14 (27) tww henry a crabb turns his head toward caborca0001

7/29/2019 14 (27) TWW Henry a Crabb Turns His Head Toward Caborca0001

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HEN~YA. C~ABB... TU~N~

HI~

HEAO

TOWA~n

CABO RCA

llWilliam Walker .. was, like CraiJ"IJ, a native of the 'City of ~ocksl,

Nashville, where, "lJy many worthy people, "lJoth of these famous personages

yet

held in high esteem, and over whose sad ashes many sincere tears have oeenshed ... Peace to the ashes of both these young heroes!lI

--Henry S. Foote, Casketof ~eminiscences(1874)

The head of Henry A. CraiJiJ was filled with fanatic

filibuster visions, in spite of--or ~ecause of--his education

at the University ~)f Nashville.But his career reads like a discarded draft o

William Walker's script. He was Walker's

co-star, yet he gariJled his lines in key scenes of their

fili"IJuster tragi-comedy.

At least Nashville can claim historic heritage in Caborca,

Mexico. Just as English poet ~upert Brooke wrote at the outset

of World War I: 1I .. there's some corner of a forei.gn field/

That is for ever England,lI so is Music City, U.S.A., forever

linked with Caoorca. Hopefully a tourist exchange wi.ll "lJe

instituted, to hring these towns closer than they were in 18S7.

Southern Civil War re-enactors need to take a break, and get

into filihuster nostalgic hattles for a while.

Indeed, Sonoran "dancers, singers, and drill teams" were

photographed from an airplane while celebrating the April

anniversary of the wondrous Craqb connection, for the National

Geographicof April, lq65.

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Henry Alexander CrabQ was born in Nashville in 1820. His


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CR.ABB, p. 2

father, Henry Crahh, Sr., died the following year, and some of his hiographic

entries mention his son's progress in California politics .. hut not what

happened further south.

Crahh's father was as respectahle as William Walker's.

Born in Virginia in 1793, he moved to Tennessee, heing admitted to the Tennes

~ar in 1814, hecoming u.s. District Attorney for Middle Tennessee, then Judge

the Supreme Court of

Errors and Appeals. His written opinions hristle with learned quotations. Evemore boringly prestigious, he ~ecame a trustee of Cumherland College in 1815,

then of its successor, the University of Nashville, the year hefore his death

Crabh,

Sr. was as calm and polite as he son was not--seemingly able

to withstand a fair quantity of abuse and insults during courtroom proceeding

At least he fought one duel.

His fatherless, only child Henry Crabb was precocious ... and argumentative.

earliest school essays upset the teachers; and being a forceful, persuasive

talker, his verhal opinions often taunted his classmates. He studied--but not

hard enough--at the college his father helped govern. Now William Walker's

biographers like to stress the University of Nashville's forhidding religious

regimen, as if to explain Walker's moody austerity. But sometimes students we

expelled for possessing pistols or Bowie knives (like in Nashville's puhlic

schools in the 1990s), or in one instance, for igniting gunpowder outside a

tutor's door. One student transferred to

a Northern college, having found his classmates just too "wild." In Spring of

1840, school riots wrecked much property and injured


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C~ABB, page 3

a tutor in the head with a flying rock. In this same period, many students we

expelled, including Henry A. Crabh ... who

was also demoted a year in his studies (perhaps he was permitted to stay, und

this condition). At least he wasn't graduated.

Well, he followed his father in a couple of ways. First, he hecame a lawyer,

practicing in Vickshurg, Mississippi, where he just lovedthe pro-slavery mood

Second, he lurched into

a duel, or, more accurately, a gunfight out in the street.He'd been arguing the 1848 election with a man named Jenkins, editor of

Vickshurg's Democratic paper, the Sentinal.Having shot Jenkins dead, Crabb wa

tried for murder--then acquitted. Rut wisely he succ~mbed to gold fever, and

said farewell to Vicksburg in 184Q, heading to California.

