Haw wars
Encyclopedia
The Haw Wars so called in Thai, were fought against Chinese quasi-military forces invading parts of Tonkin
and Thailand between the years 1865 and 1890.
warriors known as 'Flag Gangs', (from tribes then called 'Haw' in Thai) of southern Yunnan
, ravaged large areas of northern Laos. Basically outlaw
s and freebooters, the Flag Gangs were fleeing the suppression of the Taiping rebellion
in China
. Tonkin
(now northern Vietnam
) was invaded first, when units of the 'Black Flags
' and the rival 'Yellow Flags' crossed the China
-Vietnam
frontier in 1865 and set up bases in the upper reaches of the Red River Valley
.
and their leader, Liu Yung-fu
, were to acquire a certain legitimacy and fame in the service both of the Vietnamese king, Tự Đức, and of the Qing monarch for their struggle against French imperialism in Tonkin. In contrast the Yellow Flags, under the leadership of Huang Chung-ying failed to acquire any legitimacy and, pursued by a combination of Vietnamese, Black Flag and Qing forces, were broken up and defeated. In 1875–76, following the capture and execution of Huang Chung-ying by the Qing-Vietnamese forces, the surviving Yellow Flag remnants fled westwards into the upper part of the Black River Valley, whence they harassed the townships of the semi-independent Tai
-speaking federation of Sip Son Chu Tai (or Sip Song Chau Tai – Twelve Tai peoples
,) today part of north-western Vietnam) and north-eastern Laos.
also began drifting across the frontier into Laos, then a tributary state
of the Kingdom of Siam. These new bands, distinguished by 'Red Flag' and 'Striped Flag' banners, moved south to occupy nearly all of northern Laos. The Red Flags sacked Dien Bien Phu
in 1873, and the Striped Flags seized control of Phuan
and the Plain of Jars that same year.
Responding to this serious challenge, in 1874 Chao Unkham, ruling prince of Luang Prabang
, and the Nguyen monarch Tự Đức, sent a joint army to expel the invaders. However, the force was routed, and Chao Ung, prince of Phuan, was killed. The victorious Haw moved south to sack Vientiane
, while Chao Unkham sent urgent appeals for assistance to the Thai monarch, King Chulalongkorn
(Rama V).
at Nong Khai
. In the first Thai military expedition of the Haw Wars, they advanced to capture the main Haw base at Chiangkham. The expedition failed to achieve its primary objective, since the Haw refused to give battle and withdrew into the mountains of Phuan and Huaphan. When the Siamese left later that year, armed Haw bands emerged to loot and plunder more or less at will.
for assistance. King Chulalongkorn
dispatched a Siamese army composed largely of Isaan and Northern Thai levies. The resulting expedition, in which the British surveyor
James McCarthy participated, 'was ill-conceived, inadequately planned, and ultimately unsuccessful'. Thanks to McCarthy's presence, the 1884-1885 expedition is unusually well-documented. McCarthy's personal accounts provide descriptions of the effort, suffering and incompetence of the Haw Wars which are more evocative than those in official Siamese accounts.
McCarthy had begun his acquaintance with the Laos-Tonkin borderlands in the 1884, when he led a Thai surveying expedition to Phuan
and the southern frontiers of Huaphan as part of his task of mapping the Thai kingdom. During this journey he travelled widely through territories subject to regular attack by the Flag Gangs. He noted that 'as we went on, tales of the Haw were brought in, agonizing accounts of their raiding on villages, whose inhabitants they had slaughtered, mutilated or carried into captivity'.
McCarthy was greatly impressed by the beauty and natural wealth of the regions, but found the inhabitants living a 'wretched existence... harried, mutilated and slaughtered by robbers'. As in Vientiane
ten years before, the Buddhist temples had been plundered and desecrated in a search for loot. McCarthy wrote that 'the wats had been wantonly destroyed, and piles of palm-leaf
records lay heaped together, which, unless soon looked at, would be lost forever'.
Subsequently, McCarthy travelled to Luang Prabang
to consult with the Siamese military commanders and Chao Unkham. Here he learned the Haw had advanced to Muang You, which should have been defended by troops under Phraya Sukhothai. However, this Thai nobleman, being ill with malaria, had withdrawn to Luang Prabang. As a result, the Haw were able to seize the outpost and burn the Siamese stockade. With the onset of the rainy season in June and July, malaria
was to prove a more potent foe than the much-feared Haw. In McCarthy's words "the rain poured down steadily, and sickness prevailed." Accordingly, the Siamese troops stationed in the Laos region remained at Luang Prabang or withdrew across the Mekong to Nong Khai. McCarthy travelled to Bangkok to advise King Chulalongkorn of the situation and await the return of the dry winter months.
