William Walker the man who would conquer Nicaragua Part 4 Vanderbilt

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gasca and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast, and I can't give you many names,
and you're a blunder. Hey look, I'm Raisling. I'm got

(00:24):
the by Sarah.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
A long struggle for freedom, It really.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Is a revolution. Welcome back to Distorted History, where this
week we once again returned to the story of William Walker,
who at this point seemed like one of, if not
the most successful filibuster in American history. After all, he
had ented the Nicaraguan Civil War by capturing the enemy

(00:53):
capital of Grenada, and he had also been instrumental unfortunately
new Transitional Unity government, which was a servant till actual
elections could be held. Furthermore, Walker had secured for himself
a place within this government as the commander in chief
of the Nicaraguan military, and which point he simultaneously earned
the good wealthy Nicaraguan people and insured his own base

(01:14):
of power by ending the forced conscription practices that had
been used by both sides of the civil war. This
freed many a poor Nicaraguan from unwanted military service, while
also ensuring that the only remaining armed forces within the
country were his filibusters or local volunteers were allowed to
him and his allies. Walker then followed this out by
exposing and ultimately executing a rival in the government who

(01:37):
had attempted to conspire with other Central American governments to
throw him and his filibusters out. Then, as if that
wasn't enough, the chief felibuster matried to outlast an invasion
from Nicaragua's powerful and wealthy southern neighbor, Costa Rica. So,
with his various rivals removed or otherwise destabilized as a
result of coming against him, Walker looked to further gain
the support of the people by championing ambitious projects to

(01:59):
re build in modernized, the war shattered nation. The problems
such projects required money, and the Nicaraguan government really didn't
have any to speak of, so it gained some money
and to also make it easier for American immigrants to
make the journey down to Nicaragua, Walker would strike a
deal that had the unintended consequence of making an enemy
of one Cornelius Vanderbilt. Yet, before we get into what

(02:22):
this deal was and why would ultimately lead to Walker's
ignominious downfall, first, like always, I want to acknowledge my
sources for this series, which include Michael Gobatt's Empire by Invitation,
William Maker in Manifest Destiny in Central America, Frederick Rosengarten's
Free Boodhers Must Die, The Life and Death of William Maker,
the most notorious filibuster of the nineteenth century, Stephen Dando

(02:45):
Collins's Tycoons War, How Cornelius Vanderbilt invaded a country to
overthrow America's most famous military adventurer, and Robert E. May's
Manifest Destiny's Underworld Filibustering in Antebellum America. And like always,
these and any other sources that I used will be
listened on this podcast. Blueskuy and Tovey pages plus. For
anyone who doesn't want to be bothered skipping through commercials,

(03:07):
there is always an ad free fade available at patreon
dot com slash Distorted History. And with all that being said,
let's begin Cornelius Vanderbilt, the man it would prove to
be pivotal in the Downfall. William Walker was the Senate
of poor Dutch immigrants. He would then leave school at
age eleven to labor on boats in New York's East River. Yet,
while he lacked a formal education, Vanderbilt was said to

(03:29):
have a fantastic memory, as reportedly wrote nothing down, instead
keeping all the details of his businesses in his head. Meanwhile,
over the years, through a combination of luck and an
unrelenting drive and persistence, young Cornelius Vanderbilt was able to
acquire so many ferries, river steamers, and various steamboats that
he would be nicknamed Commodore, a name that was initially

(03:50):
used born mockery of his slap dash fleet, but it
would eventually take on more of a serious air as
his ships only grew in size and number. Ultimately, Vanderbilt
would become america richest man, with an estimated personal wealth
of three point two trillion dollars in today's money. Indeed,
by the time of his death in eighteen seventy seven,
he would have more money than the US Treasury, although

(04:12):
it should be noted that at the time of our
story he wasn't quite that wealthy, but he still had
quite the personal fortune to his name. Yet, despite this wealthy,
lanky lean Vanderbilt, whose hair, while still thick, had gone
gray and was clean shaven other than his pork chops sideburns,
was not the kind of refined high society figure as
you might expect. Instead, he was known to drump a

(04:33):
swearward in just about every sentence he used, and he
was also known to, despite his unbelievable wealth, to remain
exceedingly frugal with his money. It, however, wasn't just a
situation of jealousy guarding the fortune he already had, as
Vanderbilt also had a burning desire for more. As such,
even though he was already a multi millionaire by the

(04:53):
time gold was discovered in California, he still saw in
the gold Russian opportunity. Now, he obviously had no interested
in going off to California to mind for gold himself,
he was already far too rich for that. Instead, he,
likes so many others, saw in this a chance to
profit off of all those desperate souls looking to get
rich quick in the California goldfields, which is why Vanderbilt

(05:15):
had such an interest in Nicaragua. After all, the western
journey overland in California was exceedingly dangerous and was a
journey that could last as long as six months. All
the wild travelers would have to traverse through the lands
of various Native American tribes who, as we have seen
time and again, had plenty of reason to not appreciate
such invasions, even if the groups and individuals in question

(05:36):
were just passing through see the impact travelers of the
Oregon Trail head on the lands of the Lakota Sioux,
for example. Plus outside of potentially hostile Native American bands,
there were also the average everyday dangers of life on
the road, which included, among other things, wild animals, dangerous whether,
and of course the mountains that lay in between the
travelers and their final destination, as seen with the tragic

(05:59):
fate of the party. Indeed, hundreds of travelers would dial
on the Trail West each year. Meanwhile, at the started
the Gold Rush, the only real alternative to get from
these settled sections of the United States to California involved
rounding the Horn, by which I mean sailing down on
around the southern tip of South America, a journey which
was significantly quicker than traveling overland, with one ship managing

(06:21):
to make the journey from New York to San Francisco
in just eighty nine days plus. Was also relatively safer
than the overland journey, but that is not to say
that it was not without its hazards. It also wasn't
by any means cheap, as the most uncomfortable means of
making this journey still cost six hundred dollars for a
one way ticket, an amount of money that was equivalent

(06:41):
to several years of salary for an average laborer. American
shipping companies and seeking an alternative route, not to mention
a way to profit off the messes open to take
part in the gold Rush. Stead of running ships from
the US to Panama, which was at that point part
of Columbia. Upon arrival, the hopeful travelers would take a
horse or a meal on a week long journey across Sismus,
a journey which was not necessarily easy as a necessitated

(07:05):
crossing multiple rivers that were prone to flooding and risking
attack from local bandits. Those who managed to make the
journey safely, though, upon reaching the Pacific coast, when board
another staber than then took these hopefuls up to San Francisco.
The thing was, while this journey was quicker than the
other options, these companies were still charging six hundred dollars
for the trip, which again was a prohibitive amount. Vanderbilt

(07:28):
then saw his opportunity here, as he planned to accomplish
the same job at half the prize, doing so by
taking his passengers along an even shorter route, which involved
taking a vage of the largest lake in Central America,
Lake Nicaragua. Now, to be clear, neither Vanderbilt Nor's people
originated this route. Instead, they were taking a vegi of
a path that had been in use for centuries at

(07:49):
this point. Regardless, Vanderbilt's Nicaraguan path quickly became a popular
route to get from the east coast of the US
to the west and vice versa. Indeed, by the time
of Walkers around some two thousand people were passing through
Nicaragua every month. For Vanderbilt, though, this wasn't just a
chance to expand as wealth via those hoping to take
part in the gold Rush, as he also saw this

(08:11):
route as being his opportunity to secure a lucrative contract
with the US Mail Service, a contract which would earn
him and his company a significant and reoccurring payday. Plus. He,
like others before him, saw a Nicaragua opportunity to build
a canal which would essentially link the Pacific Ocean with
the Caribbean Sea, doing so by taking advantage of both

(08:31):
Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, with these natural
waterways making it so they would essentially only be carving
out two short canals, one for justly twelve miles would
take to connect Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific, and the
other for the eighty miles to connect the east coast
of the San Juan River above its dangerous rapids, a
plan which again was not new or unique, as in

(08:52):
the fifteen hundreds, Spanish engineers at first introduce the idea
of building a canal across Central America, with Nicaragua being
in one of the three places they suggested. Spain, though,
would only ever conduct preliminary surveys for this proposed project
before it was essentially abandoned for centuries, that is, until
the California Gold Rush spark new interest in pursuing the

(09:13):
creation of such a route. Such a grand project was
especially appealing to Vanderbilt as was not just an opportunity
to expand his wealth, but also a change to quote
in Shrina's name in Glory Forever, as by being the
man responsible for the construction of this canal, Vanderbilt would
leave a lasting impression on the world itself. Before he
could do so. However, the first thing that Vanderbilt had

(09:35):
to do was get the Nicaraguan government to hand over
the contract for the canal project to him, as at
this point, which mind you, was still well before William
Walker's arrival, one David Brown officially held the contract to
construct a canal across the country. Various American officials would
then aid Vanderbilt in convincing the Nicroguan government to ultimately
award him exclusive rights to construct the canal in exchange

(09:57):
for a promise from Vanderbilt to colonize uninhabited lands aloney
San Juan River with US immigrants. Vanderbilt, though, would relatively
quickly begin betraying the Nicaraguans, as the original route across
the country had raw travelers through inhabited regions, thereby allowing
the locals to profit off this influx of people traveling
through their country by setting up various businesses to meet

(10:17):
their needs. Vanderbilt, however, would have his people deviate from
this established route, a move that, while making the distance
traveled shorter, also had the effect of making its own.
Vanderbilt and his Accessory Transit Company or ATC, had complete
control over the route and the land surrounding it, as
they now traveled through uninhabited lands where instead of the
local Nicaraguans, Americans and other foreigners now set up shop

