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 are yet held in high esteem, and over whose sad ashes many sincere tears have oeen shed ... 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 of 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. # # # # Henry Alexander CrabQ was born in Nashville in 1820. His

CR.ABB, p. 2 father, Henry Crahh, Sr., died the following year, and some of his hiographical 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 Tennessee ~ar in 1814, hecoming u.s. District Attorney for Middle Tennessee, then Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals. His written opinions hristle with learned quotations. Even more 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 proceedings. At least he fought one duel. His fatherless, only child Henry Crabb was precocious ... and argumentative. His 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 were 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

C~ABB, page 3 a tutor in the head with a flying rock. In this same period, many students were expelled, including Henry A. Crabh ... who was also demoted a year in his studies (perhaps he was permitted to stay, under 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 was 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 and history, on his way to Hell. # # # # # In stockton, California, he practiced more law ... and edited the Argus.Then in 1&52, he he came a state congressman, and eventually a senator. He even joined the "Know Nothing" movement, which detested "foreigners," and haited Catholics --ironic, for a future filihuster who'd married into a Mexican family living in San Francisco. r-rahh was called the "most popular leader" of those Californians "readiest for adventure and eager for new fields of fortune." Why, he was even accused lJy his political foes

C-qAB"8, page 4 of' circulating a document which proposed cutting California into two separate 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 immense opportunity in this, so ljoarded the Carolineljound for Sonora in lB53. But when 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 in this 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 legal 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 Son6ran invasion--then testified at his 18SS trial. Thus Henry A. Cra3b is probably the foster-father of America's most infamous fililjuster fling, Walker's Nicaraguan 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 Ignacio Pesqueira, leader of the impending

C"R.ABB, p. 5 revolution. Pesqueira pro~a~ly offered Cra~~ land and other privileges, in trade for immediate help. Cra~~'s ~rother-in-law spread the story that they planned to 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's father-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 Buchanan won the election (while Walker won his Nicaraguan presidency!).

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 widespread antagonism 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.") # # # Meanwhile, Pesqueira, like any victorious insurgent, eagerly yearned to soothe all factions. Already the opposition 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. # # # # But on January 21:, 1857, "General" Crahh sailed from San Francisco on the Sea Birdwith over fi- f "t Y men, plus

CRABB, p , 7 some family memDers. Rack in San Francisco, General John D. COSDy was supposed to raise one thousand back-up men--Dut he pocketed the money, and accomplished nothing (at least he was killed by his horses soon after!) Meanwhile, CrabQ's forces reached San Pedro on January 29, then proceeded to El Monte. By now, his "colonization" corporation resembled a cumbersome wagon train, jammed with farm tools and other equipment. By February 27, they reached Fort Yuma on the Colorado ~iver. ~eaders of the New Fork Daily Times(today's New York Times)encountered the news of two Tennessee-Dorn filiQusters, on April 1S, 18S7. Lengthy front-page columns 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\:l-, 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 idea is simply absurd." One can imagine how those denials were received in Sonora. No less alarming was the next topic: some American miners were being plagued Dy Dandits, so were appealing for separate statehood. Crano implicitly stood ready to help. Sonorans 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

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 arrangement 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 the Mexican mind the deeply-seated distrust of America"--and destroying the current "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 around 115 . His crew had taken hasty military training for their "colonizing" venture--now facing the desert, one-third of them wisely deserted. The rest were less fortunate. Some fell ill from bad water--others were injured ~y accidents. 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 the sand, so wooden planks had to be extended ahead, every foot of the way}

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 colonizing but 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 of 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

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--and hullets--from the rooftops. Plus more bullets from seemingly every window. Viva 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 Mexican 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 dead 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 them 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

C~A~~, p. 11 was all a misunderstanding, which Gabilondo--with whom he'd loaded guns on the 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 with 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 permitted 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. So their backs had to be turned. Over fifty were slaughtered,

C~A B B , P 1 '2 though one teenaged ~oy was spared (like Mrs. Dickinson at the Alamo) so that he could tell others. With colorful history in the making, Crabb was decapitated with an axe. His head was flourished overhead at sword-point .. then it was placed in an earthenware jar 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 end of the lq6q film, The Wi ld Bunch). The Ca~orcans were initially horrified, fearing reprisals from the American Army. They were like villagers in the Vietnam "conflict"--alternately liberated 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 to 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 affair-in another, Crabh's memorial head was on a platter at the ~anquet held for the Mexican officers. (Either way, what ~etter tri~ute to Nashville's "Manifest Destiny"?) # # # # Yet Crabb's reinforcements, the "Tuscon Valley Corporation," were now on their 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

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. # # # # / / 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):

CRABB, p. 1 4 the Americans came here with a great hostile indignation "Rodriguez was 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 piratcle action of Crabof.sm Good many of the American population has treat us badly, and we intent to do the same in war .. as I think you are gentlem,an you cannot never have the Idea of protecting "Rol)~rs .. stay always at home, never come to forren country, we do not like Yankees no more on account of their bad action . Yankee of no kind has no show now here. Whereas Ambassador Forsythe darkly reminded Mexico how "retributive justice" had 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 were 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). # # # # 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 cavalcade a-1;ristle with military titles, and weigrhted down with ordnance. yes, ~rabb had a contract, ~ut one requiring his timely joining with the revolutionaries. As a professional politician himself, Crabb should have empathized with Pesqueira's dilemma

CltA B B , P 1 I:) a-~ristle with military titles, and weighted down with ordnance. yes, ~rabb had a contract, Qut one requiring his timely joining 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 peaceful 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 said 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 a ~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 route 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 famous 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

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] papers after his death, from whi.ch it was gathered, that the two armies were to meet at the ci.ty of Mexico and upon 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.