Camp - Corpus Christi Texas
Feby. 5 1846
Dear Brother,
Having seen a notice in the Corpus Christi Gazette of this morning that the Hon. H. L. Kinney senator elect from this district & the Hon. A. Stromson[?] Representative elect from Corpus Christi were about starting for the city of Austin, I have concluded to drop you a few lines & send by one of the above named gentlemen as it is probably the best opportunity I shall have of sending a letter to you.
By a letter I received from Maria two or three weeks ago I learned that you had written to me in answer to my letters written from New Orleans & this place & last Sunday on the arrival of the Cincinnatti from Galveston I had the pleasure of receiving your letter bearing date Nov. 20th. I think the Post Office Dept. of the Republic of Texas must have been in rather a disarranged state & congratulate you on the prospect of a better state of affairs under the Administration of Cave[?] Johnson. I have been very much disappointed in not seeing you here but I am disposed to believe that your business would not admit of your leaving home. I cannot doubt that you would have been over before this if it had been in your power to do so & you may be sure I should also have made you a visit if I could have done so. I wrote to you the latter part of December but if it takes a letter as long to get from this point to Brazoria as it does from there [to] here, you will probably not receive it until some time in March.
I hear from Maria about once a fortnight. Our letters are not delayed between here & New Orleans & if you can manage to send your letters for me to New Orleans I presume I should get them much sooner than by any other route. It is now about a week since I heard from Maria - they were all well. Father was still in Washington. Juliet Niles & Antoinette Whitman were there as [words illegible] on a visit.
I have not yet seen enough of Texas to form any opinion of it or its inhabitants. At any rate I wish to see more before I express my opinion. On account of being near you I would like very much to have our Regiment stationed at San Antonio & would be perfectly willing to remain in Texas on that condition. I understand it is very healthy there & I could then have my family with me. I cannot tell anything about where we are to be permanently stationed or whether we are to remain long in the country, but our regiment is quite as likely to remain in Texas as any other. The probability now is that the "Army of Occupation" will soon leave this place. Genl. Taylor has received orders to go to the Rio Grande & before you receive this letter we shall probably be on our way to that river, altho' he is authorised to take his own time for the movement. This I think will soon bring matters to a crisis & I presume our ministers to Mexico will then be treated with some respect. I do not know what point the General intends to occupy.
I hope I shall see you before long. There is now a regular line of packets between here & Galveston & I have no doubt it will soon be extended to the mouth of the Rio Grande after we leave here. Have you any idea of going north next summer? If I am to remain in this country & am stationed at a healthy place, I shall wish to have Maria & the children join me next fall, & I hope you may have some business at the north, that they may have the benefit of your protection from Connecticut to Texas.
As most of the officers of our Regiment are married, it will put us to great expense to get our families to us if we are kept in Texas. I think however it will be much pleasanter both for Maria & myself to be stationed in Texas than any other part of the south, particularly if we should be fortunate enough to get to San Antonio, or near enough to you to receive your visits occasionally.
I think the officers generally are well pleased with the idea of going to the Rio Grande - it will give us occupation for a while & we have been here so long doing nothing & the service has been from so different from what we expected it would be when we came here, that we have grown tired of it & wish for more active employment. We are very anxious to know what Regiments are to remain in the country. If ours is to be one of them, we would like very much to know it & be sent to the posts we are to occupy so that we may be at work building our quarters. If we are to leave Texas we would also like to know where we are to go. This state of suspense & uncertainty is very unpleasant to all of us - it is not probable however that we wil be relieved from it for some time to come, for as the whole Army is now bound for the Mexican frontier probably no portion of it will leave until our affairs with that Government are definitely arranged.
I have no further news to write you. Let me hear from you often & altho' it may be asking too much to wish you to visit me on the Rio Grande, yet I hope that friendship & curiosity may induce you to visit our camp. If you should do so you will be received as a brother- & welcomed to a share of a soldiers couch & a soldiers fare. Hoping that it may be our good fortune to meet soon, I am yours affectionately
John. C. Robinson
I received a very short letter from John two or three weeks since - dated Dec. 4th. He was then well.
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John C Robinson
Corpus Christi
Feb 5. 1846
