General William Worth and Invasion of Cuba 1848-49

I didn't know anything about this until recently, but it seems that the General was approached by Ambrosio José Gonzalez in 1848, on behalf of a group of Cuban Freemansons, to invade Cuba with 5,000 Mexican-War veterans. Worth agreed, but then was transferred to Texas, dying there in 1849.

Any thoughts as to the success of such a venture if Worth had not been transferred to Texas? I don't know anything about the Spanish military presence on the island at the time/willingness of Cubans. etc. Also, wouldn't this necessitate Worth's retirement before such an expedition started? Surely, he couldn't pursue such a thing while on active duty?
 
I don't know terribly much about cuban or spanish history in this period, but the spanish seem entirely capable of raising relatively massive forces (100,000~) based off of the numbers in the first and second carlist wars. In addition, gonzalez's second attempt at an expedition with backing from america, in 1850, failed miserably due to a seemingly complete lack of popular support, not to mention a overwhelming response from the spaniards.

I don't see how 5,000 men, veterans or not, can change that. My guess as to the conclusion? The expedition fails, probably turns into a complete debacle for gonzalez (maybe he gets captured, he narrowly evaded such irl on a good few occasions) and, with regards to the 5,000 americans, could cause a diplomatic incident between america and spain, but with the mexican american war having effectively just ended and congress needing to work on some sort of compromise with regards to the legality of slavery in the annexed territories, america's not likely to push too hard.

If they had, though? I couldn't say, honestly.
 
Thanks to both of you! Just as well that it didn't happen. It would probably have been a blot upon Worth's career/life, to say the least & senseless carnage. Not sure why he would have even considered it in the first place. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that a career officer would do, but I don't know much about the man--yet, anyway.
 
Maybe the States annex an initial filibuster Cuba ? As they did with Florida.

I unsuccessfully tried to figure out what the group Gonzalez represented had in mind, independence or annexation by the US. I would assume the former, but the fact that Gonzalez later became a Confederate Colonel could suggest otherwise.
 
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