(10:40):
to profit off the travelers. Plus, Vanderbilt's ATC was staffed
exclusively by Americans instead of by the people whose country
his business was operating in. Essentially, then Vanderbilt and his
ATC were excluding the Nicaraguins from all avenues of their
profitable transit business. Then, as if this wasn't enough, Vanderbilt
would force the Nicaraguan government to renegotiate their treaty with

(11:01):
his company so as to split the highly profitable transportation
business from the highly expensive canal building effort. Basically, the
deal was Vanderbildt had been given exclusive permission to run
the transportation business as long as he agreed to fund
and undertake the canal building efforts, with those two things
being connected for a reason, Basically, he was allowed to

(11:22):
profit off of his exclusive deal as long as he
also promised to build the canal. Now though he was
forcing the government to disconnect those two things so as
to guarantee himself as profitable transportation business without the necessity
of having to build the canal, meaning that while he
still held both contracts, they were no longer connected and
thus he was not compelled to keep his promise of

(11:42):
funding and constructing the canal. Vanderbilt then was free to
enjoy his highly profitable transportation business, which carried some two
thousand passengers across Nicaragua to and from California, not to
mention billions of dollars worth of gold. He Vanabil personally
made a profit of a million dollars in justice his
first year of operation, which was great for him, but

(12:03):
not so much for the Nicaraguan government, as while Vannerbilt
did pay them the ten thousand dollars annual fee that
was specified in their contract, he blamely ignored the other
part of their deal, where he had agreed to further
pay the country a ten percent cut of the profits,
doing so by claiming there were no profits, a blame
line that Vanderbilt trying to back up by playing accounting games,

(12:24):
including putting every expense, regardless of how unconnected to his
business and Nicaragua, on the books of his Accessory transit company. Meanwhile,
he made it so all the money golighted went to
the steamship company that owned these ships carrying the passengers
to and from the country, a company that was completely
separate from the Accessory Transit Company then Nicaragua actually had
the contract with Basically then, while the transit business as

(12:48):
a whole was making money hand over fist, all the
money coming in went to the shipping company, while all
the costs involved in the business were put in the
books of the ATC, thereby ensuring that the ATC, whose
profit see Nicaraguan go Arman had a ten percent cut of,
technically had no profits, a situation that actually fooled no one,
as even American papers would accuse Vanderbilt and his Accessory

(13:09):
Transit Company of undertaking a quote little filibustering affair due
to how blamely they were ripping off the people of Nicaragua, who,
by the way, also weren't the least bit ignorant of
what Vanderbilt was doing. Yet, despite how profitable this venture was,
Vanderbilt would ultimately sell his controlling interests in both the
Accessory Transit Company and the Atlantica Pacific Ship Canal Company,

(13:30):
in addition to selling the ships that he personally owned
that were used by both companies, with some believing that
he did this because the canal company had yet to
raise the funds necessary to start the project, likely because
a study that Vanderbilt commission came back with estimates then
indicated that constructing the canal would be so expensive that
those who invested in it were unlikely to make their
money back. That all being said, though, the shipping magnate

(13:53):
would continue to be the largest stockholder in the Accessory
Transit Company, meaning that he very much still had invested
interest in the Nickel Rogwin business. However, as soon as
Vanderbilt divested himself of his controlling interest in the transit company,
its director Charles Morgan took this opportunity to betray the
commodore as while Vanderbilt was away in Europe, Morgan, along

(14:13):
with his collaborator Cornelius Garrison, set about manipulating the company's stock,
while also seen to it that Morgan was elected to
takeover for Vanderbilt as company president, a role that notably
had been left open after Vanderbilt sold his controlling interest
in the company. With this newfound power, Morgan than had
the board vote to put an end to Vanderbilt continuing
to collect twenty percent of the company's revenue, something which

(14:36):
he had maintained up until that point, even after stepping
down as he headed the company. Vanderbilt, upon returning from
Europe and learning all this multi layered betrayal, responded with
a short dictated letter in which he declared, quote, gentlemen,
you have undertaken the cheat me. I won't sue you
for the LAWSS too slow, I'll ruin you, yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

(14:58):
To accomplish this goal, Vanderbilt establish a new company, the
appropriately named Independent Opposition Line, a venger that promised to
take people from New York to California via Panama for
a cost of one hundred and fifty dollars for a
cabin and just seventy five dollars to be taken in steerage,
amounts that severely undercut the rates of his former company,
basically promising to take people to California at half the

(15:19):
cost of his own atc mean well. To ensure that
this company hit the ground running as quickly as possible,
Vanderbilt had his own lavish private yacht, the north Star,
stripped down so that it could now carry six hundred passengers,
just fully illustrating these sacrifices, he was willing to make
for revenge. As he was doing all this, Vanderbilt also
made upoint of selling five thousand of his shares in

(15:40):
the transit company and a price of twenty five dollars
a share, shares which were snapped up quite quickly, as
that was a significantly lower cost than the thirty dollars
sea shares had otherwise been going for to outside observers,
and this very clearly looked like Vanderbilt was dumping his
transit company stock dumping which shook investor confidence in the company,
especially now that is new independent. The company was seriously

(16:01):
cutting into the ATC's business. Transit company stock prices then
went into serious decline to try and counteract Vanderbilt's efforts
and attract even more passengers, The ATC responded by lowering
their fares even further, so that they were nowned charging
passengers just one hundred dollars for a cabin and thirty
bucks for steerage. This move, though, would not achieve much,

(16:21):
as Vanderbilt swiftly matched these rates exactly face then, with
continually plummeting stock prices, morganing Garrison as well as another
unrelated transit company that was being hurt by Vanderbilt's vindictive
Moore made an offer to the commodore that they hoped
would satisfy him, as they offered Vanderbilt a deal where
they would pay him the commissions that he insisted he
was owed, money that he had notably faiund to win

(16:42):
from them in court. Plus they would also purchase thee
ships from his independent line, thereby bringing an end to
the company, an offer that they hoped would appease Vanderbilt
and thus end his personal war against them. However, while
Vanderbilt would accept their deal, he did not end his war.
Morgan and Garrison were then blindsided went two months after
making this deal, Vanderbilt's son in law, Daniel, a former

(17:03):
vice president of the transit company, sued the two men
for incompetent management and misappropriation of funds, doing so despite
the fact that many seem to believe that the two
were actually running the company better than Vanderbilt himself had. Indeed,
under their leadership, the company had even opened up more
points of departure along the east coast of New Orleans,
which meant they were servicing an increasing number of passengers.

(17:25):
Vanderbilt's son in law however, would justify a suit by
pointing out that they had been unable to pay dividends
to investors the previous quarter, which was true, but this
had only happened as a consequence of the deal they
had made with Vanderbilt to pay him off and supposedly
end his war. Many had potentially set the two men
up by accepting their deal knowing that they would not
be able to pay their dividends as a result, thus

(17:46):
opening the door for this legal maneuver. Now, one of
the main consequences of this lawsuit being filed was an
injunction being placed on the company that prevented Morgan and
Garrison from issuing any more stock, in addition to stop
the company from agreen to any new contracts, a turn
of events that worried investors would otherwise trust in Morgan
and Garrison's leadership, which only further damage to company's stock prices.

(18:08):
It was at this point, then that Cornelius Vanderbilt began
discreetly buying up ATC stock, both personally and through friends,
a process that would take him the better part of
a year. But by the end of November eighteen fifty five,
Vanderbilt and his various friends were successful in buying up
a controlling Andrews in the Accessory Transit Company. Once this
was accomplished and he again held all the Power Company

(18:29):
Company's board meeting. In January eighteen fifty six, Cornelius Vanderbilt
had himself formally elected as a director, bringing several of
his sons along with him to also assume prominent positions
within the ATC, which meant the men who had sought
to betray him, Charles Morgan and Cornelius Garrison, were both out.
The thing was, Garrison was not about to take this
turn of events lying down, So as soon as he

(18:52):
first learned about Vannibilt doing an end a round to
rebuild his controlling stake in the Transit Company before the
commoner could officially resume as well as he headed the cup,
Garrison sent his son down in Nicaragua. Garrison, you see,
wanted to work an ideal with William Walker as it
pertained to the Transit Road, with the end goal being
shutting Vanderbilt out of Nicaragua, a move which did not

(19:12):
come out of nowhere, by the way, as Garrison had
been cultivating this relationship with Walker for a while now, Indeed,
soon after the Provisional Government was put in place, Walker,
as a commander in chief of the Nicaragua military, was
approached by a representative from Garrison's ATC with an offer
Cornelius Garrison and Charles Morgan would personally loan the Provisionary Government,

(19:32):
or more precisely, its commissary of war, twenty thousand dollars
and amount that allowed Walker to pay his troops as
well as purchase additional arms and ammunition. Plus. In addition
to this loan, Morgan and Garrison had also seen to
it that American colonists going to settle in Nicaragua had
often received transport there free of charge. Given this history,
then Walker was all too eager to try and work

(19:53):
an ideal with Garrison's representative, even doing so without the
knowledge of President Rivas, a deal that would obviously concerned
the Accessory Transit Company, which by this point didn't exactly
have the best reputation with the government or people of Nicaragua.
After aw has previously covered and long refused to pay
the country, It's agreed to cut of its profits by
claiming against all logic, that was making no profits whatsoever. Now,

(20:17):
obviously the Nicaraguan government had protested this naked attempt at
thievery bought. The company had responded by threatening to pull
their business out completely, a turn of events which would
have severely hurt the country's economy, which had to some
degree become reliant on the Americans traveling through it. Garrison, though,
now offered an alternative, as he asserted that the Accessory
Transit Company, by refusing to pay the Nicaraguan government its

(20:40):
cut of the profits, had voted and forfeited its contract
with the country. Now simply getting rid of the transit
company was not a solution, as again such a move
would damage the country's economy, which is where Garrison and
Morgan came in as they were offering Walker an alternative,
as Garrison and his partners, who were familiar with the
workings on the Acessory Transit Company, would set up their

(21:02):
own shipping line that would fill the same role as
the ATC, provided they were worded the exclusive transit contract
than Vanderbilts Company had forfeited. To make this turnover easier
and to punish the ATC for the way it had
withold proper payment from the country, Garrison further encouraged Walker
to have the government seize the various transit company assets
within Nicaragua, assets like ships, outposts, depots, and various other

(21:25):
buildings and facilities, which would all service partial payment for
the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Nicaraguans believed
they were owed due to the company's unpaid commissions. Meanwhile,
Garrison and Morgan's new company would pay the Nicaraguan government
a four hundred thousand dollars bond to Lissy's assets, thereby
ensuring that their new company could effectively hit the ground
running without having to build any of the infrastructure themselves.