Significantly, he took the Southern route through the future Gadsden Purchase

Later he would cross that territory from the north, when he made headlines an

history, on his way to Hell.

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In stockton, California, he practiced more law ... and edited the Argus.Then

1&52, he he came a state congressman, and eventually a senator. He even joine

the "Know Nothing" movement, which detested "foreigners," and haited Catholic

--ironic, for a future filihuster who'd married into a Mexican family living

San Francisco.

r-rahh was called the "most popular leader" of those Californians "readiest f

adventure and eager for new fields of fortune." Why, he was even accused lJy

political foes


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C-qAB"8, page 4

of' circulating a document which proposed cutting California into two separat

states!

Now his wife Filomena was the daughter of Don Augustin Ainsa, a Spaniard from

Manila, who'd settled in Sonora till

his family had ljeen driven out by the most recent nNQ!u.tion. Crabb saw imme

opportunity in this, so ljoarded the Carolineljound for Sonora in lB53. But w

he met his old classmate, William Walker, with his ljand of desperadoes, Crabb

discreetly got off at the next port. He wanted to avoid getting embroiled inthis competing escapade (though Craljlj's father-in-law may joined Walker's

Sonoran raid!).

Soon after, he visited Nicaragua, and conceived a colonization plan. Which he

offered to Walker, whom (we recall) declined, and picked up his own, more leg

contract. Craljlj even helped Walker free up his ship, the Vesta,when it

was detai.ned. Earlier, Craljlj had "sold" land to support Walker's 1~S4 Son6

invasion--then testified at his 18SS trial. Thus Henry A. Cra3b is probably t

foster-father of America's most infamous fililjuster fling, Walker's Nicaragu

conquest.

Vehement journalist Horace Greely (New York Triljune) consistantly ljlasted

Walker over the years ("colonization is complete suljterfuge .. whatever

property is required is taken without hesitation [his army] is simply an

armed molj")--and could have smeared Crabb as well.

In January, lBS6, Craljlj visited Hemosillo, capital of Sonora, and met Ignac

Pesqueira, leader of the impending


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C"R.ABB, p. 5

revolution. Pesqueira pro~a~ly offered Cra~~ land and other privileges, in tr

for immediate help. Cra~~'s ~rother-in-law spread the story that they planned

consolidate Sinaloa, Baja

California, and Sonora into a repu~lic--then sell it to the

United States.

One of Pesqueira's allies, Do Hilario Gabilondo, returned

to San Francisco with Crabb. Late one summer's night in l8S6

they secretly loaded a ship on the waterfront, with Crabb'sfather-in-law, and brother-in-law ~asey ~ivens. Many boxes

of muskets, cannon, powder, and lead filled the clandestine

cargo. Crabb handed Ga~ilondo a sack of gold coin. Cra~~'s

long-range plan was to seize Sonora for the United States--never

mind that the Gadsden Purchase protected Mexico from any such

nonsense.

Cra~~ tried to raise recruits. He should have enlisted \

dockside toughs, a la William Walker--instead,he tried to woo

his political cronies, ~ut they were too ~usy doing presidential *

campaigning.

So Pesqueira forged ahead, without Cra~~'s help,

and won his revolution. Naturally, his contract with Cra~~

was now a lot less binding ..

Now one of Cra~b's friends was Henry Stuart Foote (who'd

defended Walker's partner in court after their Sonoran fiasco).

Humorously, Foote said that Crab~ was only thirty-four ... the

exact age of his father when he died. But Crabb was in exuberant

good health and spirits. He only laughed.

Noisily Crabb ~egan inviting San Franciso men to join his

*

Colonel John C. Fr~ont was the ~epubl Lcans ' first nominee--but eJames Bucha

won the election (while Walker won his Nicaraguan presidency!).


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C~ABB, p. f)

"Arizona Colonization Company"--in order to grab top government

spots, or at least managerial johs like supervising the Sonoran

mines.