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McCarthy was ordered to return to Laos at the end of the rainy season. He set out from Bangkok in November 1884, travelling by way of Uttaradit
and Nan
. He arrived at Luang Prabang on January 14, 1885, in time to witness the outbreak of hostilities that were to last three months before ending in failure.
The Haw were armed with modern repeating rifle
s and Birmingham-manufactured ammunition, while many were skilled in guerrilla warfare
. They used demoralising tactics such as mutilating captives, employed punji stakes, and made surprise night attacks. Magic
was still believed in and was resorted to by both sides.
Hora
accompanying the Siamese troops determined that 10 o'clock on the morning of February 22, 1885, was the most auspicious time to begin the assault. At the predetermined time, a gun was fired and the attacking forces began their advance against the Haw stronghold, a well-defended stockade 400 metres long by 200 wide, surrounded by bamboo and watched over by seven towers each about 12 metres high. The Thai and Laotian troops advanced in companies of 50 men, each under the White Elephant flag of Siam, and established themselves behind a temporary palisade 100 metres from the Haw fort. The attacking forces were armed with Armstrong
6-pounder (2.5 in/64 mm) guns, but these apparently lacked ammunition. McCarthy noted that most of the firing seemed to come from the Haw watchtowers and, despite Thai and Lao courage and almost reckless indifference to injury, "considerable execution" was caused to them. The Haw, on the other hand, remained relatively unscathed. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Thais suffered a further setback when their commander-in-chief, Phraya Raj, was injured by a shot "weighing about two pounds, which glanced off the post of a Chinese joss house
where he was standing and struck him in the leg." The attack on the Haw stockade eventually had to be given up.
Subsequently, McCarthy made enquiries into the origins and purpose of the Haw invaders. He concluded that the Governor of Yunnan
had sent them into the region to harass the French. This may have been true of the Black Flags in Tonkin, but there is no direct indication of official Chinese involvement in Laos. The Haw continued their depredations until the mid-1890s, when a combination of Siamese and ultimately French pressure forced them to retreat to China.
Today the Haw Wars are all but forgotten. One memorial to the Thai and Lao soldiers killed in the struggle stands in front of the old Nong Khai
City Hall, now a community center and museum. A larger, newer one stands behind the Police Barracks. Down by the Mekong River in view of Laos on the opposite side stands Wat
Angkhan , which is from Pali
for of the Dead, and is also Thai for the planet Mars
that Romans named for their God of War
. Nearby, the city maintains the lovely little Garden of Sorrows , with signs signifying this is where widows came to grieve.
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
and Thailand between the years 1865 and 1890.
Invasion of the flags
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, bands of ChineseHan Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
warriors known as 'Flag Gangs', (from tribes then called 'Haw' in Thai) of southern Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
, ravaged large areas of northern Laos. Basically outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
s and freebooters, the Flag Gangs were fleeing the suppression of the Taiping rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
(now northern Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
) was invaded first, when units of the 'Black Flags
Black Flag Army
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...
' and the rival 'Yellow Flags' crossed the China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
-Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
frontier in 1865 and set up bases in the upper reaches of the Red River Valley
Red River (Vietnam)
The Red River , also known as the Sông Cái - Mother River , or Yuan River , is a river that flows from southwest China through northern Vietnam to the Gulf of Tonkin...
.
Black and yellow flags
Over the next twenty years the Black FlagsBlack Flag Army
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...
and their leader, Liu Yung-fu
Liu Yung-fu
Liu Yongfu was a Chinese soldier of fortune and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French in northern Vietnam in the 1870s and early 1880s...
, were to acquire a certain legitimacy and fame in the service both of the Vietnamese king, Tự Đức, and of the Qing monarch for their struggle against French imperialism in Tonkin. In contrast the Yellow Flags, under the leadership of Huang Chung-ying failed to acquire any legitimacy and, pursued by a combination of Vietnamese, Black Flag and Qing forces, were broken up and defeated. In 1875–76, following the capture and execution of Huang Chung-ying by the Qing-Vietnamese forces, the surviving Yellow Flag remnants fled westwards into the upper part of the Black River Valley, whence they harassed the townships of the semi-independent Tai
Tai languages
The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages are a branch of the Tai–Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including standard Thai or Siamese, the national language of Thailand; Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos; Burma's Shan language;...
-speaking federation of Sip Son Chu Tai (or Sip Song Chau Tai – Twelve Tai peoples
Tai peoples
The Tai ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern China and Southeast Asia, stretching from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including...