(21:47):
Dealer would then once again give Morgan and Garrison control
over the profitable transit business, while leaving Vanderbilts recently reclaimed
accessory Transit Company essentially worthless as it would be forbidden
from operating within Nicaraga. Meanwhile, it has to be said
that Walker was not offered nor asked for any personal
benefit as a part of this proposal, meaning from all evidence,

(22:08):
he was not bribed in any way to agree to
this deal. Instead, his sole benefits seemed to be securing
additional power in funds to build up Nicaragua to match
his vision for it. Additionally, one of the main reasons
why Walker had enjoyed so much support since arriving in
Nicaragua was because it promised to redirect the transit route
back through the nation's heartland, thereby ensuring that once again

(22:29):
the local people of Nicaragua, not important American employees, would
profit off the transit road, with the people most likely
to profit being the average Nicaraguans and not the elite class.
This then, was one of the reasons why men like
Jose marie Ville had supported Walker, as he very much
seemed to be offering them a more equitable and democratic future. Meanwhile,

(22:50):
Vanderbilt was very much unaware that any of this was happening,
as upon officially regaining control of the transit company, he
fully intended to maintain his company's contracts with Nicaragua. In fact,
at this Pointing likely saw William Walker as a positive
for the country. After all, he had brought an end
to the Nicaraguin civil war and had promised to protect
travelers passing through the country. Indeed, if anything, having an

(23:12):
American like Walker in such a position of power would
only likely convince more US citizens to make the crossing,
as it would trust it he would keep them safe
and was that in the best interest of his transit
company to keep things as is. Yet unbeknownst to Vanderbilt,
on the eighteenth of February, President Bertuccio Rivas would sign
a pair of decrees, one which revoked the Accessory Transit

(23:32):
Company's charter for quote falsely and fraudulently alleging that no
profits were made and no commissions due, as well as
for the failure to build the proposed can now across
Nicaragua as had been promised, while the other decree would
hand over control the canal project and the transit route
to Morgan and Garrison's new company, with President Rivas doing
so because William Walker urged him to and because he

(23:54):
personally very much supported such a move, as seeing like
many other Nicaraguans, were frustrated with the way the ATC
did business and lie to them about their supposed lack
of profits. The only thing, it seems that Reva stated
to be convinced about was awarding the contract to morganing Garrison,
as Walker admitted that it took him several days of
discussions with the President to convince him of this course

(24:16):
of action. The news of these garment decrees, however, would
be purposely delayed so that Garrison and Morgan in New
York could be informed that their deal had been signed
off on now. Walker had agreed to this particular provision
because the two manu had promised to immediately begin sending
ships that would be caring additional colonists and recruits for
his army. Plasi was also worried that some two hundred
and fifty men were actively ready to ship out from

(24:38):
the US on a Vanderbilt owned ship, and Walker did
not want their arrival delayed or even prevented entirely due
to Vanderbilt's response to this news. Meanwhile, Morgan and Garrison
has specifically demanded this part of the arrangement as it
would allow them to make a killing on Wall Street,
as they would have this critical information before everyone else did,
information that then allowed them to short sell their ATCs

(25:00):
stock stock, which Vannibilet and his eyes, of course moved
swiftly to snat Jump so as to prevent the price
from dipping like it had when Vanderbil had deliberately sold
off his own shares and mess as a part of
his skin to reclaim the company. Doing so without realizing
that the stock was about to receive a major blow
regardless as soon as news arrived from Nicaragua. Now, to
fully grasp the impact of this move by Garrison and Morgan,

(25:22):
you have to understand that the Accessory Transit Company stocks
had rebounded mightily as soon as where it had gotten
out that Vanderbilt had once again seized control of the company,
meaning that when Garrison and Morgan sold their stocks, the
price for them was up. However, as soon as news
arrived about the ETC Losing its contracts in Nicaragua, the
stock prices pubmeeted dramatically. Indeed, on the day that Morgan

(25:43):
and Garrison sold their chaer See Transit Company stock was
at twenty two dollars, but when the news broke it
promptly fell to just thirteen dollars. Then, on selling their
stocks before they suffered this dramatical lapse, they had also
essentially baut that the stock price would drop because they
knew it would, and so they also may the amount
of money that the stock had dropped in price, meaning
that Morgan in particular would make a profit of millions

(26:05):
of dollars off of just this part of the scheme alone.
So At first glance, it certainly seemed like Morgan and
Garrison had once again out maneuvered Vanderbilt. The commodore, however,
was not someone to mess with something that these men
should have known, as in addition to the way in
which he had doggedly went about reclaiming the ATC from
these two men, there was also the incident that had

(26:26):
happened with one of his ships in the British control
and port of Greytown, also known as San Juan del Norte.
You see, Greytown was supposed to be a free port
per the treaty between the US and England. In fact,
Vanderbilt himself had been personally promised by Britain's foreign secretary
that portuties would not be charged at Greytown. However, despite
all this, the harbor master in the city attempted to

(26:46):
charge one of vanderbilt ships one hundred and twenty three
dollars in port duties. This harbor master even went so
far as to make the declaration that unless they paid
the fee, he would have the ship, which was worth
some three hundred thousand dollars, seized and until the debt
was paid. Now, Vanderbilt, who had actually been on board
the ship in question at the time not only refused
the harbor Master's demands, but also insisted that he and

(27:09):
his armed guards be escorted off of his vessel. The Commodore, then,
choosing to ignore the harbor master and his various warnings
and demands, ordered a ship to continue on their way.
The thing was the harbor Master, who seemed a bit
drunk on his own power at this point, responded to
Vanderbilt's arrogant actions by requesting the British brig or war
the Express assistant stopping Vanderbilt's vessel. The Express then pursued

(27:31):
vanderbilt ship, demanding that it stopped, and when it didn't,
the warship fired a blank powder charge out of one
of its cannons as a warning. The captain of Vanderbilt's ship, however,
per the Commodore's instructions, just kept going, ignoring the British warship,
at which point the Express fired again, this time with
an actual loaded cannon whose projectile passed maybe ten feet

(27:52):
over Vanderbilt's wheelhouse, before following that up with another shot
that came so close to the ship's stern that they
quote for all was distinctly felt by several of the passengers.
Now all this, mind you, the threat to seize the
three hundred thousand dollars ship, the refusal to listen to
the orders of a British naval vessel, and the firing
upon the passenger ship and those on board, was all

(28:13):
over a one hundred and twenty three dollars fee. This
latest escalation, however, was enough to force Cornelius Vanderbilt to
order his ship to a halt. Then, upon being warned
by the British captain that if they did not acquiesce
to the Great Ten Authorities, he was prepared to fire
upon them for real. Vanderbilt finally paid the harbor fee,
but he was deciledly not happy about it. Indeed, upon

(28:36):
returning to New York, the shipping magnate immediately reached out
to the US State Department, who he urged to send
US naval ships down to Greytown so as to enforce
the terms of their treaty. Shockingly, the US government was
only all too eager to listen to the whims of
the singular incredibly rich individual, and did indeed dispatch ships
down to Greytown. Meanwhile, the American ambassador in London was

(28:57):
instructed to demand an unqualified upon from the British government
for firing upon Vanderbilt ship. As a result of this
pressure from the US government and the power wielded by
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the captain of the express would be reprimanded
by a superiors for firing upon Vanderbilt ship, while the
British Foreign Secretary formally apologized to the US ambassador for

(29:18):
the incident, which is on to say that if Vanderbilt
had no compunction about taking on the British over one
hundred and twenty three dollars harbor fee, there is no
way he was going to let his extremely lucrative contract
with Nicaragua be ruined by an apstar like William Walker. Indeed,
when news broke about what the Nicaraguan government had done,
the near Carrold would warn that Vanderbilt's power was such

(29:39):
that he could kill all the new government. With the
paper renting quote it's gallant head as perald, it's hitherto
bright prospects. It will be seen that it is in
mister Vanderbilt's power to kill all the new government by
opening another route and thus cutting off Walker's communications with
San Francisco and New York Vanderbilt. In fact, now that
he was in they will control of the transit company

(30:01):
once again, wasted no time withdrawing all of the steamers
from Nicaragua, as he declared, quote, the Nicaragua mine is
withdrawn for the present in consequence of the difficulties in
that country growing out of the extraordinary conduct of General
Walker in seizing or taking by force the property of
American citizens, a move that actually caught Morgan and Garrison

(30:21):
by surprise and hurt Walker and Nicaragua somewhat because, despite
promises otherwise, the two were in fact in no way
prepared to take over running ships for the Nicaraguan transit route,
especially not the San Francisco part of it. The thing was,
they thought this would be fine, as they had anticipated
that Vanderbilt would keep running his ships to and from
the country, even though he no longer operated the internal

