John Robinson

Also called “Robertson” and “Roberson” in the journals, John Robinson was likely Cpl. John Robinson of Fort Kaskasia on the Illinois frontier, a member of Capt. Amos Stoddard‘s artillery company. Company records list Corporal John Robinson as enlisted on 1 October 1803 having previously resided in Streatham, New Hampshire.^[1]Company Book of Amos Stoddard’s Artillery Company, Louisiana Territory Collection, Military Command Records, Adjutant’s Records, 1803–1805, Missouri State Historical Society Archives, St. … Continue reading

Clark called him a corporal on 26 December 1803, when he noted that Pvt. Alexander Willard and “Corpl. Roberson” returned to Camp Dubois about 11 o’clock “today,” apparently having stayed out over Christmas night. Clark later referred to Robinson as a private, and may have demoted him. Moulton notes that Clark complained of a corporal who, on 4 January 1804, allowed William Werner and John Potts of his mess to fight and “bruse themselves much,” and who “has no authority.” (The captains assigned Richard Warfington, the other corporal from Stoddard’s company, to command the barge (called the ‘boat’ or ‘barge’ but never the ‘keelboat’) return party in 1805, obviously trusting him.)

Traded for Pierre Dorion?

Robinson was assigned to the return party, but on 12 June 1804, Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse wrote that seven Chouteau Fur Company pirogues heading downstream met up with the upward-bound Corps. The men gave the traders some of their wool blankets in exchange for buffalo robes and moccasins (although Whitehouse didn’t explain why), and the captains bought 300 pounds of buffalo grease. The captains also hired one of Chouteau’s party, Pierre Dorion, Sr., to return upriver with them until they met the Sioux, among whom he had lived for 20 years, to help persuade some of their chiefs to visit President Jefferson. Perhaps in an exchange of personnel, Whitehouse explains “we put on board . . . one Man . . . belonging to Captain Stoddards company of Artillery, who is going to Saint Louis . . . .” The man sent back could have been Robinson, Ebenezer Tuttle, or Isaac White.^[2]Moulton, ed., Journals, 2:520-21, 522.