"Disgraceful in the Extreme from Beginning to End": The January 1866 Filibustering Raid on Bagdad, Mexico.

The post commander later concluded Crawford had probably managed to conceal himself somewhere on the grounds of the fort until the arrival of the USS Convoy, a transport leaving for Ship Island, Mississippi, on which Crawford became a stowaway.[88] In September 1866, Crawford made his way to Washington, D.C. and despite being an escapee, he met with Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells. Concluding Maximilian and the French army in Mexico were in violation of the Monroe Doctrine and that Benito Juárez was the rightful leader of Mexico, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant dispatched General Philip Henry "Fighting Phil" Sheridan with 50,000 Union veterans to the border. Showing off his war wounds and claiming to be a West Point graduate, Crawford was given a captain's commission in the 5th Tennessee Volunteers by the Union governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, whom Crawford considered a personal friend. As far as Seward was concerned, "The sole objective of the expedition seems to have been the pillaging of the town."80 Hearing of what happened on the Rio Grande, General Wallace blamed Crawford's "stupidity, madness, and gross violation of instructions" for the failure of the filibusters. [Extracted from the article]