(30:43):
Nicer Roguin portion of the route, as it was after all,
still a very profitable business, and he thus had a
responsibility to his stockholders to maintain said lucrative business. Vanderbilt, however,
was spiteful and would ignore this responsibility by cutting off
all service to the country completely, and he didn't stop
there as in addition to warning passengers away from the
dangerous Nicaraguani Isthmus, Vanderbilt looked to shift his ships to

(31:06):
running to and from Panama. Yet, for as much as
such a move would have done further damage to Walker's Nicaragua,
Vanderbilt did not begin operating a line their immediately ass
the Pacific Mail Line, which operated a transit line through Panama,
which was doing tremendous business there. In the name of
avoiding competition with the Vanderbilt agreed to pay the already
obseely wealthy man forty thousand dollars a month just to

(31:28):
keep him from interfering with their business, a deal that
would make Vanderbilt personally close to a million dollars over
the course of two years, every dime of which he
kept for himself, passing all none of it to his
transit company or its investors, who would later sue him
when the truth of his scheme was discovered. Meanwhile, in
addition to this, Vanderbilt would also write a letter to
Secretary of State William Marcy, who was himself no fan

(31:51):
of William Maker. Vanderbilt then likely assumed he had a
willing audience as he urged the State Department to interfere
in Nicaragua in the name of protecting new rights and
more importantly, the property of US citizens, namely the property
of the second richest man in the country. Basically, Vanderbilt
want of the United States government too, through whatever means necessary,
force the Nicaragua government to return the one million dollars

(32:13):
worth of property than Morgan and Garrison had taken from
him with Walker's aid. Yet, despite Secretary of State and
Marcy's feelings towards the filibuster government of Nicaragua, he really
had no interest in helping Vanderbilt with his personal grudge.
If anything, he was annoyed by Vanderbilt's sudden switch and
attitude towards said philibuster government, as just a few months earlier,
one of vanderbilt ships had a nort official attempts to

(32:35):
stop it from transporting a number of likely filibusters down
to Nicaragua to join Walker's ranks. When this criticism was
brought up to him, though, Vanderbilt pointed out that at
the time he had not actually been in charge of
the Accessory Transit company, therefore he could not be held
responsible for the actions of others which was technically true. However,
by that point in time, Vanderbilt had very much completed

(32:57):
his coup and had effectively regained full control of the company,
even though he had not completed all the formalities like
being named the president of the ATC, something which everyone knew,
including William Marcy, meaning that everyone, including the Secretary of State,
knew that even though he wasn't technically the president yet,
Vanderbilt had already been calling the shots again. Indeed, it

(33:18):
seems that the only thing this attempted Bruce had accomplished
was to annoy the Secretary of State even more. Meanwhile,
the New York Papers weren't exactly supportive either, as it
would write than if Vanderbilt wanted to argue his case,
he should take it to the government of Nicaragua, after all,
that was where his company was supposedly based in an
effort to avoid paying taxes to the United States. The

(33:40):
one willing audience that that Vanderbilt was able to find,
and the States appeared to be conservative politicians who he
was able to turn against. Walker, his newfound allies said,
looked to crack down on passengers bound for Nicaragua. The
problem was Secretary of State and Marcy had already attempted
just such a move. Indeed, he had ordered federal authorities
to put a stop to would be fellowbusters traveling down
to Nicaragua. This order, however, was flat laid nord in

(34:04):
San Francisco and California, as there was massive support there
for William Walker, who was seen as a local hero
of sorts. Meanwhile, in other ports, where the authorities were
more willing to listen to such orders, it had proven
next to when possible to tell what a person boarding
a ship bound for Nicaragua were doing so to join
Walker's filibuster army, who they were legally able to stop,

(34:24):
or if they were simply heading down there to be
a columnist which they had no authority to interfere with.
That all being said, even though Vanderbilt couldn't get much,
if any, assistance from the American government, he was far
from done, as he also reached out to representatives of
foreign governments who were not fans of Walker. Great Britain,
for example, was worried that Walker might use as filibusters
to throw them out of Greytown in the name of

(34:46):
returning in in the surrounding coastline to Nicaragua, vanderbilten urged
the British to not allow Morgan and Garrison to use
Greytown as a port of call, hoping to cut off
the eastern end of the transfer route in the process. Now,
while the British would not agree to do this, at
least not right away, British ambassador John Crampton would promise
Vanderbilt that a representative of his would be able to

(35:06):
quote as for the assistance and the commander of any
men at Warner Britannic Majesty's Navy in the port. More crucially, though,
Vanderbilt would meet with ambassadors from Central American countries like Cousta,
Riguel Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and even Columbia, which was known
as New Granada at the time and which also included Panama. They, however,
were the only ones concerned with Walker and willing to

(35:27):
listen to the obscenely wealthy Vanderbilt, as he also met
with ambassadors from Chile, Peru, and Brazil, all of whom
he would encourage to urge their garments to act against
Walker in Nicaragua, informing them, as he did, that Walker
had created a new flag for the country. One which
featured five horizontal blue and white stripes, which was the
style of Nicaragua's old flag. The main change then was

(35:49):
any center of the flag where a volcano used to sit,
but now lay a red five pointed star, a star
reminiscent and design to Texas's lone star flag, but which
reportedly was a veiled reference to Walker's motto of five
or none, which was itself a reference to the five
Central American nations Costa Rica, Al Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua,

(36:10):
and a hint towards his greater ambitions, as he apparently
intended to unite all those nations under his rule. The

(36:49):
provisional Coalition government that had been formed in the awakearly
Nicaragua and Civil War had as time passed, fallen away
bit by bit. The first of fall, of course, was
General Carrall, who had had been publicly executed for attempting
to ally with foreign nations to overthrow the government. Up
Max was to foreign minister who hadn't resigned after Walker
refused to invade Honduras. The minister u See had won

(37:11):
in Walker to restore the exile Liberal government to power,
a government which had been overthrown by Legitimateista forces honor
the command of General Guardiola, the Butcher of Honduras, who
Walker had defeated previously, but who was now the President
of Honduras. Meanwhile, another Walker's liberal allies, the people who
had invited him to the country in the first place.
The War Minister would also resign, as he did not

(37:34):
like that so many legitim Mistas had been given government appointments.
All these losses basically meant that President Rivas, the Minister
of Hacienda, and William Walker, the head of the nation's army,
were all that remained, which was obviously less than ideal.
Although the plan had always been that this would be
a temporary government that would only last as long as
it took to organize a proper election, with the first

(37:55):
presidential election following the civil war taking place in early
eighteen fifty six. The problem was this election happened to
occur during the Coasta Rican invasion. As a consequence, the
southern part of Nicaragua had been unable to take part
in these proceedings, with the war actively taking place in
that part of the country, which meant only the northern
section of Nicaragua was able to take part in the election,

(38:17):
which again was less than ideal, as was the fact
that there was no clear victor, as the presidential vote
was more or less evenly split between three candidates, circumstances
which led Walker to declear that the election was invalid,
a conclusion which he claimed that all three candidates agreed with.
Walker then wanted to hold a new set of elections.

(38:37):
But what he didn't seem to recognize at this point
was the fact that he had already begun to lose
a support of the elites in the country, which included
the people who had brought him the Nicaragua in the
first place, a trend which can be seen in the
number of liberals in the transitional government who bowed out
of it now. Part of this might have been because
Walker seemed intent on creating an empire where the new

(38:58):
colonists would be no different than the people who already
occupied those lands, meaning that they would all have the
same rights, something which by definition would have weakened the
power of the elites. The first side of the erosion
of the elite's power and the quiet takeover by the
new American colonists came when they started taking over the
center of Grenada, a part of the city that had

(39:18):
once firmly been controlled by the elite and their mansions. However,
by the time the Americans started arriving in mass the
area was pretty dilapidated. The American Conniscean more or less
token upon themselves to revitalize the city center and turn
it into one that more resembled these cities where they
had come from. In doing so, they started setting up
their own social gathering sites that notably did not reflect

(39:39):
the traditions and values of Nicaragua's elite. In particular, these
aristocratic types who valued stuff like bloodlines, were shot at
these new establishments where people who they never would have
accepted into their circles were welcomed in. Meanwhile, they were
also shot at the way these Americans began intermingling with
nicaragua women, especially women from the elite class. For example,

(40:00):
there was Rosario or Cordova, who hailed from an elite
family in Grenada and who fell for an American colonist.
Her family, though very much disapproved of such a union,
and so they cut her off when the couple married.
The simple fact that an aristocratic woman like Rosario would
go against her family to marry a commoner was shocking,
but such unions were not entirely uncommon in those days,

(40:22):
which just reinforced to fears among the elite that the
filibusters and the American connonists in general were after their estates. Meanwhile,
just as alarming was just how close some of the
ecnists were becoming to the country's poorer, relationships which oftentimes
were forged in the various gambling establishments throughout the country
which American connists and pornikar Raguans both attended regularly. Additionally,

(40:44):
also rubbed proverbial elbows in various businesses, dances, concerts, and festivals,
a growing relationship which was troubling for the elites, as
one of the Americans to come so as to make
the poor people less of a threat, not to find
common cause with them, which was all battened off, but
an all so. Seeing that the econists were increasingly replacing
the elites at the top of nicaraguin culture, politics, and

(41:04):
the economy, then, as if that wasn't enough of an
issue for the elites, Walker's push for direct elections and
the elimination of property qualifications to vote was also extremely problematic,
as it was through those rules that kept most of
the populace from voting that allowed the elite to maintain
their grip on power. All this then only served to
increase the fears of the elite, who were terrified by

(41:26):
what they perceived as he rise of communist tendencies among
the nicer roguin populace. Such fears then led Leon's liberal
leaders who secretly reach out to El Salvador and Guatemala
seeking their assistance, as they feared not only the threat
of the filibusters, but of their own. Poor Walker, however,
would learn of these attempt at communications and would bright
them for speaking with the enemy, insisting as he did,

