter from Mr. A. Robidoux formerly of St. Joseph. It will be recollected that Mr. R. went with Gen. Kearney as interpreter. Mr. R. will accompany Gen. Kearney to California.—The letter is dated, Santa Fe, Aug. 23, 1846.

  Dear Sir—It is needless for me to mention the particulars of our trip across the plains. Suffice it to say that it had the usual amount of accident and excitement. The command reached Santa Fe on the 18th and took possession of the Department of New Mexico without opposition.

  Many were the reports that reached us as we approached the settlements of preparations, on the part of the Mexicans: at one time no doubt was entertained by they would give us battle, but the rapid movements of the command under Gen. Kearney contributed greatly to lessen the probability of opposition.

  The Mexicans had collected together a heterogeneous mass of three or four thousand men, including soldiers, rancheros, and Indians, but they were found to be so entirely inefficient as to preclude the possibility of successful resistance. This in connection with the inefficiency and incapacity of the commanding general Armijo, of which he himself seems to have been conscious, left us an easy conquest.

  It seems that Armijo on the 16th joined his troops at a pass in the mountains, through which it was supposed the command of Gen. Kearney would pass, when they attempted to form a breastwork, but as it was doubtless never his intention to meet the American troops, he managed to bring about some disaffection among his own troops, which it was said nearly resulted in a fight among themselves. In this excitement he drew off his regular troops with whom he fled in a direction to his residence, and this time it is not certainly known where he is, many of his troops have since deserted him, and returned to Santa Fe, having laid off their uniforms and not known from other citizens.

  No man I suppose has ever been more completely in disgrace than Gen Armijo, not only with the American soldiers but his own people. He has only proved what should have been long since apparent, his entire want of capacity as a military man.

  Gen. Kearney in taking possession of Santa Fe, raised the American flag over the capitol at the same time declaring to the Mexicans that he took possession of New Mexico on both sides of the Rio del Norte as forming a part of the Territory of the United States, and that he came prepared to defend it, and would defend it as such. Assuring them at the same time that all peaceable Mexicans should be protected in their persons, property and religion but that such as was found with arms should be treated as enemies of the U. States.

  The conduct of Gen. Kearney so far has given entire satisfaction to the Mexicans. The Government of the United States has certainly been fortunate in the selecting of commander for this important enterprise not only as an able military commander but as one whose gentlemanly deportment and pleasing address, is well calculated to reconcile the Mexicans to the change of government.

  It is contemplated by the command to pass with a detachment of men across the country to take possession of California. I am advised the General will take command of this expedition in person though it would be perhaps as well for him to remain here for the present, until the people become fully reconciled.

  Respectfully yours, A. ROBIDOUX To Mr. B. F. Loan.8

  Kearny, with Antoine still in company, left Santa Fe in late September 1846, heading for California. A brief notice in the St. Joseph, Missouri, newspaper, the Gazette, read, “Important and Very Late from Santa Fe. General Kearney has departed from Santa Fe. The command is also accompanied by Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Robidoux and a guide from Taos who takes with him five mules, so difficult is the route in his estimation and experience.” Kearney started with five companies of dragoons, on poor mounts, mostly mules (possibly at the suggestion of the aforementioned guide, or due to a lack of good horses), made slow progress down the Rio Grande to the Gila. On the way, Kearny sent three companies back to Santa Fe, reducing the size of his force due to poor forage. Though Antoine remained the interpreter, he may well have become a scout, too, for he had been to California and knew the Gila River Trail.

  Through October and November the command trekked across Arizona, picking up supplies and additional mounts as they went, bartering with the Apache and other desert tribes. They encountered Kit Carson, heading east with news that the U.S. Navy had already claimed victory in California. But that proved not exactly true. The navy had taken most of the main coastal settlements, but the Californians revolted and organized into grass-root militia bands. On entering southern California, Kearny headed for San Diego, looking for horses. Near a little village called San Pasqual, at dawn on December 6, 1846, the American dragoons, with Antoine in their midst, attacked a small force of well-mounted Californians armed with lances.9

  Kearny briefly described the battle thus, “on the 6th at day break with about 80 men we attacked a Party of 160 Mexicans which we defeated after an hours fight, & drove them from the field—this was at San Pasqual & about 40 miles from this place. We gained a victory over the enemy, but paid most dearly for it—Capts. Moor and Johnston, and Lieut. Hammond, with 2 sergts. 2 Corpls. & 10 Privs. Of the Dragoons were killed—about 16 of us were wounded, myself in 2 places in the left side by lances, one of which bled very freely, which was of advantage to me. The loss of our killed is deeply felt by all particularly by myself who very much miss my aid Johnston who was a most excellent & talented Soldier, & Capt. Moore who displayed great courage & chivalry in the fight, as did Lieut. Hammond. Capt. Turner is now with me—he is perfectly well—was not wounded but had his jacket tho' not his skin, torn—Lieut. Warner of the Topo. Eng. Received three wounds, but is not nearly well—Mr. Robideaux, my interpreter, is wounded, but is recovering.”10

