Kit Carson’s Rescue Ride

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Regular troops and New Mexico Volunteers repeatedly clashed with Lobo’s band, driving him southeast of Rayado toward favorite haunts along the canyon of the Canadian River. Captain Henry Judd, commanding a detachment posted at Las Vegas, reported in late summer 1849 that the Jicarillas had been well-supplied by whiskey traders from Mora and “that after leaving their families in a secure place, the Apaches will return to this frontier for plunder.”

To the east it was no better along the Santa Fe Trail. Throughout the summer of 1849 it was rare for a wagon train to reach Santa Fe without being attacked or having stock driven off. Indian agent Calhoun requested more troops on August 15, noting that “the Indians, generally, are in bad temper—the number of troops are not sufficient here to keep upon them a proper check.” By October matters had deteriorated even more, Calhoun noting that “Mr. [Ceran] St. Vrain, long a citizen here, every way reliable, and intelligent, says a worse state of things has not existed in this country since he has been an inhabitant of it.”

The Army, even if more troops could have been sent, offered little hope to the New Mexico settlers or protection to travelers on the trail, one Army officer complaining of “the ignorance, the laziness and the vicious character of the officers in the frontier depots.” The St. Louis Daily Union, under the bold headline “Indian Murders—Apathy of Our Government,” called for action to punish the Indian raiders. “It is almost useless to send regular forces against Indians,” the newspaper said. “The Indians will elude them, and disperse to their secret haunts. Not so, however with the Texan rangers, or the hunters of our own frontier. Acquainted with Indian life, they will follow the savage to the fastnesses of his own ravines or mountains, hunt him out, and, arm to arm, exact from him the penalty of his depredations.”

Despite the dangers, the great trade caravans still gathered. The most experienced of all the wagon train captains, the intrepid Francois X. Aubry, organized a large caravan at Kansas City in mid-September. No wagon train captain was more respected than this young French Canadian who had repeatedly set travel records with his caravans and as a mail carrier. Friend to both Carson and Frémont, Aubry had battled both hostile Indians and severe weather to take three trains to Santa Fe in 1848 alone. In February 1849 he accompanied Charles White to Chihuahua, which was becoming the real center of a trade network stretching from St. Louis to Santa Fe and then along the old Camino Real to Mexico City. Aubry’s return to Missouri was marked by attacks from both Apaches and Pawnees, but his little band reached Independence on August 23 with no losses. Undaunted, he immediately proceeded to purchase goods for a return to Santa Fe.

Attached to Aubry’s caravan were 10 wagons owned by Ceran St. Vrain and 13 wagons owned by James M. White. White planned to headquarter his new mercantile business in Santa Fe with yet another branch in El Paso established by his brother and Aubry the previous winter. All of his personal goods were with the wagon train, for he now planned to settle in Santa Fe. His wife, Ann Dunn, and daughter Virginia—along with a mulatto employee, Ben Bushman, and a black female servant—made up the White household. They departed Kansas City on September 15.

Despite all the dire warnings of Indian unrest, the journey proved uneventful, although the weather turned cold and blustery. Just east of Council Grove, Aubry decided to send his wagon master, William Calloway, ahead to Santa Fe for fresh mules. White decided to accompany Calloway in order to get his family to Santa Fe more quickly. Aubry argued against this action, but could not dissuade the merchant. Leaving his wagons with Aubry, White pushed ahead with his family in two carriages on October 18. White, his wife, daughter, black nursemaid and Bushman were accompanied by Calloway, a German traveler named Lawberger and two New Mexican employees of Aubry.

Tags: Historical Figures, Wild West

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