(41:48):
on their loyalty lest he unleashed the radical Jose Marie
val Gay and his supporters on them, a threat which
only served to further cement their fears that Walker was
out to destroy the aristocratic class. So, instead of pledging
their undying allegiance to the chief filibuster, began planning an
attempt on his life. Walker, though, would never learn of
this aborted assassination attempt, and so he left lyon thinking

(42:10):
that he had counted the city's liberal elites. This misconception
would last for about a day until the city's liberal
leadership led an insurrection targeting the two unto Filibuster troops
stationed in the city. This insurrection, however, would be countered
by Vallier, who rallied is meant to fight for the
Filibusters against those who he called the quote owned enemies
of liberty. Such a betrayal from the people who had

(42:32):
initially brought him to Nicaragua likely only increased the paranoia
that had reportedly started manifesting in Walker following the death
of his fiancee, Ellen Martin. According to Michael Gobat and
Empire by Invitation, then Walker started to centralize power in
his own hands, and in doing so, sharpened the quote
distinctions between his non Nicaraguan and Nicaraguan followers. This situation

(42:54):
seemed to come to a head in late May or
early June, when Walker met with President Rivas and Leone,
where the provisional government had fled to Walker Nada had
been endangered due to the coast of Reagan invasion. Now
how exactly this conversation went, I am unclear on, as
I had between my sources two starkly different scenes in
one Walker's fairly oblivious to the machinations taking place around him,

(43:16):
seeming the only sensing that there was something off of
the way that Revs and his remaining cabinet was acting.
Walker's main concern with this meeting then, was to insist
at given the irregularities in the recent presidential election, Vivas
should simply authorize a new one, a proposal which Revus
and his remaining cabinet rejected until Walker pressed the issue
and forced them to agree. Meanwhile, in the other version,

(43:38):
Revas just flat out insists that Walker and his filibusters
leave Nicaragua altogether, as they were ruining the country by
bringing in officials from outside who did not know the
language or anything about their customs or ways. Given this,
in the fact that Walker had been invited there by
Nicaragua officials, they thought they had the right and power
to insist that he now to spand his army and leave. Walker, however, refused,

(44:00):
and after insisting that his men be paid, the chief
philibuster reportedly pulled his revolver on the president while declaring, quote,
I remain and I govern sir. Yet, regardless of how
this meeting actually went down, Revus and his allies would
ultimately declare that Walker was a trader while urging the
people to rise up against the Yankee invaders. Mean while,

(44:20):
Walker responded by pulling his troops down to the south,
where was joined by radicals like Vager and others who
continued to align themselves with the Filibusters, at which point
Walker declared Revus to be a trader for trying to
invite troops from Guatemala and Al Salvador to invade. Given this,
then the Chief Filibuster ordered the Rivas government disbanded before
apputing another interim president to serve until new elections could

(44:43):
be held. With this latest presidential election notably now having
Walker's own name on the ballot, the three day election
process would then begin on the twenty ninth of June
eighteen fifty six. This election, however, would have the same
basic problem as the previous one that Walker had objected to,
and that only part of the country was able to
vote this time, though it was the university previous presidential election,

(45:06):
as only those residing in the southern part of the
country currently held by Walkerness troops voted. The northern provinces
Mianmhan did not participate, as Rivas had canceled the elections there,
while the central regions of the country also proved to
be a no go due to the ongoing resistance activities
from the indigenous people residing there. As a result, only
twenty three thousand of the nations thirty five thousand eligible

(45:27):
male voters were able to participate, although among those who
were able to cast their votes were Walker's American filbusters,
who had technically been made citizens of Nicaragua and were
thus eligible. Also, unlike the previous presidential election, which had
essentially ended in a three way tie, this time there
was a definitive winner, as out of the four potential

(45:48):
candidates on the ballot, the official count had Walker easily
winning with nearly sixteen thousand votes, an amount more than
three times that of his nearest opponent. Indeed, per the
official numbers, over two thirds of eligible voters cast their
bout for the American filibuster. General William Walker then was
the clearer runaway winner and thus the new president of Nicaragua.

(46:09):
Walker Zone propaganda paper would celebrate this victory by claiming
that this election represented the largest vote that had ever
taken place in Nicaragua due to so many people being
invested Indeed, according to the paper, entire townsend marched off
in unison to go and cast their votes in these
historic proceedings. The problem with this whole narrative was the
election was highly suspicious. What was some regions having returns

(46:31):
in which the number of votes cast exceeded the total
number of people of all ages and genders residing therein
so while, yes, by the numbers, more people than ever
had cast their vote, but that was because more people
than actually existed supposedly voted the results and were obviously fraudulent,
with at least some of this fraud being the result
of Walker's American followers voting multiple times. This plaint Frond then,

(46:55):
did Walker no favors among the people of Nicaragua. Indeed,
one American conness would note how Walker's quote popularity with
the native population decreased in a degree as rapidly as
it had increased up to that time. As you see,
prior to this, Walker very much seemed to have won
over a number of people in Nicaragua as he successfully
reshaped his image from some kind of would be concuisador

(47:17):
to a benevolent figure who was just there to help.
After all, he had ended the civil war and then
started pursuing projects to rebuild and improve the country. This
obvious front then seriously tainted that image of the benevolent
filibuster that he had so painstakingly been crafting, with a
reporter from the US adding that Nicaraguans who had been
quote firm adherents have left him and swallowed the ranks

(47:38):
of his opponents. It also wasn't just the locals who
were disenchanted by this turn of events either, as reportedly
a number of American calmists who had come to Nicaragua
believing that this was all about spreading democracy, were now
very disturbed by Walker's fraudulent election. Meanwhile, as this election
was taking place, former legitimist leader and former president of

(47:59):
Nicaragua in his own right, Jose Maria Estrada, was heading
across the border into Honduras, where Walker's old fau Guardiola,
the Butcher of Honduras, was now president. The Butcher then
gave sanctuary to Estrata, who then sent up his own
separate Nicaraguan government in exile, meaning that at this point
there were three distinct Nicaraguan governments led by Walker, Rivas,

(48:20):
and Estrada, who now also started raising an army of
his own, to be led by former legitimist Colonel Toomas Martinez. Meanwhile,
the Rivas government was also trying to raise an army
of its own to overthrow Walker, as Revus called upon
all Nicaraguan men between the ages of fifteen and sixty
to take up arms against the filibusters. Revas didn't stop

(48:41):
there either, as while he was trying to forge an
army of loyal Nicaraguans, he was also reaching out to
the governments of al Salvador and Guatemala to urge them
to send troops to aid in this effort to cast
out Walker and his filibusters. Speaking of Walker, he would
have his own influx of troops in July eighteen fifty six,
as he knew Morgan and Garrison shipping line was finally

(49:01):
up and running to some degree, with three of their
ships arriving on the sixth of July, bringing with them
hundreds of new American recruits. Meanwhile, the threat froning neighboring countries,
which were led by conservative elites, only served to solidify
the allegiance of radicals who had fought and failed European revolutions,
as these mounting forces only served to make Walker look
like an agent of change in freedom, as his rise

(49:23):
to power and effectively removed the elites from power in Nicaragua. Indeed,
the country had even just howed a popular election of sorts,
even if the results were clearly fraudulent, with some even
justifying the fraud election by saying that the locals were
simply not civilized enough yet to make properly informed choices.
It also wasn't just outsiders to remain loyal to Walker

(49:43):
despite the fraud asked on. Local radicals also continued to
support him because Walker had, if nothing else, accomplished one
of their main goals, which was removing the old aristocratic
elite from power, so questionable election results and competing governments aside,
on the twelfth of July eighth, eighteen fifty six, William
Walker would be formally inaugurated as he knew president of Nicaragua,

(50:05):
with the ceremony being held in what was effectively the
nation's capital city of Renata, where his soldierts paraded through
the streets while bands played songs like Osuzanna, hel Columbia
and Yankee Doodle in celebration. Meanwhile, Walker's inauguration would be
attended by a wide variety of folks, from Nicaraguan priests
and merchants to Cuban freedom friters in European socialists from

(50:26):
countries like France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Poland, People who
in general still somewhat naively looked up to US democracy
and social reforms. People who tended to see the US
as an inclusive country, and thus they trusted that this
expansion of American ideals would not be race based and
thus all would have equal rights. Meanwhile, among those who

(50:46):
were still supportive of Walker and his rise of power
were the poor, young Nicaraguan men who very much appreciated
the fact that Walker had been the one who had
ended the system of forced military service in the country. Notably, though,
also among the crowds who gathered in gran Out of
that day were supporters from back in the United States,
and among them, but not wholly representative, were pro slavery advocates,

(51:07):
individuals who saw no conflict between the idea of quote
unquote spreading democracy and liberty in conjunction with spreading slavery
to a place which had abolished the vile practice back
in eighteen twenty four, as in their minds, democracy and
liberty were for white people, and so they were the
only people they were concerned with. As for Walker himself,
his outfit for this day was seemingly as plain as

(51:28):
it always was, as he wore flannel shirt, a shabby
black coat, baggy trousers in an old felt had for
this supposedly momentous event, a look that led one reporter
from the New York Tribune to write that the new
president looked like a quote grocery keeper from one of
the poor localities of the sixth Ward. Regardless, the new
president then delivered an address in English, which was then

(51:49):
repeated in Spanish by his cubanaid, during which Walker gave
a warning to those who might seek to take the
country from him, stating that quote, in our relations with
the more powerful nations of the world, I hope they
may be led to perceive that although Nicaragua may be
comparatively weak, she is yet jealous of her honor and
determined to maintain the danity of her independent sovereignty, adding