  Antoine received a serious wound from a lance at the battle of San Pasqual, California, on December 6, 1846. Lieutenant Emory, one of Kearny's dragoon officers who took part in the battle, did not think he would survive the wound, but told the story of Antoine's recovery. “Early the morning after the battle Robidou awakened and asked Emory if he did not smell coffee, and expressed the belief that a cup of that beverage would save his life. Not knowing that there was any coffee in the camp, the lieutenant supposed a delirious dream had carried him back to the cafés of St. Louis and New Orleans. But much to his surprise, upon investigation, he found his cook heating a cup of coffee over a small fire.” Lieutenant Emory continues: “One of the most agreeable little offices performed in my life, and I believe in the cook's, to whom the coffee belonged, was to pour this precious draught into the waning body of our friend Robidoux. His warmth returned and with it hopes of life. In gratitud
e he gave what was then a great rarity, the half of a cake made of brown flour, almost black with dirt, and which had for greater security been hidden in the clothes of his Mexican servant, a man who scored ablutions.”11

  Some further information about the wound Antoine received can be found in documents related to his request for a military pension a decade after the battle. In affidavits filed with the House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs in 1856, Antoine stated, “wounded with a lance in the spine, which produced blindness.” That may have been a medical anomaly, and the blindness the result of an inherited gene, but Antoine's doctor also reported some paralysis and pain, more anticipated with a spinal injury. Antoine took some time to recuperate from his serious wound. One source states he received treatment by a regimental surgeon named Dr. Griffin, binding his wounds well enough that he could make it as far as San Diego and eventually aboard the American frigate Congress to recuperate. Another indicates he made his way to Monterey, well up the California coast from the area of Kearney's fights. If he did board the Congress at San Diego, it is entirely possible the frigate carried him up the coast to Monterey. Antoine may have tried to contact brother Louis while in southern California, but the evidence indicates that Louis had been placed in detention and only heard by word of mouth about his brother.12

  While recuperating in Monterey, Antoine became friends with Edward Kern and Henry King, two Americans. Kern had come to California with Fremont in 1845, employed as an artist, and took part in the Bear Flag Revolt, engineered by Fremont as they waited for the Mexican War to begin. Kern, appointed to the rank of lieutenant in the California Battalion, Fremont's command, had traveled into southern California, drawing and mapping, so he and Antoine had something in common. According to records, Antoine received his discharge in April or May 1847 at Monterey, about five months after his wounding, but because he could not make the arduous overland travel, he decided to proceed back east via ship. But he had no money nor could he wait on navy transport, so he sent a request to brother Joseph to send funds. In November 1847, Antoine finally booked passage on the schooner Commodore Shubrick in company with Kern on his way home to Philadelphia. Stated by Antoine as “a slow and tedious journey via Peru, Jamaica, and other places,” it is not clear whether the ship took them down to Panama, mistakenly called Peru, where they trekked over the isthmus and boarded another ship to cross the Gulf of Mexico, or whether they made the long run around the Horn, before reaching New Orleans. Depending on his route he arrived back in St. Joseph late in 1847 or early in 1848. The wound remained a debilitation the rest of his life.13

  As harrowing as Antoine's experience, Louis's recollections of the Mexican War in California, described in letters to Manuel Alvarez in 1848, nearly matched it. Fighting had commenced on the disputed border of Texas and Mexico on April 25, 1846, and in late May, John C. Fremont's small American force arrived in northern California to touch off the Bear Flag Revolt against Mexican rule in California. Word of the American instigated rebellion spread south, supported by the convenient arrival of an American naval flotilla off the coast of California, first under Commodore John Sloat, then Commodore Robert Stockton, who spread rumors that the Mexican commandant Don Jose Castro had unleashed a frenzy of rape, murder, and pillage. It proved false, but the American forces landed anyway and stimulated the reaction of so many recent arrivals, men like Louis Robidoux.14

  Louis reported, “From the beginning of the hostilities between the two nations [Mexico and the United States], I was a prisoner of war. On September 25, 1846, 18 foreigners met in my house, and that of my neighbor, Don Benjamin Wilson, in order to defend ourselves at any risk. The cry of insurrection had been given everywhere, and the rumor was that the life of no foreigner would be spared. The day after our meeting we went to the Rancho del Chino, about six leagues from my house. Don Juan Rowland was one of the fighting men, and another four or five more foreigners whom we met at the aforementioned Rancho. Our intention was to continue to the Pueblo of Los Angeles, if possible, in order to join the small American force that was stationed there. But the enemy did not take too kindly to this meeting. We were attacked the following day, that is to say September 27, by a force superior to ours. We were obliged to succumb to discretion after having fought about an hour.”15 It is interesting how Louis, a resident and naturalized Mexican citizen of twenty years, referred to his adopted nation as the enemy. As interesting is his reference to Americans in his writing. He does not identify himself as one of them and refers to them as one normally speaks of a third party. Apparently, as with his other brothers, national identity had little relevance for him.