This latest opportunity to "civilize" Sonora excited

the newspapers ... hut the stories were read in Mexico with a

different reaction!

(~ack in 1~~4, ~aja Californian Don

Juan ~andini said Will~am Walker had "created widespreadantagonism toward the United states: hrought financial loss

to t~e invaders: caused the devastation of the invaded country ...

[and] shame ann ridicule to such an ill-conceived expedition.")

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Meanwhile, Pesqueira, like any victorious insurgent,

eagerly yearned to soothe all factions. Already the oppos-

ition press was accusing him of getting guns from Henry Crahh

--so they hegan condemning Crahh's announced "colonization"

aims as hlantant land piracy. Yes, Crahh wrote a puhlic letter

on Decemher g, 1856": "the people of Sonora desire to he

independent of Mexico and have called upon me for assistance,

and I intend to render that assistance in the most effective

manner." So Pesquiera had to frantically distance

himself from flamhoyant, tactless Henry A. Crahb!

He especially feared that a "Texas situation" might develop.

In the past twenty years, Mexico had lost almost one million

acresto the U.s., keeping less than half its original land.

Sonora itself had lost over 45,534 in the Gadsden Purchase.

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But on January 21:, 1857, "General" Crahh sailed from San

Francisco on the Sea Birdwith over fi- f "t Y

men, plus


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CRABB, p , 7

some family memDers. Rack in San Francisco, General John D. COSDy was suppose

to raise one thousand back-up men--Dut he pocketed the money, and accomplishe

nothing (at least he was killed by his horses soon after!)

Meanwhile, CrabQ's forces reached San Pedro on January 29, then proceeded to

Monte. By now, his "colonization" corporation resembled a cumbersome wagon

train, jammed with farm tools and other equipment. By February 27, they reach

Fort Yuma on the Colorado ~iver.

~eaders of the New Fork Daily Times(today's New York Times)encountered the newof two Tennessee-Dorn filiQusters, on April 1S, 18S7. Lengthy front-page colum

from Nicaragua covered William Walker. Rut the headline "VE~Y INTE~ESTING

F"ROM THE GADSDEN PU~CHASE" offered a story based on an interview with Crab\:

five weeks earlier at Fort Yuma, noting that a "plan exists to divide

California, annex the Gadsden purchase, and create a new Slave state. The ide

is simply absurd." One

can imagine how those denials were received in Sonora. No less alarming was t

next topic: some American miners were being plagued Dy Dandits, so were

appealing for separate statehood. Crano implicitly stood ready to help. Sonor

must have Deen astonished to read that fifteen hundredmore men were

expected ... plus "large additions to arrive from Texas."

Then followed the roster of Crabq's peaceful (?) colonizers.

He was Commander-in-Chief, and among his numerous colonels and captains was a

surgeon, and a chief of artillary. Crabb assured


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CRABB, p. 8

the Timesthat this was strictly to repulse Indian attacks. Humorously, the

column listed who was "ex-" this or that in the California legislature.

Especially am~iguous and alarming was Cra~~'s final protestation of innocence

. pledging "not to violate any United states statute until every arrangemen

is complete when they cross the line, and with their allies in Sonora, make

their issue open and in strong force."

U.s. Ambassador John Forsythe began writing worried letters to the ~tate

Department. Wasn't Crabh undermining Forsythe's efforts to "eradicate from thMexican mind the deeply-seated distrust of America"--and destroying the curre

"confidence

in the friendly and honorable" intentions of the u.s. government? Craoh's men

had ~een getting drunk at Fort Yuma, boasting that "Sonora was theirs." This

news travelled instantly, filling

the ears of citizens in the little village further south ... Caborca.