(52:11):
that Nicaragua, quote, we'll control her own destiny at any cost,
and will deny the rights of other powers. Either neighboring
or distant to occupy or dispose of any part of
her territory, a warning that was seemingly aimed as much
at the neighboring countries as it was in greater powers
like the US in the UK, which was a surprise
for those critics who fully expected Walker to announce that

(52:32):
the US had annext Nicaragua. Walker's address would be widely
disseminated both throughout Nicaragua and the rest of the world,
as was he claim that he and his filibusters had
quote redeemed Nicaragua from anarchy and ruin, and then with that,
Dunley then promised to bring the country to quote unquote
modern civilization. Indeed, Parker Franch, who was essentially Walker's minister

(52:53):
to the US, would very much echo this sentiment as
he issued cards promoting Walker's quote heroic effort to spread
liberty and civilization Back at home in the US, this
was especially big news as Walker's election represented the first
time that a US citizen had seized control of lands
beyond the region of the continental United States, news which

(53:14):
was especially exciting for those who were motivated by the
idea of manifest destiny, as William Walker's capture of Nicaragua
represented an opportunity to build a globe spanning empire. Many
then celebrated the news of Walker's election and subsequent inauguration.
This included Parties National Theater in New York City running
the show Nicaragua or General Walker's Victories, which depicted Walker's

(53:36):
capture of Granada through fighting in the streets, as well
as various Spanish dances and musical numbers like the Filibuster,
Overture and I Won't Die an Old Maid. That being said,
for as much as some celebrated the slatest bit of
news from Nicaragua, it was also met by considerable backlash
both at home and abroad, as the United States, in
the eyes of Europe and especially among the countries of

(53:56):
Latin America, was a rogue nation that was now just
assault an attempting to take over other countries with no provocation.
Given this, it's not surprising that six days after Walker's inauguration,
senior military leaders from Guatemala, Honduras, and Alsaudor would gather
in the Nicaragua city of Lyon to meet with former
Slash rival President Patricio Rivas. During this gathering, the military

(54:18):
leaders from these other countries then agreed to recognize Revas
as the legitimate president of Nicaragua with all pudget of
work together and told such a time that Walker and
his filibusters were all cast out of Central America. This
represented the first time in two decades that the various
nations of Central America stopped fighting amongst themselves and instead
united any common cause. Meanwhile, their military efforts would be

(54:42):
funded in no small part by the vindictive Cornelius Vanderbilt,
who personally had more money than all the Central American
governments combined. The shipping magnate then not only gave the
government's money, but he also just straight up purchased weapons
and ammunition for their soldiers that he then shipped down
to Central America, as Vanderbilt was determined to make William
Walker pay for his offense. Following Walker's election as President

(55:31):
of Nicaragua, his alli Jose Marie Vallier, would lead a
mission to strike at the city of Lyon, which had
become the stronghold of rival President Patricio Rivas, with Valler
hoping to convince the people of the city to rise
up against Revas and his elite allies. Yet before he
could rally the poor populace of the city, Vayer would
be captured. Now. Walker, upon learning of this development, dispatched

(55:53):
a hundred mounted rangers to free Esta in July, a
move that demonstrates the degree of loyalty that Walker felt
for Vaya, and that was ultimately well timed, as Walker's
rangers would manage to successfully rescue Vallier before choops from
Guatemala and Al Salvador could arrive and effectively make such
a mission all but impossible. The ever loyal Valier, though,
one after this near disaster, may yet another attempt to

(56:15):
enter Lyon to try and stir up the populace against rivas,
only to again be captured, with rescue being impossible in
this time due to the arrival of the Guatemalan and
Salvadoran troops. Walker meanwhile, did not seem all that concern
with the forces mounting against him in Lyon. Instead, he
seemed more focus on efforts to quote unquote Americanize the country.
To that end, he oppointed even more Americans to official

(56:37):
positions within the government, while also passing a law to
make it so that core proceedings could be conducted in English,
as well as Spanish. Meanwhile, in an effort to encourage
even more immigration from the United States, the new president
did away with high terrors on imported goods. Walker was
also busy at work trying to fund his government and
all the abitious plans he had for Nicaragua. To that

(56:58):
and he issued millions of dollars worth of bonds back
in the US, bonds which were backed by Nicaraguan land.
At the same time, he also moved to seize the
estates of his enemies, which were then to be sold
in public auctions. The list of those who had their
property sees included the names of some thirty two leading
Nicaraguan families, and among the various pieces of property seized
by Walker's government included some fifty six ranches and twenty

(57:20):
one townhouses, all of which were to be sold in auctions.
There were advertised as far away as New Orleans, New York,
and San Francisco, which goes to show you that the
goal of these seizures was not just to punish those
who had gone against Walker. As an addition to strip
in the entrenched elite aristocracy of their property. It seems
like the end result was making sure said property ended
up in the hands of white calmonists, who prior to

(57:42):
this had been limited to obtaining uncultivated frontier land. Now, though,
Walker would be able to offer wealthier individuals the opportunity
to acquire prime established holdings, thereby reshaping the social structure
of Nicaragua in the process. Among those who looked to
take advantage of this situation and further expand American control
over Nicaragua where the couple William K and Neea and

(58:03):
his wife, journalist Jane McManus Storm, who wrote under the
name Cora Montgomery. Indeed, some have suggested that Storm might
have actually been the true author of the article in
John O'Sullivan's Democratic Review in which the term manifest Destiny
was first coined, as the articles tended to not be
attributed to specific authors, and because Jane, much like her husband,
was a passionate supporter of the idea of American expansion. Indeed,

(58:27):
the couple had already attempted to start a US seller
colony in the Gulf of Finesca, on the border of
Al Saador, Hondors and Nicaragua. The pair, then, while visiting
Nicaragua and celebrating Walker's ascension in addition of purchasing AC's
coffee plantation, would also sign a contract with the new
president which authorized them to bring a thousand white colonists
from the US for the purpose of creating settlements along

(58:49):
the transit route. Now, while Walker very much seemed in
tentel bringing in and potentially even installing a new class
of white Americans in the country, he also seemed in
tenel not getting on the bandside of Nicaragua's lower classes.
To that end, he was careful to just go after
the entrench aristocratic elite, as while the process of seizing
property was overseen by a trio of Americans, this trio

(59:10):
very much relied on locals to make the decision of
which properties were seized. Among those taking the lead in
this process where the Jamaican born Thomas Twins, who very
much hated the nicer roguin of aristocrats who had looked
down upon them for their mixed heritage. The pair were
also not alone, as a number of upwardly mobile nicer
roguins who had been shown by the aristocratic elites and

(59:30):
kept out of their exclusive social circles very much took
advantage of Walker's policy of retribution to remove these obstacles. Meanwhile,
it's white possible that Depoor might have benefited from this
campaign as well, as some landlords would attempt to avoid
having their land seized by the government by instead handing
their states over to their workers. However, when every aid
nicaraguaspor got from this program was seemingly not part of

(59:52):
Walker's design, as again and very much looks like he
said town of replacing the old aristocracy that had rebolt
against him with a new one that would be more loyal,
as he was the one handing out this property. This, however,
was not the first warning sign of the path that
William Walker would eventually take. Indeed, arguably our first warning
sign other than the whole invading a foreign country thing,

(01:00:13):
came after he first seized Granada. Since he was helped
in the power by radical figures like hose Marie Valet,
some believe that Walker would champion a radical revolution throughout
Central America. Indeed, some of his own filibuster officers would
call for just such a revolution, which was dedicated to
improving the conditions of the poor. Yet instead of championing
such a transformative change in the country, he had seized

(01:00:34):
control of much less in all of Central America. Walker
actively looked to consolidate his power by courting the conservative elites. Indeed,
his own propaganda paper would state that Walker was driven
by quote the principles of sound conservatism. Granted, many legitimistas
would reject these overtures and flee Granada rather than associate
with the filibuster government. However, a surprising number would stick around,

(01:00:57):
as seen by the number of aristocrats that were opponent
too key positions within the government. Now, the thing that
makes this so telling is that it demonstrates that Walker
was willing to align with whoever was necessary to secure power. Indeed,
this active courtship all the legitimistas seemed not only designed
to keep them from becoming enemies capable of organizing a
resistance against them, but this also prevented the liberals who

(01:01:18):
had invited him into the country in the first place,
from exerting too much influence in the resulting provisional government
and potentially taking over and forcing him out. Meanwhile, the
legitimatey state influence over Walker can be seen by the
fact that, as long as he had their support, Walker
made no effort to rent the country of the various
property and income requirements to vote and hold office, requirements

(01:01:39):
that kept most of the country from having any say
in the country's elections. In a similar vain, Walker also
failed to eliminate the electoral College, even though they had
been a major issue for people like Vallier and others
who had been so instrumental in Walker getting into power
in the first place. Walker's provac Ganda paper, however, would
attempt to justify this failure by claiming that the quote
unquote messes were not educated enough to carry out their

(01:02:02):
quote duties as citizens. Therefore, to prevent anarchy and chaos,
Walker could not allow truly free elections until they were
all sufficiently educated. Others, meanwhile, were concerned with Walker's and
braise of the Catholic Church, which was yet another move
that was seemingly aimed at securing power by applying to
the local Catholic clergy. Granted, the Catholic Church in Nicaragua

(01:02:23):
was not as conservative as it was in other countries
because its holdings there were not as extensive and because
significant chunks of the population more and more liberally minded.
But still Walker's Mormon embrace on the church was concerning
the sum This included radicals who in general just hoped
to liberate people from the control of religion, Protestant columnists,
and also liberal Nicaraguans who wanted to reduce the influence