,) today part of north-western Vietnam) and north-eastern Laos.
Red and Striped Flags
Further to the west, starting about 1872 bands of defeated rebels fleeing the Qing reconquest of YunnanYunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
also began drifting across the frontier into Laos, then a tributary state
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
of the Kingdom of Siam. These new bands, distinguished by 'Red Flag' and 'Striped Flag' banners, moved south to occupy nearly all of northern Laos. The Red Flags sacked Dien Bien Phu
Dien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
in 1873, and the Striped Flags seized control of Phuan
Phuan
The Phuan , also known as Tai Phuan, Thai Puan or Lao Phuan, are a Theravada Buddhist Tai people spread out in small pockets over most of the northeastern Isan region with other groups scattered in central Thailand and Laos . According to the Ethnologue Report, the Phuan number 204,704 and that is...
and the Plain of Jars that same year.
Responding to this serious challenge, in 1874 Chao Unkham, ruling prince of Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, or Louangphrabang , is a city located in north central Laos, where the Nam Khan river meets the Mekong River about north of Vientiane. It is the capital of Luang Prabang Province...
, and the Nguyen monarch Tự Đức, sent a joint army to expel the invaders. However, the force was routed, and Chao Ung, prince of Phuan, was killed. The victorious Haw moved south to sack Vientiane
Vientiane
-Geography:Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point.-Climate:Vientiane features a tropical wet and dry climate with a distinct monsoon season and a dry season. Vientiane’s dry season spans from November through March. April marks the...
, while Chao Unkham sent urgent appeals for assistance to the Thai monarch, King Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Chulalongkorn Phra Chunla Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama V was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri. He was known to the Siamese of his time as Phra Phuttha Chao Luang . He is considered one of the greatest kings of Siam...
(Rama V).
Arrival of the Siamese
In the spring of 1875, Siamese forces crossed the River MekongMekong
The Mekong is a river that runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is the world's 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annually....
at Nong Khai
Nong Khai
Nong Khai is a city in North-East Thailand and is the capital of the Nong Khai Province...
. In the first Thai military expedition of the Haw Wars, they advanced to capture the main Haw base at Chiangkham. The expedition failed to achieve its primary objective, since the Haw refused to give battle and withdrew into the mountains of Phuan and Huaphan. When the Siamese left later that year, armed Haw bands emerged to loot and plunder more or less at will.
Second Siamese expedition and James McCarthy
Eight years later, in 1883, faced with a renewed Haw threat to his capital at Luang Prabang, Chao Unkham again appealed to BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
for assistance. King Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Chulalongkorn Phra Chunla Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama V was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri. He was known to the Siamese of his time as Phra Phuttha Chao Luang . He is considered one of the greatest kings of Siam...
dispatched a Siamese army composed largely of Isaan and Northern Thai levies. The resulting expedition, in which the British surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
James McCarthy participated, 'was ill-conceived, inadequately planned, and ultimately unsuccessful'. Thanks to McCarthy's presence, the 1884-1885 expedition is unusually well-documented. McCarthy's personal accounts provide descriptions of the effort, suffering and incompetence of the Haw Wars which are more evocative than those in official Siamese accounts.
McCarthy had begun his acquaintance with the Laos-Tonkin borderlands in the 1884, when he led a Thai surveying expedition to Phuan
Phuan
The Phuan , also known as Tai Phuan, Thai Puan or Lao Phuan, are a Theravada Buddhist Tai people spread out in small pockets over most of the northeastern Isan region with other groups scattered in central Thailand and Laos . According to the Ethnologue Report, the Phuan number 204,704 and that is...
and the southern frontiers of Huaphan as part of his task of mapping the Thai kingdom. During this journey he travelled widely through territories subject to regular attack by the Flag Gangs. He noted that 'as we went on, tales of the Haw were brought in, agonizing accounts of their raiding on villages, whose inhabitants they had slaughtered, mutilated or carried into captivity'.
McCarthy was greatly impressed by the beauty and natural wealth of the regions, but found the inhabitants living a 'wretched existence... harried, mutilated and slaughtered by robbers'. As in Vientiane
Vientiane
-Geography:Vientiane is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point.-Climate:Vientiane features a tropical wet and dry climate with a distinct monsoon season and a dry season. Vientiane’s dry season spans from November through March. April marks the...
ten years before, the Buddhist temples had been plundered and desecrated in a search for loot. McCarthy wrote that 'the wats had been wantonly destroyed, and piles of palm-leaf
Palm leaf manuscript
Palm leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. They served as the paper of the ancient world in parts of Asia as far back as the fifteenth century BCE. and possibly much earlier. They were used to record actual and mythical narratives in South Asia and in South East Asia...
records lay heaped together, which, unless soon looked at, would be lost forever'.
