 On Sunday morning, October 13, 1855, William Walker woke up early. He and several of his officers attended mass at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the city of Granada, Nicaragua. Walker was a Protestant, but his attendance this morning was political, not spiritual. The conservative legitimistas were heavily Catholic, and the Catholic Church enjoyed a significant influence over them. Walker wanted to make himself friendly to the church leaders. The day before, he was a military commander when he led an invasion of the city. Now he was a politician, and he wanted to build whatever image would help him establish his new Republic of Nicaragua, which would make him the most famous filibuster in United States history, eclipsing the prestige previously enjoyed by Narciso Lopez before his failed attempt at liberating Cuba from Spain. William Walker was about to end the Nicaraguan Civil War. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. In the previous episode, we covered William Walker and his first attempt at leading American filibusters in Nicaragua, from which Walker barely escaped with his life. In this episode, I'll be talking about his second expedition against the legitimista forces. After his defeat at Rivas, Walker put a new plan together and presented it to Don Castillon. He asked for 200 more troops to try to take Rivas again, but Castillon was hesitant to agree to Walker's request. Instead, Walker convinced him to sign a contract allowing him to recruit American volunteers with promises to pay them $100 a month, and 500 acres of land in Nicaragua after the war was won. Walker then went out to find a democratica who was trustworthy, and he found such a man in the town of Chinadega, a man named Don Jose Maria Valle. The two men took a liking to each other, and Valle was well liked by the locals, so Walker made him an officer. In order to demonstrate his trust, Walker shared with Valle the secret plan he had been concocting, a plan he would share with nobody else, not even Don Castillon. This was different than the plan he presented to Castillon when requesting new troops. In return, Valle was able to bring 170 troops to join Walker's force. But as Walker and his men were boarding the ship to make a second attempt at conquering Nicaragua, an outbreak of cholera started infecting the men. For reasons that nobody could explain, the Americans were immune, but the disease destroyed the Nicaraguans. Healthy one day, a man could be dead from cholera three days later. It took out several of Valle's volunteers and others deserted to avoid contracting the disease themselves. As this was going on, Walker received a dispatch from Castillon informing him that fighting had broken out at El Saoce. This is where General Munoz, the man who Walker believed to have betrayed him at Rivas, if you remember the previous episode, had taken 600 troops. His army got caught in a battle with General Jose Guardiola's Legitimistas, and the Democraticos won the battle, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. Munoz had been killed, along with many other casualties. Castillon wanted Walker to put off his mission, but despite the cholera and the news of Munoz, Walker was undeterred. So he loaded up what many had remaining, and after pretending to head to Honduras to throw off Legitimista spies, he steered his ship south to return to where he had been defeated months earlier. After six days on the water, Walker's ships approached the shore of San Juan del Sur. Legitimistas had been occupying the town, so Walker was being cautious. The two Americans paddled a rowboat out to the ship and informed Walker that the Legitimista forces had fled when they saw the ship, so it was safe to land. But before landing, the two Americans also gave him another important piece of information. The town was another American, a one-armed man named Parker French. He had recently arrived from Granada and was waiting for the next steamer that could take him to San Francisco. But he had a Milado servant who had revealed to the Americans that French had offered his services to the Legitimistas at Granada, so Walker should be wary of him. But Walker already knew of French. They had been in San Francisco at the same time. French claimed to have lost his arm fighting Mexicans, and he showed up in San Francisco in 1851. He set up a law practice and later spent some time in the California legislature, taking over the seat of his law partner who had died while in office. He also ran a newspaper in Sacramento for a short time. When Walker was first recruiting men for Nicaragua, French declined, but promised that he would join Walker and Nicaragua later. So Walker ordered French to be brought onto the ship. When they talked, French said that his offer to work for the Legitimistas was really just so that he could spy on them. I have no idea if this is true or if French was just an opportunist, but regardless, he was able to provide Walker with information about the Legitimista forces at Granada. Walker didn't completely trust him yet, but he gave him an officer's commission and told him to bring more men back from San Francisco. Walker sent Frank Anderson, one of the Americans who was still dealing with his injuries from Rivas, to accompany French back to California. When Walker landed, he turned several buildings into quarters for his men. The day was August 30th, and as Walker was making himself home in the town, a transit company steamer arrived carrying hundreds of passengers, most of whom were Americans. Walker hoped to find some new recruits among them, but he was quickly disappointed. Word of his failure at Rivas had soured people on the idea of joining his filibuster army. Instead, the Americans moved from the steamer to transit company