(01:02:45):
and power of the Church, while also doing things like
making the education system itself more secular than all being said.
For some time, even in the face of these questionable alliances,
Walker's strongest supporters tended to be the liberals, whom he
had to aligned himself with initially and who had invited
him into the country in the first place. Indeed, among
Walker's appointees to high ranks within the government were individuals

(01:03:07):
of mixed blood who otherwise would have no power in
the Legitimista government he had helped to overthrow. Among these
individuals were the Afremation Thomas twins Carlos and Emilio, who
had come to Nicaragua from Jamaica with their mother following
the Haitian Revolution. The two men had subsequently gone on
to become prosperous traders and money lenders, yet they were
still looking down upon by the prominent Nicaraguan oligarchs due

(01:03:28):
to their rays Under Walker's role, though Carlos would be
his Treasurer general. In addition, of being the main author
of his proclamations, while Emilia would also work extensively behind
the scenes in Walker's government. As they did, the twins
and their brother, who also served with them, very much
remained anti Oligarch, regardless of if they were on the
legitimist or democratical side of the equation, with the siblings

(01:03:51):
very much seeing Walker as an agent of change and
of a similar mindset as themselves, which he very well
might have been, but it's impossible to tell, given how
how willingly he seemed to be decide with whoever was
best positioned to help him maintain and secure his power.
He was, after all, initially invited to Nicaragua by the
liberal democratical elite, only to more closely relay with the

(01:04:12):
more radical elements like Valle, only to turn around and
try to court the legitimesta elite after capturing the city
of Granada. His eventual full heel turn to embrace the
American slave holding South then makes much more sense when
looked at through this lens. To this end, we can
see further sides of Walker's eventual heel turn when in
November eighteen fifty five, his propagated newspaper in response perceived

(01:04:34):
labor shortages, focused on the quote dangers of idleness as
an accused Central Americans of not being willing to do
the work necessary to improve and civilize the region, while
adding that such idleness also led to the pursuit of vices,
with a later article even claiming that quote the native
of the country are neither sufficiently industrious or energetic to

(01:04:55):
fulfill the demands of the day, and they must therefore
be temporarily supersti by more competent persons, with the paper
suggesting bringing in Chinese indentured workers to solve this problem. Now,
the paper never suggested using slaves to fix this shortage,
but other Central American papers certainly feared that's where this
was going, and that Walker's propaganda paper was paving the way. Meanwhile,

(01:05:19):
other indications of Walker's eventual heel turn show up in
response to the eighteen fifty six presidential campaign back in
the United States, with Walker's propaganda paper both seemingly supporting
Republican nominee John Fremont, while also being highly critical of
the Republican Party for its quote inflexible determination to carry
out the fundamental principles of its creed, which is an

(01:05:41):
uncompromising opposition to Negro slavery, and last time I checked,
remaining firm in your opposition to slavery is not something
to be criticized. Additionally, Walker's propaganda rag would also sign
with the slaveholding South when it came to the issue
of popular sovereignty, which was the policy letting the residents
of a territory vote when it came time to join
the Union to decide whether they would be a free

(01:06:03):
or slave state, as the paper would accuse the North,
with its larger population, of trying to force its anti
slavery regina upon the South, which the paper described as
being quote abused and a domestic institutions reviled, basically casting
the South as a victim of Northern aggression, all the
while wantingly slaveholding half of the country as some kind
of bastion of freedom, with the paper going so far

(01:06:26):
as to proclaim that quote all men are not equal,
they were not created so in the beginning, before adding
that if someone was born a slave, then let them
remain in that condition, as I was what God had
assigned them. These positions are notable becauses Walker's support from
the Necaraguan elite fell away, he very much needed to
replace it with something, preferably with someone who might provide

(01:06:48):
him with the funds necessary to make his ambitious goals possible,
which is where the United States slafeholding South comes in,
as after all, they had always been strong supporters of
expansion and filibusters. So Walker, left without other alternatives, seemed
to decide to deepen his ties to the American South
so as to hold on to that support. Now, one
of the chief architects in this change in Walker's thinking

(01:07:10):
was likely Pierre Solet, a Frenchman who had settled in
New Orleans, where he became a lawyer, a US senator,
and even the US Minister to Spain. Pierre uc had
first traveled to Nicaragua to help send alp Walker's scheme
of selling five hundred thousand dollars worth of bonds in
the United States that would be backed by Nicaraguan land. Now,
Pierre was apparently quite the impressive figure who seemed to

(01:07:32):
leave a lasting impression on those he met. Indeed, one
of Walker's captains, one James Jamison, would call the Frenchman
the quote most fascinating person I ever saw William Walker
then was seeing the very much not immune to Pierre's charms.
As he would describe him, quote his fine head and
noble air, meeting deep impression only people all the country.

(01:07:52):
In fact, the people of Granada were so impressed by
the Frenchmen that they talked to calling him your excellency.
The most notable thing about Pierre, though, is that he
was passionately pro slavery. The Frenchman then used his time
with Walker to try and convince the new president to
reintroduce slavery to Nicaragua, arguing as he did that while
the slaveholders in the US would only invest in Walker's

(01:08:13):
Nicaragua and purchased land there if they could bring their
slaves to work their new properties. Indeed, Pierre himself would
personally buy one of the properties that had been confiscated
from Walker's enemies, lands which the Frenchmen planned on planting
with cotton. However, he would warn Walker that he would
only continue to pump money into the country if he
could own and force other human beings to work for him.

(01:08:34):
A stansity was not alone in as Pierre would warn
Walker that without the aid of rich slaveholding Southerners like himself,
his presidency was doomed to fail. It was unlikely Pierre
so Let's influence in the aid that he and other
Southerners were providing Walker that ultimately led him to publicly
at least abandon his own free soil position, as he
in September eighteen fifty six seemingly declared that slavery was

(01:08:56):
now legal in a country that had abolished the practice
decades earlier, first doing so in eighteen twenty six under
the Constitution of the Federated States of Central America, before
reinforcing that decision with their own constitution in eighteen thirty
eight after leaving the Federation. Per Walker, then his intent
with this move was to quote bind the Southern States

(01:09:16):
to Nicaragua, while also apparently making it clear to all
that his end goal was not annexation by the United States,
because he knew that the Northern States would prevent such
a move now that slavery was legal in Nicaragua. Additionally,
this was also likely a part of his eploy to
try and gain assistance from the French, as Walker sought
to sell them the rights to construct the canal, proposing,

(01:09:38):
as he did, a kind of save apprenticeship program where
the French could send so called apprentices from their African
colonies to Nicaragua. These apprentices would then undertake the work
of constructing the canal for a period of time before
ultimately earning their freedom, as it seems likely to some
degree that Walker was still not fully on board with
the South's brand of channel slavery. Further supporting this line

(01:10:00):
of thinking is the fact that Walker had only technically
repealed the eighteen thirty eight Act, then had abolished slavery,
but had not issued any kind of replacement law that
then made the practice legal, as Walker seemingly just wanted
to give the appearance of legalizing slavery without actually doing so. Indeed,
his own propaganda paper would criticize those who suggested that
he had a pro slavery agenda, although just prior to

(01:10:23):
the passage of his actor repeeling the abolition of slavery,
his propaganda paper had argued that allowing American colonists to
import African slaves was just another part of trying to
American nice the country, and that the Africans were a
quote race of people who are happiest when fulfilling their
mission of labor. The thing is though at the end
of the daily, question of whether or not Walker truly

(01:10:44):
became a true believer of slavery is not that important,
as what seems most likely was that if push came
the shove and he had to decide between staying in
power and not enslaving an unknowable number of people, he
would ultimately condemn those people to the horrors of enslavement.
As for me, the question that we initially came here
with of how could he have gone from the strong
free soil position to proclaiming slavery was now legal in

(01:11:06):
Nicaragua as a very simple answer, he did so to
maintain his position of power, as over and over again
we've seen Walker very much seem to take the position
of whoever was best position to keep him in power,
which would make you question if he ever truly stood
for or believed in anything, with the one thing that
gives me pause with that line of thinking being that

(01:11:26):
he publicly held his freesoil position while residing in New Orleans,
a place where such a stance would decidedly not curry favor. However,
the thing that Walker apparently did not factor into his
calculations when trying to tempt the French into taking over
the canal building project and his attempt to career favor
with the southern safeholding the United States was how the
people of Nicaragua and Central America in general wouldn't respond

(01:11:49):
to such a move, as while his government took no
serious steps beyond repealing the law abolishing slavery, something which
Walker seemed to believe threat of the needle. By giving
the appearance of supporting slavery without actually legalizing it, he
would still lose massive amounts of support, while also giving
his opponents the ability to claim that Walker's intentions were
to enslave the people of Central America. Supporting these claims

(01:12:12):
was the fact that around this time Walker also passed
a series of anti labor laws which punished vagrancy and
forced a number of Nicaraguan workers into a state of peonage,
meaning that those arrested for quote unquote vagrancy were then
forced to labor by the state, which certainly looked like
Walker was attempting to set up a system of forced
labor one way or the other. Meanwhile, also alarming to

(01:12:34):
the people in Nicaragua was he seeming increase of evangelical
Protestants coming into their country to settle or join Walker's
filibuster army, which was compounded by the fact that Walker's
own propaganda paper during this period also ramped up talk
about how Anglo Saxons from the US were superior to
the darker skinned people of Central America, who also happened
to be predominantly Catholic. Now, the thing is, Walker himself

(01:12:57):
was not anti Catholic. In fact, he would during this
period'd officially make an Irish priest the army's official Catholic chaplain.
This did little, though, to stop the worries of local
priests that could not help but notice the increasing number
of Protestants pouring into their country and what this might
mean in the light of the other red flags that
suddenly started popping up all around Walker. So they too