Subsequently, McCarthy travelled to Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, or Louangphrabang , is a city located in north central Laos, where the Nam Khan river meets the Mekong River about north of Vientiane. It is the capital of Luang Prabang Province...
to consult with the Siamese military commanders and Chao Unkham. Here he learned the Haw had advanced to Muang You, which should have been defended by troops under Phraya Sukhothai. However, this Thai nobleman, being ill with malaria, had withdrawn to Luang Prabang. As a result, the Haw were able to seize the outpost and burn the Siamese stockade. With the onset of the rainy season in June and July, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
was to prove a more potent foe than the much-feared Haw. In McCarthy's words "the rain poured down steadily, and sickness prevailed." Accordingly, the Siamese troops stationed in the Laos region remained at Luang Prabang or withdrew across the Mekong to Nong Khai. McCarthy travelled to Bangkok to advise King Chulalongkorn of the situation and await the return of the dry winter months.
Battle of February 1885
Uttaradit
Uttaradit is a town in Thailand, capital of the Uttaradit province. The town covers the whole tambon Tha It of Mueang Uttaradit district...
and Nan
Nan Province
Nan is one of the northern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Uttaradit, Phrae and Phayao. To the north and east it borders Sainyabuli of Laos.-Geography:...
. He arrived at Luang Prabang on January 14, 1885, in time to witness the outbreak of hostilities that were to last three months before ending in failure.
The Haw were armed with modern repeating rifle
Repeating rifle
A repeating rifle is a single barreled rifle containing multiple rounds of ammunition. These rounds are loaded from a magazine by means of a manual or automatic mechanism, and the action that reloads the rifle also typically recocks the firing action...
s and Birmingham-manufactured ammunition, while many were skilled in guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
. They used demoralising tactics such as mutilating captives, employed punji stakes, and made surprise night attacks. Magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
was still believed in and was resorted to by both sides.
Hora
Hora (astrology)
Horā is a branch of the traditional Indian system of astrology known as . It deals with the finer points of predictive methods, as distinct from Siddhānta and ....
accompanying the Siamese troops determined that 10 o'clock on the morning of February 22, 1885, was the most auspicious time to begin the assault. At the predetermined time, a gun was fired and the attacking forces began their advance against the Haw stronghold, a well-defended stockade 400 metres long by 200 wide, surrounded by bamboo and watched over by seven towers each about 12 metres high. The Thai and Laotian troops advanced in companies of 50 men, each under the White Elephant flag of Siam, and established themselves behind a temporary palisade 100 metres from the Haw fort. The attacking forces were armed with Armstrong
Armstrong Gun
The term Armstrong Gun was primarily used to describe the unique design of the rifled breech-loading field and heavy guns designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England from 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich...
6-pounder (2.5 in/64 mm) guns, but these apparently lacked ammunition. McCarthy noted that most of the firing seemed to come from the Haw watchtowers and, despite Thai and Lao courage and almost reckless indifference to injury, "considerable execution" was caused to them. The Haw, on the other hand, remained relatively unscathed. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Thais suffered a further setback when their commander-in-chief, Phraya Raj, was injured by a shot "weighing about two pounds, which glanced off the post of a Chinese joss house
Joss house
A Shenist temple or Chinese folk temple is a place for worshiping the variety of indigenous Chinese shen from Chinese folk religion and Chinese mythology....
where he was standing and struck him in the leg." The attack on the Haw stockade eventually had to be given up.
Aftermath
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
had sent them into the region to harass the French. This may have been true of the Black Flags in Tonkin, but there is no direct indication of official Chinese involvement in Laos. The Haw continued their depredations until the mid-1890s, when a combination of Siamese and ultimately French pressure forced them to retreat to China.
Today the Haw Wars are all but forgotten. One memorial to the Thai and Lao soldiers killed in the struggle stands in front of the old Nong Khai
Nong Khai
Nong Khai is a city in North-East Thailand and is the capital of the Nong Khai Province...
City Hall, now a community center and museum. A larger, newer one stands behind the Police Barracks. Down by the Mekong River in view of Laos on the opposite side stands Wat
Wat
A wat is a monastery temple in Cambodia, Thailand, or Laos. The word "wat" means "school".- Introduction :...
Angkhan , which is from Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
for of the Dead, and is also Thai for the planet Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
that Romans named for their God of War
Mars (mythology)
Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
. Nearby, the city maintains the lovely little Garden of Sorrows , with signs signifying this is where widows came to grieve.