User:PJsg1011/Henry A. Crabb

Henry Alexander Crabb (c. 1823 – April 7, 1857) was an American lawyer and politician and later a filibuster in Mexico. A leader of the Whig Party, he served as an early member of the California State Senate during a term ending in 1854. After losing re-election, he ran for a seat in the United States Senate as a member of the Know-Nothing Party in 1856, but again was unsuccessful.

In 1857, Crabb organized an expedition to the Mexican state of Sonora, where he may have been attempting to illegally colonize the region and foment its annexation to the United States. He intended to earn the support of Liberal rebel factions by fighting alongside them in Mexico's ongoing Reform War. Crabb led a small army from California into what is now southern Arizona and then into Mexico. After he crossed the border, however, the Mexicans turned on him, and Crabb's forces were defeated in an eight-day battle at Caborca in April 1857. The survivors, including Crabb, were captured and executed by the rebels in what was later termed the Crabb massacre.

Background
Crabb was born in Nashville, Tennessee sometime in the 1820s. He became a lawyer and emigrated to California in 1849, during the California Gold Rush. Shortly after arriving, Crabb married Filomena Ainsa, daughter to the wealthy Ainsa family of Sonora, which had political connections and influence in both Mexico and California. Crabb soon entered politics himself and was elected to the California state legislature in 1851. His political service ended in 1854 when he lost re-election.

A childhood acquaintance of William Walker (who was also a native of Nashville with filibustering interests in Mexico), Crabb sought to accompany Walker to Central America in 1855, who was by then engaged in his conquest of Nicaragua; Walker turned him down. Crabb failed to win election to the United States Senate in 1856 and then turned his full attention to Mexico.

Sonora expedition
In June 1855, Crabb and his brother-in-law Augustín Ainsa traveled to Sonora and visited with influential businessmen who supported a local rebel leader named Ignacio Pesqueira. Mexico was at the time in a state of political turmoil, having recently lost Texas, California, and the rest of its northern territories in conflicts with the United States, as well as narrowly defeating simultaneous rebellions in other parts of the country. Conflict continued at the local level across much of the nation in the 1850s, with internal power struggles between liberal and conservative factions threatening new violence in the early years of the so-called Reform War. The northwestern frontier states of Sonora and Baja California, remote from federal authorities in Mexico City, were particularly susceptible to revolution. Pesqueira led a liberal insurgency that sought to remove the conservative state-sponsored Governor of Sonora Manuel María Gándara from office.

Crabb claimed that Pesqueira's supporters made a bargain with him, suggesting that if Crabb brought American colonists to Sonora and provided military assistance in fighting Gándara's forces, the Americans would be allowed to colonize large tracts of land in Sonora. Whether or not this exchange actually took place remains uncertain, and the degree of involvement of Mexican officials in Crabb's actions is a matter of historical speculation. Crabb's ambitions were likely inspired by earlier similar filibustering expeditions into Mexico, including those of Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon and William Walker, and may have been bolstered by his wife's family's political influence in Sonora.

While Crabb was organizing his venture in California, the Reform War broke out in northwest Mexico. Pesqueira's liberals defeated Gándara's conservatives in the summer of 1856, and Pesqueira quickly seized control of Sonora; Gándara was forced into exile. Crabb was likely aware of the changes in Sonoran politics but continued to put his plans into motion. He recruited at least 100 men, many of them wealthy and influential Californians (including several state legislators), and arranged for General John D. Cosby to meet him in Guaymas with 900 additional men. In January 1857, Crabb sailed from San Francisco to Los Angeles with his initial recruits. The party then marched east along the Southern Emigrant Trail into the New Mexico Territory, where Crabb instructed a portion of the party under Robert N. Woods and Granville Henderson Oury to travel to Tucson to recruit additional volunteers for the colony, after which they planned to meet him in Sonora.

Now numbering about 90 men, Crabb's expedition traveled southeast along the Gila River and crossed the Mexican border near the town of Sonoita. Stopping there, Crabb wrote a letter dated March 26, 1857 to the prefect of Altar, José María Redondo, explaining that his expedition was a legal colonization effort with the support of Mexican authorities. Redondo did not reply, but Pesqueira made it clear through a proclamation to the people of Sonora that he would not tolerate filibusteros; having already deposed Gándara, the rebels under Pesqueira no longer required Crabb's military support. Pesqueira called on the people of Sonora to arm themselves against Crabb's invaders, to let their "conciliation become sincere in order to fight this horde of pirates, without country, religion, or honor." General Luis Noriega, commandant of the local garrison in Guaymas, ordered his men to march toward Crabb's party in defense of their country. Despite multiple warnings to leave Mexico, Crabb persisted with his colonization plan.

Massacre
Leaving twenty men behind, the party continued south to the village of Caborca, where a Mexican militia was already waiting for them. Upon approaching the village, Crabb's army was quickly engaged in a firefight, but managed to force the Mexicans to withdraw to the town church. Crabb's men fortified themselves in an adobe building opposite the church and the battle stalemated for six days as the two groups held their positions. At one point Crabb ordered his men to blow down the church's heavy wooden door with a keg of dynamite, but the explosion had little effect. At least 10 of the American filibusters and many more Mexican defenders were killed in the battle.

By April 6, more than 1,500 Mexican regulars, armed volunteers, and Papago Indians had arrived to help defend Caborca from the American invaders. They besieged and set fire to the adobe building in which Crabb's men had taken refuge. Realizing he was hugely outnumbered, Crabb surrendered to Hilario Gabilondo, the Mexican commander, who had explained that the Americans would be treated as prisoners of war and given food and medicine. Instead, Crabb and his men were taken prisoner and held overnight at the edge of town without food or water. The following morning, April 7, the entire party was marched to the outskirts of Caborca and executed by firing squad. Crabb himself was shot in the town plaza.