The Lopez filibusters seized Cardenas, Cuba, on May 19, 1850. The rebel flag is burning at the Capitular House. Hunter would land in Cuba just over a year later.
Beverley T. Hunter (June 18, 1826 - August 18, 1851) was a Second Lieutenant in the Mexican-American War.
Hunter was born in Martinsburg, Virginia, as the son of Moses T. Hunter and Mary Snickers. He was by nature ardent and enthusiastic; in character, brave, gallant, generous, and true. After his parents died when he was in his 20's, he went to live with his aunt and uncle, Judge Henry St. George Tucker, who was a professor of law at the University of Virginia. In this happy home, they remained until the marriage of his sister, Anne Stephens Hunter to Alfred Conrad Weeks, a large sugar planter on the Bayou Teche in Louisiana.
On July 18, 1845, Hunter was matriculated into the Virginia Military Institute with his brother, Henry St. George Hunter. Beverley had spent only a year at the Institute when the Mexican-American War broke out. His home being in Louisiana, he volunteered as a Second Lieutenant in the Louisiana Mounted Volunteers. On his return to Louisiana, he began the study of law, and was engaged in this business when the misguided patriot, Narciso Lopez, organized his ill-fated expedition to free Cuba in 1850. Hunter joined Lopez and served under Saunders in Crittenden's command, as Second Liutenant, until his tragic death.
Sailing from New Orleans on August 4, 1851, Lopez had assembled a force whose core was 420 American volunteers. After landing on the northwestern coast of Cuba on August 12, the invasion force displayed considerable elan and personal valor, but very little military discipline and cohesion. Lopez's small army was divided into several isolated fragments in clashes with Spanish troops. The anticipated uprising by local Cubans never materialized and within a week, Spanish forces crushed the "filibusters."
While Lopea, Crittenden, and many others were captured and executed, Hunter reporedly fought to the end as the commander of a small band of about eighteen men. On August 18, 1851, Hunter was shot and killed instantly by the Spanish. He was unmarried and had no children.