Ward and Walker: The American Mercenaries, Filibusterers
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| Above: Walker. Below: Ward |
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The American mercenary who led the Manchu mercenary army against the Taipeng rebellion, F.T. Ward, was an associate of the more famous mercenary, William Walker.
Born in 1824 in Tennessee, Walker graduated from the University of Nashville at the age of 14 and by 19 had earned a medical degree. He practiced medicine in Philadelphia, studied law in New Orleans, and then became co-owner of a newspaper, the Crescent, where the young poet Walt Whitman worked. When the paper was sold, Walker moved on to California, where he worked as a reporter in San Francisco before setting up a law office in Marysville. It was the existence of Marysville in California, which led to the renaming of Marysville, Oregon to Corvallis. There was some confusion, including among postal workers, regarding the 2 towns.
When he was 29, his freebooting nature led him to become the leader of a group plotting to seize parts of northern Mexico. He formulated a plan which would be his life-long modus operandi: the Florida, or Texas model, based upon the plans of the Secret Order of the Lone Star, later the Knights of the Golden Circle (click here),wherein a small band of proslavery ruffians would temporarily seize a few towns and the surrounding acres and then apply for admission of the surrounding territory, as a slave state, to the United States, having laid claim to the best land for themselves meantime. It was a pattern which would lay the basis during the Civil War for the actions of William Quantrell and Corvallis's own T.E. Hogg.
Recruiting a small army, Walker sailed to Baja California and siezed La Paz, declaring himself president of Lower California. He then decided to extend his little empire to include Sonora, and renamed it “The Republic of Sonora.”
Marching on to the Colorado River, Walker found himself faced with harsh conditions and a high desertion rate, forcing him to retreat to California, where he sought the protection of U.S. forces.
One result of this incursion was that Mexico involuntarily 'sold' a part of Sonora to the United States—the forced transaction we call the Gadsden Purchase.
Walker next turned his attention to Central America. In 1855, with his army of 58 Americans, later called by proslavery historians, “The Immortals,” he landed in Nicaragua.
Within a year, leading “The Immortals”, he routed the Legitimist government and captured Granada, their capital. He declared himself Emperor. His success roused concern in the other Central American countries, especially Costa Rica, which, alongside Honduras and El Salvador, sent in a well-armed force to invade Nicaragua. Walker’s army repelled the invasion, but a poorly executed invasion into Costa Rica failed, and a war of attrition continued, in which cholera killed more soldiers on both sides than enemy bullets. But in time, 10% of Costa Rica's people died.
Other enemies plagued Walker. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping magnate, seeking control of the San Juan River-Lake Nicaragua route from the Caribbean to the Pacific, armed Walker’s enemies while a partner, Sylvanus Spencer, helped lead the Costa Rican army against Walker. Charles Gordon, the English mercenary who assisted Ward, was ironically also in Vanderbilt's employ at the time. The British navy, attempting to thwart American influences in the region (Belize was British Honduras), regularly harassed efforts to supply him. In spite of these factors, Walker named himself president of Nicaragua.
The United States, then governed by slavers, briefly recognized his government but never sent him aid. Soon the other countries of Central America formed an alliance against him, and in mid 1857 he once again sought the protection of the U.S. navy.
Landing first in New Orleans, he was greeted in that plantation state as a hero. He visited President Buchanan, then went on to New York, all the time seeking support for a return to Nicaragua. But support waned as returning soldiers reported military blunders and poor management.
Nevertheless he succeeded in raising another army, and returned to Nicaragua in late 1857. Again thwarted by the British navy, he abandoned his third Latin American invasion.
Still undaunted and seeking support for yet another venture, Walker wrote a book, The War in Nicaragua, laying forth his plan to turn Latin America into a series of slave states.. In 1860 he once again sailed south. Unable to land in Nicaragua due to the ever-present British, he landed in Honduras, planning to march overland, but the British soon captured him and turned him over to the Hondurans. Six days later, at the age of 36, he was executed by a firing squad. The Walker saga had ended.
Today Walker is far better known in Central America than in the United States. Costa Ricans honor Juan Santamaria, a young drummer boy who became a national hero by torching a fort in which Walker’s army was encamped, and a national park, Santa Rosa, commemorates the battle where Walker’s soldiers were expelled from Costa Rica.
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| Above: the neglected grave of William Walker. Below: the site of his execution |
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A popular tune of the day was 'I'm off for Nicaragua'. The reference to Columbia is probably a reference to a popular nickname of the U.S.
I'M OFF FOR
NICARAGUA.
One day, while walking down
Broadway,
What should I meet,
Coming up the street,
But a soldier gay,
In a grand array,
Who had been to Nicaragua!
He took me warmly by the hand,
And says, "old fellow, you're my man.
How would you like
A soldier's life,
On the plains of Nicaragua?
Then come with me down to the ship,
I'll quickly send you on your trip,
Dont stop to think, for there's meat and drink
On the plains of Nicaragua."
I scarcely knew what to do or say;
No money I had,
My boots were bad,
Hat was gone,
My pants were torn,
So I was off for Nicaragua.
He took me in, and did me treat,
Gave me a cigar and grub to eat;
And on his scroll did my name enroll,
A soldier for Nicaragua.
He took me down unto the ship,
Quickly sent me on my trip;
But, oh Lord! was n't I sea-sick,
Going to Nicaragua.
But after ten days of sailing
away,
We saw the land of San Juan;
My heart beat light,
For I thought it all right,
When I got to Nicaragua.
But when they got me on the shore,
They put me with about twenty more,
To fight away
Or be hanged, they say,
For going to Nicaragua.
Now, wasn't I in a pretty fix:
If I could only have cut my sticks,
You'd never caught me playing such tricks,
As going to Nicaragua.
Next morning, then, in grand
array,
All fagged and jaded,
We were paraded.
At close of day,
We were marched away
To the army in Nicaragua.
Not a bit of breakfast did I see,
And dinner was the same to me.
Two fried cats
And three stewed rats
Were supper in Nicaragua.
Marching all day with sore feet,
Plenty of fighting and nothing to eat,
How I sighed for pickled pigs' feet,
Way down in Nicaragua.
The Costa Ricans tackled us one
day;
In the first alarm,
I lost my arm;
But we made them yield,
On Rivas' field,
Way down in Nicaragua.
The Yankee boys fought long and well,
They gave those Costa Ricans--fits:
But wasn't I dry
And hungry,
Way down in Nicaragua!
Marching all day, and fighting away,
Nothing to eat, quite as much pay,
Do it all for glory, they say,
Way down in Nicaragua.
But when I was on duty, one day,
Give'em the slip--
Jumped on the ship,
And bid good-by,
Forever and aye,
To the plains of Nicaragua.
And, when I got to old New York,
I filled myself with beans and pork;
My friends I cheer, and in lager beer
Drown times in Nicaragua.
And now I tread Columbia's land,
Take my friends all by the hand;
And if ever I leave 'em, may I be--blessed,
To go to Nicaragua.-Library
of Congress