  According to Louis, “The enemy attacked the house where we were fortified with such fury and bravery that in the closing and opening of an eye, as they say, they quickly set the house on fire from all sides. Thus we had no other alternative but to surrender at once, or else be burned alive. So surrender we did, to our regret. From that moment I lost freedom. The enemy numbered 200 men. We had little ammunition and provisions while the opposition had much equipment, so the field was theirs. We were then conducted and presented to General Don Jose M. Flores of the Mexican army, a man of no little knowledge and bravery, although many say that he is a coward and tyrant. But according to my way of seeing things, I believe that he is of good faith, that he has worked throughout the insurrection with prudence, and has conducted himself as a good military man. It seems to me that all men who embrace the military life seek reputation and riches.”16

  Having surrendered, Louis and his compatriots remained in fear for their lives. “This same Flores whom I have just praised had decided to send us to the capital of Mexico, surely in order to give weight to his exploits or, rather, to justify the bank drafts that he had written against his government. But, all was frustrated as you will see later. There was at that time a party which always spied on him, which obstructed his plans and when it was necessary, opposed his particular designs. This party knowing that our departure was against the general interest of the Californians, and also fearing a reprisal from the Americans, opposed Flores and formed a plan (with help from us prisoners, that is to say with our money) to remove him from office. That occurred on the evening before we were to leave for the capital. This intrigue spared us from traveling very far, and perhaps saved our lives. A little while later he returned to take command, but under the condition that the prisoners not have to leave California.”17

  Louis and the other foreigners, having become de facto Americans by association, from that point on rejoiced on hearing that Kearny had arrived in California. In his letter to Manuel Alvarez, carried to New Mexico by none other than Kit Carson, he recounted pretty accurately the facts and how he regained his freedom.

  General Kearny arrived here in the month of November or December with an escort of 100 dragoons, but the reception he had here was not as good as it was in New Mexico. Before he was able to join with the American force that was in San Diego, a seaport of Upper California, he was attacked by the local cavalry, which without doubt is the best of all the Mexican Republic. Surely they do miracles on horse. The General lost 22 men killed on the field of honor, and as many were wounded. The General himself sustained a wound, but it was slight, and my brother Antonio, who was at one side of the interpreter, came out [of] it with a lance wound in the hip—but they escaped and they lived. After some days the General had the fortune of joining with the force that was in San Diego under command of Commodore Stockton. From there the two left at the head of 600 men, almost all seamen and of course, all on foot. They fought 2 battles the 8th and 9th of January of 1847, near the City of Los Angeles. In the two fights they defeated the enemy and entered the city triumphant on the 10th of the same month, without any opposition. Until then my captivity lasted.

  Although Louis mentioned his brother and knew of his wound, he did not indicate that Antoine came to stay with him for any period of mending, likely due to his own detention and Antoine shipping north to Monterey.18
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  With the close of the war at hand, Louis wrote again to Manuel Alvarez in June 1848, expressing some thoughts on the destiny of his new homeland.

  The Americans who live here in California are generally of the opinion that this part of the Mexican Republic will never again be under Mexico. They say that even if the North American government, by treaty or other means, would want to yield or abandon its claim over California, that they would never permit it. They feel that they already have sufficient power to make themselves independent and to form a government similar to that of Texas [referring to the Texas Republic, 1836–1845] and that later, with time, to unite themselves to the Mother Republic. Nevertheless, the native sons think differently. They have hope that the Americans will tire of a long and stubborn war and that in some time they will be left to live in their land in peace and tranquility. But I do not think so, because the large establishments, such as cities and other permanent enterprises that the Americans make in the country are unequivocal proof of their views and determinations. I am of the opinion it would be a general good for the entire world that California remain in American hands.19

  CHAPTER 11

  Queen City of the West

  Joe Robidoux's town became a western terminus of American civilization, quickly equaling Independence to the south in economic stature, and evolved into the most popular jumping off point of the great western migration. Beyond it and the western border of Missouri lay nothing of urban note until one reached the California and Oregon coast, two thousand miles away. American civilization did not stand still, and for that reason, emigrants, compelled by Manifest Destiny and the subjectively better life, quickly recognized St. Joseph as an important trailhead. In 1844 the first large emigrant trains, bound for Oregon, organized near Robidoux's town. Cornelius Gilliam started several trains over the trail, totaling two hundred wagons of eight hundred persons. They crossed the Missouri River on Capler's Ferry, a few miles northwest of the town, and when the grass came on they set off across the plains. Among those traveling with one of the wagon trains was a young carpenter named James W. Marshall, who upon arriving in California went to work for a man named Auguste Sutter, who had built a fort and various other operations along the banks of the American River in the central valley there. A few years later, Marshall made an astounding discovery while working on Sutter's sawmill.1