Abstract Thomas J. Oxley, after 1855, became heavily involved in California politics. He was a Whig and later a Know-nothing leader and a member of the state legislature. In 1857, he joined Henry A. Crabb in the ill-fated filibustering expedition into Sonora as surgeon-general. He was among those who lost their lives before the Mexican firing squads at Caborca. Oxley's letters to his family describe his overland journey to California, his difficulties and delights of living in California and the...