Crabb Massacre
Encyclopedia
The Crabb Massacre was the culmination of the eight day Battle of Caborca. It was fought between Mexico
and their O'odham
allies against American
forces in April of 1857. Due to the outbreak of the Reform War
in Mexico, the rebel Ygnacio Pesquiera invited the American politician
Henry A. Crabb to colonize the northern frontier region in the state of Sonora
, on the basis that the colonists would help Pesquiera fight in the civil war
and against the Apache
. However, when Crabb arrived in Mexico, his command was attacked and ultimately defeated. Some fifty survivors of the battle, out of about eighty-five men, were executed by the Mexicans.
factions. Ygnacio Pesquiera fought for the liberals in Sonora, against the state soldiers of the conservative Governor
Manuel María Gándara
. General Crabb was former state senator
from California
, as well as a former United States Army
officer, but his journey to Mexico in 1857, known as the Crabb Expedition, was of a private nature and did not involve the American government or the military. It was in the fall of 1856, after Crabb lost an election
to decide the next senator of California, when he came into contact with Pesquiera through his Mexican wife. Crabb accepted Pesquiera's offer who authorized the general to bring 1,000 colonists. But by the time the expedition left for Mexico, the general had only recruited about 100 men. There were other volunteers, organized to follow Crabb into Sonora, but they either abandoned the march or were attacked by the Mexicans. Starting out from San Diego in January of 1857, the expedition went to the Lower Colorado River and then entered New Mexico Territory
, now the present day Arizona
, and headed directly for the Gila River
where they gathered livestock
for several weeks. The location of the camp is now known as the Fillibusters Camp
. In March they went south for the Tucson
area to recruit more men. From Tucson the expedition continued further south to Altar
, where they would meet with Pesquiera and his rebels. Though by the time Crabb made it to Sonora, the rebels had already defeated Gándara's troops and forced him into exile
. Gándara later sought refuge in Tucson. The Crabb expedition first made contact with the rebels at Caborca
, having diverged a bit from Altar, their original destination. Now that he no longer needed the American colonists, Pesquiera was criticised by his followers for accepting to use Americans in the war. Because of this, the rebels decided to destroy the expedition. Crabb sent the prefect
of Altar a message saying that he had come in peace but the message was either ignored or failed to arrive in time to influence the situation.
At Caborca the Americans became involved in a skirmish which took eight days to finish according to George N. Cardwell who wrote an account of the affair in a letter to his brother J. W. Cardwell. George Cardwell was an associate of some of the expedition's members and he wrote that at the conclusion of the battle, in which twenty-five Americans were killed, the remaining fifty-eight were separated into groups of ten and executed by firing squad. Crabbs men took up positions inside an adobe building but it was later set on fire by an O'odham warrior
which forced their surrender. Cardwell's letter says eighty-four Americans were killed in total, including General Crabb though other accounts say only forty-one Americans were killed in the massacre itself, not including the men that died during the fighting. In Cardwell's letter, he includes a list of fifty-five of the Americans who died and says that many of them were some of California's respectable citizens. Cardwell wrote that the Mexicans lost 200 men out of about 1,500. This number included dozens of O'odham. The Mexican commander, Hilario Gabilonda, who had received instructions from Pesquiera to shoot the prisoners, refused to carry out his orders so he took a fourteen year old American boy, named Evans, with him and he left. Evans was raised by Gabilonda and he later became a Mexican customs inspector at the international border with the United States. General Crabb was allowed to write a letter to his wife before being executed by a firing squad of 100 men, then his head was cut off and preserved in a jar. The letter was given to one of two men who left the expedition before it crossed the international border between Arizona and Sonora. At the time the Crabb Expedition was regarded by many Mexicans and Americans as being an outfit of filibuster
s, organized to conquer Mexican territory, but it was sanctioned by the rebel government in Mexico which would eventually win the Reform War in 1861. Cardwell himself wrote that "Mr. Crabb left here about January last, ostensibly for the purpose of mining in the Gadsden purchase
, and settling there; but really intending to conquer Sonora, and in process of time add it to the slave states."