Crabb's men were literally tenderfeet--and the desert

below Fort Yuma was inhumanly parched and stony. Temperatures were often arou

115 . His crew had taken hasty military training for their "colonizing"

venture--now facing the desert, one-third of them wisely deserted. The rest w

less fortunate. Some fell ill from bad water--others were injured ~y accident

Crabb's mules had ~een purchased from San Francisco banks with bogus checks .

but they weren't worth much, either, soon giving out. Wagon wheels sunk in th

sand, so wooden planks had to

be extended ahead, every foot of the way}


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C-qAR", , p . .9

Forty days and nights they travelled without stopping.

Below the Gila ~iver,they left their names carved on trees,

visihle for many years at the site known as Filihusters'

Camp.

Now, on March 27, entering Sonora, crabb realized that

he was not entirely welcome. 80 in the same schizoid style

of his Timesinterview, he sent a letter to the Prefect of

the town of Altar, stressing his peaceful intention of colonizingbut adding: "Should blood be shed, on your head l}e it

all, and not on mine."

He and h i s men would "act according

to the dictates of natural law and self-preservation."

To cover up his prior Crabb-conspiracy, Pesqueira

quickly circulated a printed appeal through the villages--a

manifesto Crabb probably never saw:

Free 8Dnorans, to arms, all!! . You have just heard, in this most arrogant

letter, a most explicit declaration of war pronounced against us by the chief

the invaders .. Let it die like a wild beast ... LIVE MEXIOJ! DEATH 'ill THE

FILIBUSTERS!

The Americans were especially hungry by now, so they shot

occasional cattle, promising to pay later. Then on April Fool's Day, Cra1Jh's

slovenly army was attacked in a field near the

town of . Ca1Jorca.Since they had no scouts out, they now let

themselves be drawn into the Village!

Cra"1l} expected reinforcements from the sea, by "Brigi dair

General" Coshy who bY now had hetrayed him. Another old friend,

Hilario r.abilondo, didsend troops--but also in hetrayal.

Under


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CRABB, p. 10

Lorenzo Rodriguez, he dispatched two hundred men--to help protect Cahorca.

When Cra~b's party got f~r enough in, they recieved a hail of hricks--rocks--

hullets--from the rooftops. Plus more bullets from seemingly every window. Viv

Mexico! Mueran

los Gringos!was the battle cry. Crabb leaped out of his wagon, then rushed

through the fusillade. Rodriguez raced foward, waving a sword--Crabb shot him

dead, even as his troops, firing from the wagons, killed several Mexican

soldiers.They rushed into a large adohe house! ejecting the shocked occupants. They

should have seized the church, which in a small Mexican town makes the hest

citadel. ,Instead, Crah~'s foes

held the church in what two writers have called with a straight face a Mexica

stand-off. Crabh's army had met its match in incompetence--they were able to

kill dozens of Mexicans, though they chivalrously let them carry off their de

and wounded.

By now the Mexicans were firing from the cover of the convent attached to the

church. Cra~b and fifteen volunteers

made a rush for the convent, driving out the Mexicans. They'd brought with th

a keg of gunpowder to blow the door off the church, but somehow they couldn't

get the match to work. Over 100 Mexicans attacked them, bursting into the

convent. Cooly Crabh reloaded his pistol while he was being shot at, taking

a bullet in the arm. Then he and some of his men plunged back into the adobe

house.

Mexican troops hegan showing up to help out . plus several hundredPapago

Indians. Crabh still fancied that this


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C~A~~, p. 11

was all a misunderstanding, which Gabilondo--with whom he'd loaded guns on th

San Francisco wharf--could straighten out.

On April ~, Ga~ilondo arrived .. with A00 troops. and in a matter of

speaking, straightened matters out. One Indian fired a flaming arrow into the

thatched roof of Crabb's adobe redoubt. The Americans tried to solve this wit

explosives--but instead

of blowing off their roof, only started a fire which ignited their arsenal,

killing several.Crabb and his men came out with a white flag. He's said to have greeted

Ga~ilondo cheerily ... as an old comrade!Crabb also asked for a trial, with a

naivet~e which makes one sympathetic to the California voters who failed to

return him to office. He wanted a chance to present his written concession to

colonize from Pesqueira. Well, this ftne contract proved to ~e Crab~'s death

warrant. In one account, Ca~ilondo responded to this with a whack from his

sword, knocking Crabb either senseless or dead. Another tale has Crabb permit

to write a letter to his wife, then getting shot ~y a hundred ~ullets.

