Lawrence Berry Washington
Lawrence Berry Washington left California by ship, sailing around the Horn of South America, taking a sojourn in Havana, Cuba, on his way to Virginia.[i] Lawrence Washington resented the Spanish rule of Cuba, because he felt no transatlantic power had the right to rule an American country. While in Havana, Washington wrote his uncle Henry Bedinger III (45) in July 1851 [ii] that he would like to be a filibuster with Narcisco López in attempting to free Cuba from Spanish rule.
A paragraph of historical background background would seem appropriate here: Who were "filibusters"? And, who was Narcisco López? The word "filibusters" referred to American adventurers who raised or participated in private military forces that either invaded or planned to invade foreign countries with which the United States was formally at peace. Although these expeditions violated the U.S. Neutrality Act of 1818 as well as U.S. treaties and international law, thousands of Americans either joined such groups as recruits or provided them with material support. The most famous filibuster was William Walker, a native Tennessean who not only conquered but ruled Nicaragua for a while. U.S. filibusters also attacked Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, and Cuba. The expeditions captured the attention of American newspapers, some attracting heavy press coverage. Often damned as pirates, the filibusters were also worshiped as heroes by masses of people. Able adventuresome men flocked to join their ranks and many politicians and men of wealth and influence supported their expeditions. Narcisco López was born in Nicaragua to a wealthy family. As a young man he was forcibly recruited by the Spanish and fought against Simon Bolivar and attained the rank of Colonel.. When the Spanish retreated from Nicaragua in defeat to Cuba, López left with them. López continued to serve the Spanish government in several administrative posts, in the city of Seville and as military governor in Madrid. López moved to Cuba as an assistant to the new capitan general, but lost his post when the governorship changed hands in 1843. After failing in a few business ventures, he became a partisan of the anti-Spanish faction in Cuba. In 1848, during a Spanish arrest of Cuban revolutionaries, López fled to the United States, where, between 1848 and 1851, he organized four expeditions to invade Cuba. His first expedition failed when his ships were blockaded and seized by President Zachary Taylor. Undeterred by this setback, López decided to plan a new filibuster and to focus his recruiting effort on the southern United States. As a supporter of slavery himself, López realized the advantages for the South of an independent Cuba. He and some American Southerners hoped that Cuba would become a strong partner in slavery and perhaps, like Texas, join the Union as a slave state. He attracted many influential and wealthy southern supporters. López enlisted about six hundred filibusters in this expedition, and successfully reached Cuba in May 1850. His troops seized the town of Cárdenas, carrying a flag that López and Miguel Teurbe Tolon had designed, which later became the flag of modern Cuba. Nevertheless, the local support that he had hoped for failed to materialize when the fighting started. Much of the local population joined the Spanish against López and he hastily retreated to Key West, where he disbanded the expedition within minutes of landing in order to avoid prosecution under the Neutrality Act.
Lawrence Washington, being opposed to Spanish rule of Cuba and being a believer in the southern strategy for liberation of Cuba, was a supporter of Narcisco López's continued efforts to liberate Cuba. When Lawrence Washington was writing to his uncle expressing his desire to join Francisco López and become a filibuster, López had already organized an expedition and was on the verge of departing for Cuba. The next month, August 1851, López with an expedition of several hundred men landed on Cuba. López marched one half of his expedition inland, while the other half, commanded by Colonel William Crittenden (a former U.S. Army lieutenant), remained on the northern coast to protect supplies. As in his first attempt, the local support that López had counted upon did not answer his appeals. Outnumbered and surrounded by Spanish forces, López and many men were captured. Crittenden's forces shared the same fate. The Spanish executed most of the prisoners, sending others to work in mining labor camps. Those executed included many Americans, Colonel Crittenden, and Narcisco López himself in Castle La Punta of Havana. [iii], [iv]
Fortunately, for Lawrence Washington, the stars had aligned in his favor. He was not to become a filibuster having been unable to join this last ill fated expedition of Narcisco López. Nevertheless, while in Havana Lawrence Washington visited the local attractions and afforded himself of the pleasures of attending bullfights, cockfights, and Spanish military reviews in the city. [v]
Sources:
[i] Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
[ii] Lawrence Berry Washington to Henry Bedinger III, July 28, 1851, Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University referred to in May, Robert E. (2002, p. 115).
[iii] May, Robert E., 2002, Manifest Destiny’s Underworld Filibustering in Antebellum America, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 426 p., p.115.
[iv] Chaffin, Tom, 1955, “Sons of Washington”: Narcisco López, Filibustering, and U. S. Nationalism, 1848-1851, Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 15, No. (Spring 1995), pp. 79-108, pp. 79-80.
[v] Lawrence Berry Washington to Henry Bedinger III, July 28, 1851, Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University referred to in May, Robert E. (2002, p. 115).
[i] Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
[ii] Lawrence Berry Washington to Henry Bedinger III, July 28, 1851, Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University referred to in May, Robert E. (2002, p. 115).
[iii] May, Robert E., 2002, Manifest Destiny’s Underworld Filibustering in Antebellum America, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 426 p., p.115.
[iv] Chaffin, Tom, 1955, “Sons of Washington”: Narcisco López, Filibustering, and U. S. Nationalism, 1848-1851, Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 15, No. (Spring 1995), pp. 79-108, pp. 79-80.
[v] Lawrence Berry Washington to Henry Bedinger III, July 28, 1851, Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University referred to in May, Robert E. (2002, p. 115).
Continued: A Tale to be Told Some Fifty Years Hence