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Cornelius Vanderbilt, nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry, effectively transforming the geography of the United States.
William Walker was an American physician, lawyer, journalist, and mercenary. In the era of the expansion of the United States, driven by the doctrine of "manifest destiny", Walker organized unauthorized military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing slave-holding colonies. Such an enterprise was known at the time as "filibustering".
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Charles Morgan was an American railroad and shipping magnate. He played a leading role in the development of transportation and commerce in the Southern United States through the mid- to late-19th century.
The Second Battle of Rivas occurred on 11 April 1856 between Costa Rican militia under General Juan Rafael Mora Porras and the Nicaraguan forces of American mercenary William Walker. The lesser known First Battle of Rivas took place on the 29 June 1855 between Walker's forces and the forces of the Chamorro government of Nicaragua.
A filibuster, also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into the United States. Probably the most notable example is the Filibuster War initiated by William Walker in Nicaragua in the 1850s.
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The Filibuster War or Walker affair was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central American armies. An American mercenary William Walker invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with a small private army. He seized control of the country by 1856, but was ousted the following year.
John Randolph was an American lawyer and politician from Williamsburg in the British colony of Virginia. He served as king's attorney for Virginia from 1766 until he left for Britain at the outset of the American Revolution.
Peyton Randolph was a Democratic-Republican politician from Virginia who served as acting Governor of Virginia for several days at the end of 1811 and beginning of 1812.
Cornelius Kingsland Garrison was an American steamboat captain, shipping agent, shipbuilder, capitalist, and politician. He served as the 4th Mayor of San Francisco from 1853 until 1854.
Enrique Gottel (1831–1875) was a German-Nicaraguan journalist, music composer, and historian.
John Edward Hollenbeck was an American businessman and investor who was involved in the 19th century development of Nicaragua and the city of Los Angeles, California.
Between 1665 and 1857, Caribbean pirates and filibusters operated in Lake Nicaragua and the surrounding shores. The Spanish city of Granada, located on the lake, was an important trading centre for much of its early history so it was a prime target for pirates such as Welshman Henry Morgan and freebooters like William Walker.
Parker Hardin French was a nineteenth-century adventurer, entrepreneur, and swindler, labeled and chronicled by author Joe Goodbody as the “Kentucky Barracuda.” In the era of steam, sail and horse, the rapidity of French's movement and breadth of his adventures is almost mind-numbing. As a runaway child he fought in the Royal Navy in the First Opium War as a cabin boy and a "powder monkey". When he was just 22 years old, he was a commission merchant and, a year later, built the first ocean going ship on the upper Mississippi. Before he was 30, he was the leader of an infamous and fraudulent gold rush expedition; implicated in an irregular invasion of Cuba; jailed bandit and then military hero in Mexico; lawyer, district attorney, legislator, journalist, and political enforcer in California; senior conspirator in William Walker's conquest of Nicaragua; and appointed but rejected Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States. He didn't slow down in his thirties: he was a real estate developer; lawyer; journalist; part of a conspiracy to invade Mexico; suspected seditionist agitator and Confederate agent; jailed as a political prisoner; and lawyer and purveyor for Union troops. His final days were spent in obscurity but the period was still peppered with the occasional swindle that garnered both regional and national attention. When Colonel Parker Hardin French died in 1878, his death went generally unnoticed. Newspapers had reported the death of French before—at least five separate times. He had been twice killed in gunfights, twice executed in Mexico—once by a firing squad, once by hanging—and once killed in Nicaragua. Acquaintances thought he might have drunk himself to death. For a while, there was a lapse of interesting press reports, so many just presumed that he was already dead and were surprised when he was not. Some pondered his many misadventures and wondered how he escaped retribution from a hangman, a firing squad, or an irate victim. Though a notorious scoundrel in his time, notably from 1850 to 1862, French has been relegated to a minor footnote in antebellum America and Civil War history. The crafty Parker Hardin French contributed more to mid-nineteenth century history than has been previously documented.
Ocean Queen was a side-paddled wooden ship built in 1857 by Stephen G. Bogert, of the Westervelt & Co. Shipyard of New York City. The engines were built by the Morgan Iron Works, also in New York City. The original name of the ship was Queen of the Pacific.
Alexander Parker Crittenden was a 19th-century pioneering attorney and politician in California, and a member of the influential Crittenden family of Kentucky.
Orizaba was one of the first ocean-going steamships in commercial service on the west coast of North America and one of the last side-wheelers in regular use. Her colorful career spanned the business intrigues of Cornelius Vanderbilt, civil unrest in Mexico and Nicaragua, and the Fraser River gold rush. The ship was particularly important to Southern California ports, where she called for roughly the last 20 years of her service.
The Battle of La Virgen occurred on 3 September, 1855, at La Virgen, Nicaragua. It was part of the Legitimist efforts to resist the newly arrived force of William Walker, who had the support of the fierce opponents of the Legitimists, the Democrats. After a hard-fought but one-sided skirmish, Walker's forces emerged victorious, giving the cause of the invading Filibuster army legitimacy, and inspiring many new volunteers to join his force.
References
- 1 2 Shuck, Oscar Tully (1889). Bench and Bar in California: History, Anecdotes, Reminiscences. San Francisco: The Occident Printing House. p. 261. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
- ↑ Stiles, T. J. (2009). The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt . New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 274–276. ISBN 978-0-375-41542-5.