Was Crab~ killed with ammunition--or at least weapons-that he had

himselfsupplied???

His men also wanted a trial,

and medical attention.

Their captors claimed to have delivered ~oth: (1) a drumhead tribunal to find

them all guilty; and (2) a doctor to validate their corpses. At sunrise, a

reluctant--and inept-firing squad wounded, rather than killed, many of them.

their backs had to be turned. Over fifty were slaughtered,


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C~A B B , P 1 '2

though one teenaged ~oy was spared (like Mrs. Dickinson at the Alamo) so that

could tell others.

With colorful history in the making, Crabb was decapitated with an axe. His h

was flourished overhead at sword-point .. then it was placed in an earthenwa

ar of mescal(an alcoholic ~everage). His comrades were stripped of clothes

and effects, and their weapons and equipment were sold as souvenirs. Hogs,

coyotes, and ~uzzards got into the act over the next few days (like at the en

of the lq6q film, TheWi ld Bunch).

The Ca~orcans were initially horrified, fearing reprisals from the American

Army. They were like villagers in the Vietnam "conflict"--alternately liberat

and pacified by armies not

of their choosing. Gradually a gala spirit took hold, however, encouraged by

Gaqilondo, who said in a declaration: "Long live the Mexican ~epu~lic. Hail t

the conquerors of Caborca.

Death to the FilPmsters." A festive ce Lebr a t i ori b r ok e outl

In one account, the sinister earthenware jar was the centerpiece of the affai

in another, Crabh's memorial head was on a platter at the ~anquet held for th

Mexican officers. (Either way,

what ~etter tri~ute to Nashville's "Manifest Destiny"?)

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Yet Crabb's reinforcements, the "Tuscon Valley Corporation," were now on thei

wayl Fifteen miles from Caborca they were ambushed by around 500 Mexicans and

Indians. They didn't surrender, as demanded--instead they retreated over the

~order, losing only four men, while killing around forty. Another party


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C~ABB, p. 13

trying to reach Crabb was less lucky--or smart; sixteen

surrendered and received predictahle annihilation. The Mexicans

even crossed the horder in an invasion perhaps too minor for

the history ~ooks, but an international incident all the same.

They hit Dunbar's trading post, where Crabq had left four sick

men to recuperate. The Mexicans permanently cured their

illnesses, by tying them to stakes and shooting them.

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/ / Crahh's executioner, J. C. Hernandez, had heen a protege

of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, just as GaDilondo had been.

Hernandez had heen an Indian orphan boy whom the kindly Benton

had sent to school in Washington, D.C. Later he had fled

California .. amid horse-stealing accusations.

A couple of days after the massacre, Charles Edward Evans,

the sixteen-year-old hoy who'd heen spared, was shown some gold

teeth taken from his dead comrades. He asked someone (pro~ahly

Hernandez): Where is CraDb? Ah, he was quickly shown! The

helpful Mexican plunged his hand into the earthenware jar .. and

lifted~ its dripping contents2Y the hair.Said Evans: "He

laughed and asked me if I knew who it he longed to. I retreated

with alarm and horror from the spectacle. He laughed, and put

it back in the jar. I then left the house." Well, the bright

side was that this teenager had received some graphic instruction

on Latin American foreign policy. Indeed, he was released so

he could spread the Dad news hack to the United states.

