lived in the country for at least three years before the age of 21. Thereafter, he was commissioned by the Junta of Havana to seek help from General William J. Worth, a United States veteran of the Mexican–American War. Together with Worth, Gonzales was to prepare an expedition of 5,000 North American veterans, who would disembark in Cuba and aid the Cuban patriots, headed by López, who would rise in arms. The plan did not materialize because of Worth's untimely death. López and Gonzales then organized the Creole expedition with $40,000, which they had acquired by selling Cuban bonds. Among the financiers of the expedition was John A. Quitman, a former general in the US Army who had also participated in the Mexican–American War. López led the expedition with Gonzales as Chief of Staff. On the night of May 19, 1850, López gave the order to advance and Gonzales and his men attacked the Governor's palace. The expedition failed because it lacked the support from the people in the island who did not respond to the filibusters' call and because they were no match for the Spanish military reinforcements. Gonzales, López and their men returned to the Creole. Once it was back at sea, the Creole was chased by the Spanish warship Pizarro and changed its course. The Creole then headed for Key West, Florida, where Gonzales spent three weeks recovering from wounds received in the incident. On December 16, 1850, Lopez, Gonzales, Quitman and the members of the failed expedition were tried in New Orleans for having violated the laws of neutrality. After three attempts to convict them, the prosecution was abandoned. Gonzales settled in Beaufort, South Carolina, after the failure of another Lopez expedition to liberate Cuba in 1851. In the US, he continued to seek assistance for Cuban independence, meeting with political leaders including President Franklin Pierce and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. In 1856, he married Harriet Rutledge Elliott (1839-1869), the 16-year-old daughter of William Elliott (1788–1863), a prominent South Carolina State senator, planter and writer. They became the parents of six children; Ambrose E. Gonzales (1857–1926), Narciso Gener Gonzales (1858–1903), Alfonso Beauregard Gonzales (1861–1908), Gertrude Ruffini Gonzales (1864–1900), Benigno Gonzales (1866–1937), and Anita Rutledge Elliott Gonzales (known as Harriet, a.k.a. "Hattie", following her mother's death; 1869–1947). American Civil War As secession approached in the late 1850s, Gonzales went into business as a sales agent for