The conflict was not over though, Cardwell writes that "some days" after the Caborca affair, a group of twenty Mexicans crossed the border, from San Juan, into Arizona and captured four men of Crabb's party who were resting in a general store
due to illness. These four were executed. Shortly thereafter, twenty of Crabb's volunteers launched an expedition to relieve General Crabb. Led by Major
R. N. Wood and Captain Granville Henderson Oury
of Tucson, the rescue party was on the Mexican side of the border when about 200 enemies attacked them near where the four sickly men were captured. After "severe fighting", these twenty recruits successfully made it back across the border. A squad of sixteen other recruits was not so fortunate though and after crossing the border they were intercepted by same 200 men who encountered Major Wood and Captain Oury. These men surrendered without a fight but were executed like the others. Of the Americans who participated in the Battle of Caborca, only one or two men survived, included the fourteen-year-old Evans, accounts differ as to the existence of a second survivor. In California and New Mexico Territory, news of the massacre created a clamor for revenge against the Mexicans but the incident was eventually put aside and forgotten about. Sometime later, Gabilonda, who refused to kill the American colonists, was nearly lynched in Tucson by an angry mob but he survived the ordeal, apparently because of his innocence.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and their O'odham
Tohono O'odham
The Tohono O'odham are a group of Native American people who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico...
allies against American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
forces in April of 1857. Due to the outbreak of the Reform War
Reform War
The Reform War in Mexico is one of the episodes of the long struggle between Liberal and Conservative forces that dominated the country’s history in the 19th century. The Liberals wanted a federalist government, limiting traditional Catholic Church and military influence in the country...
in Mexico, the rebel Ygnacio Pesquiera invited the American politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
Henry A. Crabb to colonize the northern frontier region in the state of Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
, on the basis that the colonists would help Pesquiera fight in the civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
and against the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
. However, when Crabb arrived in Mexico, his command was attacked and ultimately defeated. Some fifty survivors of the battle, out of about eighty-five men, were executed by the Mexicans.
Massacre
The Reform War was a religious civil war, one of many between Mexico's rival conservative and liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
factions. Ygnacio Pesquiera fought for the liberals in Sonora, against the state soldiers of the conservative Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Manuel María Gándara
Presidio de Calabasas
The Presidio de Calabasas, also known as Fort Calabasas or Camp Calabasas, was a stone fortress built by Mexico in 1837 near Tumacacori, Arizona...
. General Crabb was former state senator
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's Senate, the upper house in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a legislator in Nebraska's one house State Legislature.There are typically fewer state senators than there are members of a state's lower house...
from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, as well as a former United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
officer, but his journey to Mexico in 1857, known as the Crabb Expedition, was of a private nature and did not involve the American government or the military. It was in the fall of 1856, after Crabb lost an election
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
to decide the next senator of California, when he came into contact with Pesquiera through his Mexican wife. Crabb accepted Pesquiera's offer who authorized the general to bring 1,000 colonists. But by the time the expedition left for Mexico, the general had only recruited about 100 men. There were other volunteers, organized to follow Crabb into Sonora, but they either abandoned the march or were attacked by the Mexicans. Starting out from San Diego in January of 1857, the expedition went to the Lower Colorado River and then entered New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory
thumb|right|240px|Proposed boundaries for State of New Mexico, 1850The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of...
, now the present day Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and headed directly for the Gila River
Gila River
The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 650 miles long, in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona.-Description:...
where they gathered livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
for several weeks. The location of the camp is now known as the Fillibusters Camp
Fillibusters Camp
Fillibuster Camp was a Butterfield Overland Mail stage station, its former site is located just north of Old Highway 80 on the east side of S Ave 34 East, east of Wellton, Arizona on Wellton Mesa, Yuma County, Arizona....
. In March they went south for the Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
area to recruit more men. From Tucson the expedition continued further south to Altar
Altar, Sonora
Altar is small city in Altar Municipality in the Mexican state of Sonora. It is located in the northwest region of the state at . Surrounding municipalities are Sáric, Tubutama, Atil, Trincheras, Pitiquito, Caborca and Oquitoa. The northern boundary is with Pima County in the U.S...
, where they would meet with Pesquiera and his rebels. Though by the time Crabb made it to Sonora, the rebels had already defeated Gándara's troops and forced him into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
. Gándara later sought refuge in Tucson. The Crabb expedition first made contact with the rebels at Caborca
Caborca
Caborca is both a municipality and a municipal seat in the Mexican state of Sonora. The area of the municipality is 10,721.84 km², which is 5.78 percent of the state total. The municipal population was 81,308 of whom 59,922 lived in the municipal seat...
, having diverged a bit from Altar, their original destination. Now that he no longer needed the American colonists, Pesquiera was criticised by his followers for accepting to use Americans in the war. Because of this, the rebels decided to destroy the expedition. Crabb sent the prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
of Altar a message saying that he had come in peace but the message was either ignored or failed to arrive in time to influence the situation.