(01:13:17):
started turning their backs on the filibuster president, a trend
which included Walker's own Treasury Minister, One Manuel Dorado. Walker
then was just stepping on one break after another, as
all this, the legalizing of slavery, the forced labor, the
apparent betrayal of the Catholics hrather real or not, all
gave his enemies a rallying crime to use against him,
as While the elites had opposed Walker for a while, now,

(01:13:39):
the majority of the people of Nicaragua had been, to
one degree or another okay with him, as at the
very least, he was probably no worse for them than
the people who regularly ran the country and prevented them
from having any say whatsoever in the government. Now, though,
those same elites had something they could use to galvanize
the people of Central America against Walker and his filibuster,

(01:14:00):
something which Walker had effectively given them on a silver platter,
as the one wanted the return of slavery, which they
saw as being monstrous and inhuman, and no one wanted
to lose their culture and their religion by being forced
to become Protestant. Indeed, one Colonel Mariano Mendez, who had
long been a friend and loyal supporter of Walker's, now
joined with the forces allied against him, and in doing

(01:14:22):
so he would issue a public proclamation in which he declared,
quote compatriots, a feign tyrant far more fatal than the
Spanish conquerors, has appeared among us. William Walker has committed
the fearful crime of rising against the Supreme Government of
the Republic, setting up for himself alone to section the
foreignization of the territory of our native land, the extinction

(01:14:42):
of our religion, and the perpetual savory of our race.
Walker then, in seeking to attract more support from outside
the borders of Nicaragua, had effectively alienated those who up
until this point had not only supported him, but actually
fought for and with him, with Mendes adding that quote,
the causes holy, very holy. It is the cause of
our fatherland, It is the cause of our religion, It

(01:15:05):
is the cause of our liberty. To die therefore for
such sublime objects as glorious and grant free, truly republican heart,
and I, appreciating and loving these sentiments, swear it before
God in society that it will sacrifice all that is
most there to defend right so sacred, and I will
irrigate the tree of liberty with my blood. Walker then,
for many, had completed his heel turn and was now

(01:15:27):
the enemy who needed to be cast down and thrown
out of Central America. Looking to do just that, primarily
conservative troops from Nicaraua Al Saladur and Badamara would gather
in Lyon while their commanding general spotted whether the best
course of action was to wait there for Walker to
attack their stronghold or to go on the offensive. Bean
Mazie's foreign officers were debating General Thomas Martinez, a nicaragu

(01:15:49):
religion Amista military officer would initially fled the country when
Walker had first set up the provisional government, but who
had since returned and sworn his loyalty to President Patricio Rivas.
Prepaired to Mars south toward the lands at Walker controlled.
Departing first to travel ahead of General Martinez's main force, though,
was one Colonel Estrada, who was to lead three companies
consisting of seventeen officers and one hundred and forty enlisted men,

(01:16:13):
one hundred and twenty of whom were Matagalpa Indians, a
fiercely independent people who had rebound against Walker's provisional government
multiple times. At this point. In early September eighteen fifty six,
Astrata and his men would arrive at a ranch in
Santa Sinto, where Astrada planned to allow US men to
rest and wait for the rest of General Martinez's forces
before continuing on, as they knew that some of Walker's

(01:16:35):
men were Garrison twenty miles to the south, and they
wanted to gather their full forces before taking on this fortification.
While they raided, Estrata had his men fortify the ranch,
which consisted of a single sturdy adobe hacienda flanked by
cattel corrals. To do so, Astrada's men dug trenches and
erected adobe barricades, all of which were in place win
only Donna. The fifth of September, one Lieutenant Colonel MacDonald

(01:16:57):
and forty men from Walker's second rival battalion approached. He
now fortified hacienda as McDonald and his men were looking
for a band of hostiles who were responsible for the
death of one Captain Herrera. Captain Herrera, you see, had
joined Walker's campaign the previous year, taking part in the
Battle of laver Hin and the capture of Grenada. Walker
then had subsequently taken quite the liking to the captain,

(01:17:20):
and so upon learning that he had been shot from
his horse while hurting kettle in this region, he had
dispatched MacDonald and his men to find who was responsible.
With McDonald now suspecting that the unknown hostile force and
was now occupying the San Jacinto Ranch were the ones
responsible for the murder of Herrera, and indeed Estrata's forces
were the ones who had shot Captain Herrera on their

(01:17:40):
march south. The Americans, though, were wholly unaware who they
were facing and why they were there, so when they
neared the Hacienda, the American forces were stunned by the
hail of bullets coming at them, not to mention the
sound of the one hundred and forty muskets that had
fired them as Even though somehow none of these shots
actually struck their intended targets, the fact of the metal
or was McDonald and his men had only expected to

(01:18:02):
find at most a couple dozen natives in the hacienda.
Taken aback by the sheer number of enemies they were
faced with, the American advance essentially ground to a halt
at this point. Recognizing this, a Captain Jervis would attempt
to regain the momentum by running out in front of
his men and encouraging them to press on. As he
did so, though several men from the other side rose

(01:18:22):
out from behind their barricades to take aim at the officer.
Among them was a private Exacto roacha whom Jarvis dotised
and responded by taking aim at the other men with
his pistol. Both men then seemed to fire their weapons
simultaneously and both were felled, with Roacha dying instantly, while
Jarvis two would soon die of his wounds. Beside these
two deaths, however, not much seemed to happen following this exchange. Yet,

(01:18:45):
even though no more filibusters would be killed in this fighting,
the fact of the matter was their advance had been
successfully repelled, and so McDonald and his men soon retreated. Then,
three weeks after this initial clash, another contingent of American
filibuster would approach the fortified hacienda in Sanjacento. This time
though they would be led by Walker's close friend and

(01:19:06):
confident Byron Cole, the same men who had secured the
contract which had initially brought Walker to the country. Cole
had then subsequently joined his friend in Nicaragua, where, according
to Frederick Rosengarden, he was possibly the kindest and gentlest filimbuster. Now,
though he had a job to do, which was avenging
the death of Captain Aurera and finishing the work that
Lieutenant Colonel MacDonald had left undone. This time, though Coal

(01:19:30):
and the seventy men under his command were more prepared.
Having a better idea of what they were facing, they
split into three groups to try and fight the entrenched
positions on the hacienda. However, the Nicaraguan soldiers who had
dug in there were also apparently better prepared themselves, as
this time when they opened fire on the approaching Americans,
they were much more successful in actually managing to strike

(01:19:50):
their foes. Many filibusters then were taken down. This, however,
did not stop them, as the Americans would charge the
entrenched positions three separate times. Now. During the third and
final charge, one American officer would actually make it across
the trench line, where he promptly emptied his revolver into
the Nicaraguan soldiers. The officer then cast his now useless
gunn aside and unsheathed his sword, which he then used

(01:20:13):
to cut down several more soldiers who came at him
with bayonets. Seeing this, Nicaraguan first Sergeant Andres Castro, after
attempting to fire upon the filibuster officer and finding that
he too was out of bullets, also cast his firearm aside.
Castro then picked up a simple rock which he then
used to do battle with the American foe, ultimately smashing
the filibuster's head with the stone, killing him, an act

(01:20:36):
which ended with Castro taking a bullet to his thigh
that shattered the bone within, while also securing for himself
a lasting reputation as a hero of Nicaragua. Meanwhile, the Americans,
frustrated by this turn of events and unwilling to just
give up like McDonald, had mounted yet another charge, this
time focusing exclusively on the Corral, which they actually would

(01:20:56):
manage to capture. However, they only did so at a
heavy cost, which included Byron Cole himself taking a bullet
to the torso now Coal was far from alone, but
the fact of the matter was they had captured the
corral and soon they took up defensive positions there. However,
the decision to lay claim to that particular plot of
land would prove to be disastrous for the Filibusters, as

(01:21:17):
not only did the Nicaragan soldiers from elsewhere along the
trench line pour fire down upon them, but another force
was dispatched to circle around the back of the corral
to attack the Americans from the rear with a banonet charge.
A maneuver which took the American filibusters completely by surprise.
Believing then that a larger force than what they were
actually facing was now attacking them, the Americans broke instantly

(01:21:37):
and scattered. Some of the filibusters were then haunted down
and killed, while others would be captured. Among those captured
was the wounded Byron Cole, who, despite willing two pistols
when he was found, could not defend himself. Ultimately, twenty
Nigger roguins had died in the fighting, as had twenty
seven Americans, while another eighteen, including Byron Cole, were captured
and subsequently executed by hanging. In the end, twenty five

(01:22:01):
filibusters would escape from San Jacento alive and make it
back to Granada, Walker's capital city, bringing with them news
of their defeat, news which elsewhere in the country was
celebrated as it demonstrated once and for all that Walker's
American troops were not undefeatable or even superior to their
Central American counterparts, as this was basically the first time
that in all Nicaragua force had faced an all American

(01:22:23):
force and beaten them handily. This then was an inspiring
moment to the various forces allied against Walker, and indeed
it is a victory that is apparently still celebrated today
in Nicaragua. In contrast, this was a major blow to
the Walker regime as he had his forces abandoned the region,
while crucially it was also a serious blow to Walker
personally as he lost his close friend and confident Byron Cole.

(01:22:46):
The time then was beginning to turn against William Walker,
who had up until in this point been wildly successful. However,
the tale of Walker's ultimate downfall and his repeated attempts
to regain control of Nicaragua will have to for now
remain a story for another time, as we'll have to
wait until the next and final episode in the series
to bring this tale to a close. Thank you for

(01:23:13):
listening to Distorted History. If you would like to help out,
please rate and review the podcasts and tell your friends
if you think they'll be interested. If you would like
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(01:23:35):
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go to access that information regardless. Once again, thank you for.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Listening and until next time, is

Speaker 1 (01:24:09):
Inalaering

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