Pierre Auguste Charles Bourguignon Derbigny was born on June 30, 1767 in Laon, France. He was the son of Auguste Bourguignon and Louise Angeline Blondel d’Herbigny. As they were of noble family, their son found it expedient, about 1793 to migrate from revolutionary France to Santo Domingo.
In 1845 Derbigny joined an infantry brigade of New York militia, drawn from the northern districts of the county, as judge-advocate with rank of major, and the next year he was made colonel of the 11th Regiment of New York State Infantry. Although legislated out of office by change of law in 1849, he was later placed by Gov. Fish in command of the 22nd Regiment in spite of the fact that he was the youngest available colonel; two years later he was ranked as brigadier-general. Gov. Clark chose him for his adjutant-general, but he resigned after a few months of service. Circumstances prevented the acceptance by President Lincoln of three regiments which De Peyster offered to raise at the outbreak of the Civil War, nor was the latter physically able to serve on the field. He contributed three sons to the service, however, and used his influence for the cause whenever possible through the press or otherwise.
In 1866, by concurrent action of the legislature of New York, the governor was empowered to confer upon him the brevet rank of major-general in the National Guard for meritorious services. Missouri, in Florida, and in Louisiana, where he soon became a French colonial official.
He was secretary of the municipality of New Orleans under French rule, and official interpreter of the American territorial government under Claiborne. In 1804 he delivered in French the first Fourth-of-July oration ever made in New Orleans. In 1805, as one of three commissioners— representing to a degree the longer established elements of the population in Louisiana—he went to Washington to protest against the determination of the federal government to delay the admission of the new territory as a state. The protest was not fruitful. He returned home disgruntled, and after some delay collaborated with others in publishing a statement of grievances.
At the organization of the “University of Orleans” in 1805 he was made one of its regents, and later he was clerk of the court of common pleas, secretary of the legislative council.
As a jurist he was impeccable but not brilliant. It is said that in framing his opinions he labored always under the handicap of being obliged to translate into English, ideas which he had first thought out in a French fashion and in the French tongue.
In 1820 he resigned as judge and became a candidate for governor. During the campaign the number of votes cast for him was not so great as the number cast for one of his opponents, T. B. Robertson. The final choice between the two lay with a legislature which, often more Franco-American than Anglo-American in its composition, could with reason be supposed to prefer Derbigny. He repudiated the office in advance, saying that he was too good a democrat to contravene the will of the people, and that he hoped his friends would vote for the majority candidate. As secretary of state (1820-27) he found time, in addition to his other duties and a meticulous devotion to his large family, to interest himself in the operation of the first steam ferry upon the Mississippi River, and also, in company with Edward Livingston and Moreau-Lislet, to revise the Civil Code of Louisiana.
Inaugurated governor in 1828, he advocated popular education and did what he could to obliterate the old political cleavage between persons who were in general of French tradition and those who were in general of English tradition. On October 1, 1829, as he was riding near the village of Gretna, his horses, becoming frightened, overturned his carriage, inflicting upon him an injury which proved fatal.
In the time remaining before 1800, Derbigny lived successively in Pennsylvania where he married Félicité Odile Dehault de Lassus—in In 1841 he married Estelle Livingston, daughter of John Swift Livingston. Much of their time was spent at the country estate, Rose Hill, in Dutchess County.