At Caborca the Americans became involved in a skirmish which took eight days to finish according to George N. Cardwell who wrote an account of the affair in a letter to his brother J. W. Cardwell. George Cardwell was an associate of some of the expedition's members and he wrote that at the conclusion of the battle, in which twenty-five Americans were killed, the remaining fifty-eight were separated into groups of ten and executed by firing squad. Crabbs men took up positions inside an adobe building but it was later set on fire by an O'odham warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
which forced their surrender. Cardwell's letter says eighty-four Americans were killed in total, including General Crabb though other accounts say only forty-one Americans were killed in the massacre itself, not including the men that died during the fighting. In Cardwell's letter, he includes a list of fifty-five of the Americans who died and says that many of them were some of California's respectable citizens. Cardwell wrote that the Mexicans lost 200 men out of about 1,500. This number included dozens of O'odham. The Mexican commander, Hilario Gabilonda, who had received instructions from Pesquiera to shoot the prisoners, refused to carry out his orders so he took a fourteen year old American boy, named Evans, with him and he left. Evans was raised by Gabilonda and he later became a Mexican customs inspector at the international border with the United States. General Crabb was allowed to write a letter to his wife before being executed by a firing squad of 100 men, then his head was cut off and preserved in a jar. The letter was given to one of two men who left the expedition before it crossed the international border between Arizona and Sonora. At the time the Crabb Expedition was regarded by many Mexicans and Americans as being an outfit of filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
s, organized to conquer Mexican territory, but it was sanctioned by the rebel government in Mexico which would eventually win the Reform War in 1861. Cardwell himself wrote that "Mr. Crabb left here about January last, ostensibly for the purpose of mining in the Gadsden purchase
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time, on December 30, 1853. It was then ratified, with changes, by the U.S...
, and settling there; but really intending to conquer Sonora, and in process of time add it to the slave states."
The conflict was not over though, Cardwell writes that "some days" after the Caborca affair, a group of twenty Mexicans crossed the border, from San Juan, into Arizona and captured four men of Crabb's party who were resting in a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
due to illness. These four were executed. Shortly thereafter, twenty of Crabb's volunteers launched an expedition to relieve General Crabb. Led by Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
R. N. Wood and Captain Granville Henderson Oury
Granville Henderson Oury
Granville Henderson Oury was a nineteenth century American politician, lawyer, judge, soldier and miner.-Early life and career:...
of Tucson, the rescue party was on the Mexican side of the border when about 200 enemies attacked them near where the four sickly men were captured. After "severe fighting", these twenty recruits successfully made it back across the border. A squad of sixteen other recruits was not so fortunate though and after crossing the border they were intercepted by same 200 men who encountered Major Wood and Captain Oury. These men surrendered without a fight but were executed like the others. Of the Americans who participated in the Battle of Caborca, only one or two men survived, included the fourteen-year-old Evans, accounts differ as to the existence of a second survivor. In California and New Mexico Territory, news of the massacre created a clamor for revenge against the Mexicans but the incident was eventually put aside and forgotten about. Sometime later, Gabilonda, who refused to kill the American colonists, was nearly lynched in Tucson by an angry mob but he survived the ordeal, apparently because of his innocence.
See Also
- Goliad MassacreGoliad massacreThe Goliad Massacre was an execution of Republic of Texas soldiers and their commander, James Fannin, by Mexico, reluctantly carried out by General Jose de Urrea.-Background:...
- Dawson MassacreDawson MassacreThe Dawson Massacre, also called the Dawson Expedition, was an incident during the Mexican Invasions of Texas, in which thirty-six Texan militiamen were killed by Mexican soldiers with artillery on September 17, 1842 near San Antonio de Bexar...
- Battle of MierBattle of MierThe Battle of Mier was an 1842 military engagement fought in Ciudad Mier, Mexico between elements of the Texas Mier Expedition and Mexican Army troops. It ended in a costly victory for Mexican forces who suffered around 800 casualties and also led to the infamous Black Bean Episode of 1843....
- Republic of SonoraRepublic of SonoraThe Republic of Sonora was a federal republic composed of two states: Baja California and Sonora....
- William Walker (filibuster)
- Capture of Tucson (1846)Capture of Tucson (1846)The Capture of Tucson was a United States attack on the Mexican city of Tucson, Sonora, now the present day Tucson, Arizona. The would be combatants were provisional Mexican Army troops and the American Mormon Battalion. Tucson fell in December of 1846 without resistance.-Capture:The...
- Crawford AffairCrawford AffairThe Crawford Affair was a battle fought between Mexico and the United States in January of 1886 during the Geronimo Campaign. Captain Emmet Crawford was commanding a company of Apache scouts, sixty miles southeast of Nacori Chico in Sonora, when his camp was attacked by Mexican Army militiamen...
- Parker H. FrenchParker H. FrenchParker H. French was a nineteenth century adventurer, entrepreneur, and swindler. He left no personal records such as letters or diaries, and about whom very few formal records have been found...