Hernandez offered an emphatic letter to the Sacramento

Union(May 29, 18S7):


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CRABB,

p. 1 4

the Americans came here with a great hostile indignation "Rodriguez w

kill 1Jy Crahb, but; I had the opportunity to

cut Cral)b's head off a.OO I have got it in a preserve to remember the piratc

action of Crabof.sm Good many of the American population has treat us bad

and we intent to do the same in war .. as I think you are gentlem,an you can

never have the Idea of protecting "Rol)~rs .. stay always at home, never com

to forren country, we do not like Yankees no more on accountof their bad action . Yankee of no kind has no show now here.

Whereas Ambassador Forsythe darkly reminded Mexico how "retributive justice"

followed the massacre of Americans

at the Alamo and at Goliad . but to no effect. After all, Crabb

& Co. were not exactly sympathetic tourists. As Charles D.

Poston (who had been a Clerk o the Tennessee Supreme Court)

observed at the time:

"the Crabb Expedition" caused the pall of death to fall on

the boundary line of Mexico The abrasion was so serious that Americans we

not safe over the Mexican boundary , and Mexicans were in danger in the

boundaries of the United States.

A few days before Christmas, that same year, a four-act tragedy

ljased on the Craljlj affair was enacted on stage at Hermosillo,

capital of sonora (and home of Craljh's in-laws).

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Most American writers have justly damned the Cahorca carnage

as "ljarljaric," while keeping under control much compassion for

the upwards of 2!)() Mexicans murdered ljy Crabh's "colonists."

That Cra1;b was "ljetrayed" is plain--ljut he disregarded the most

polite warnings as he crossed into Sonora, his cavalcadea-1;ristle with military titles, and weigrhted down with ordnance.

yes, ~rabb had a contract, ~ut one requiring his timely

oining with the revolutionaries. As a professional politician

himself, Crabb should have empathized with Pesqueira's dilemma


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CltA B B , P 1 I:)

a-~ristle with military titles, and weighted down with ordnance. yes, ~rabb h

a contract, Qut one requiring his timely

oining with the revolutionaries. As a professional politician himself, Crabb

should have empathized with Pesqueira's dilemma --then quietly finessed a new

arrangement. After a decent interim, he could have entered Sonora as a peacef

colonist. In fact, his nephew Jesus Ainsa--captured outside of Caborca,

imprisoned, then released--did just that, returning to Sonora, and for many

years engaging in mining . He even went looking for Cra~~'s head. At Ca~orca, he found a woman who sai

that Crabb, as his last request,

pleaded that his face ~e turned toward the church. In their own way, the

soldiers complied .. by abandoning his head in the church. So the woman and

~oy wrapped it in a re~osa(shawl), and ~uried it in the cemetary.

Popular trapper Bill Williams reported in ISQ4 that in the rooms of the

Historical Society of Southern California was "a large painting of the

execution" of Crah'o and his fili~uster gang.

A Smithsonian Institution expedition explored Sonora in IQnl, tracing the rou

of the Cra~~ ~rigade. They interviewed a villager who had assisted in the

fili~uster extermination.

In IQ2~, a plaque was unveiled at Caborca, commemorating the town's most famo

day in history. Reportedly, every April

~ the event is remem~ered with food, festivities, and patriotic speeches.

But the Crabb family papers ~urned up in the 1Q06 San Francisco fire. And the

Pesqueira family records perished when

Pancho Villa ~urned the home in IQ1S.

So the full story will


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CR.ABR, p. 16

never ~e entirely grasped, especially in the light of Lieutenant

R.. E. L. ~o~inson's remarks, pu~lished in 1893, and unnoticed

ever since.

They make a tantalizing finale to the story of Henry A.

Cra~h;-~~q hisromantic University of Nashville colleague:

It is claimed that letters from Walker were found among his [Crabb.' s] paper

after his death, from whi.ch it was gathered, that the two armies were to mee

at the ci.ty of Mexico andupon the ancient throne of the Montezumas, the two would found a government,

uniting all the sections north of the Equator and south of the United states.

14 (27) tww henry a crabb turns his head toward caborca0001

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