stage coaches to take them to Virgin Bay. So Walker had, at this point, 43 Americans and 120 Nicaraguans. I should probably mention in case PC Principal is listening to this podcast that I'm perfectly aware that Nicaraguans are also Americans, but since we don't have a good term for United States-ian, I'm referring to the United States filibusters as American and everybody else by their country. Walker received word that General Guardiola, after fleeing from his defeat against Munoz's democraticos, had gotten 200 new Legitimista soldiers from Granada and had taken them to Rivas to strengthen Bosque's garrison there after it had been weakened by Walker's previous assault. Walker thought the reports of Legitimistas and Rivas were exaggerated and he figured there were maybe five or six hundred troops there, but in reality there were 1200 Legitimistas and Rivas by this time. By September 2, the steamer set off to San Francisco with French and Anderson and Walker had failed to recruit a single new troop among the hundreds of Americans who passed through. So Walker and his men loaded up some packmules and carts of supplies and they set off on transit road in the middle of the night. They reached Lavirhen on the morning of September 4. This was a depot established by Cornelius Vanderbilt as part of his transit company. Lavirhen had only eight huts when the depot was set up in 1851, but by 1855 it had blown up to support all the commerce from Americans traveling to and from California. Now there were hotels, stables for horses, blacksmith shops, coach houses, housing for American staffers and a spacious headquarters for the accessory transit company manager in Nicaragua to live in, a job currently held by Cortland Cushing. Walker met with Cushing once he and his men arrived. Cushing had a reputation as being a man who had every intention of staying neutral in the Nicaraguan War. He was there to conduct business and that was it. And he was known for his reliable and honest information. So when he informed Walker that General Guardiola had taken a large force of Legitimistas and marched to them south from Rivas in search of the filibuster army, but then had changed his mind and turned back to Rivas, Walker believed him. Cushing probably wasn't lying, but he was wrong. Guardiola had indeed marched his troops out of Rivas to find Walker, but he never turned back. So as Walker was making himself comfortable in Lavirhen, Guardiola was on his way to attack him. Guardiola had quite a reputation as a commander. He was brutal to his enemies, even by Central American standards. And he was equally feared by his men. His brutality had earned him the nickname The Butcher. Because his name was Jose Santos, which translated to Saint Joseph, the Americans gave him a less intimidating nickname of their own, Holy Joe. But Guardiola was not a man to be taken lightly. He was ambitious, energetic, and ruthless. And after taking command at Rivas, he left half the 1,200 man force behind his agarrison and took the other half with him to confront Walker in San Juan del Sur. Even though Guardiola had been defeated at El Saoci, he blamed the incompetence of his troops, not his own mistakes. And he was confident in his ability to slaughter the Yankees. But he did not believe that his soldiers shared his confidence. So he brought with him ox carts full of bottles of Guaro, a Central American liquor, which he intended to use as liquid courage for his men. He was also bringing with him a six-pound filled cannon, in addition to the muskets and ammunition that his men would be armed with before the battle. He ordered a detachment of his men to haul a cannon, which was not an easy task. But motivated by fear of their leader, they managed to transport it all the way to where they had set up camp at Hacote Ranch, a mile and a half from the halfway house that sat between San Juan del Sur and La Vier Hinn. When Guardiola reached the halfway house the next day, he learned that Walker had moved his troops to La Vier Hinn. The general had neglected to leave pickets on the road outside the Hacote Ranch to keep watch for enemy troops. So Walker and his men were able to march right past the ranch that night while the Legitimistas were asleep. Now Walker was unaware of the Legitimistas, of course. So this was all good luck on his part. So now Guardiola had to turn his men around and pursue the Americans to La Vier Hinn. He stopped his men just outside of La Vier Hinn and had the Guaro distributed to his troops. Then he had his men bring the filled gun to the front to be used against the buildings in the village. Guardiola's men had laboriously moved the cannon all this way, but now as they tried to move it into position, the gun collapsed underneath the old carriage that was holding it up. It was hardly the fault of the men moving it. The carriage had been weakened from age and abuse, but Guardiola, true to his reputation, blamed the men. But nobody in the army could repair the carriage, even if his men had the skills to do so. There wasn't enough time to wait. So Guardiola had his men hammer a spike into the touch hole of the gun. The touch hole was where gunpowder was ignited and spiking the touch hole was the way of disabling the cannon. The Legitimistas did this now in case the cannon fell into the hands of the enemies. So now Guardiola had lost his single piece of artillery, but he still had 600 men liquored up for courage and armed with muskets. There were straw hats with white ribbons around them, the only thing that constituted a uniform for most Nicaraguan soldiers. White ribbons indicated Legitimistas and red ribbons indicated Democraticos. He also knew he had the element of surprise. Scouts had brought reports of Walker's men eating breakfast, completely unaware of the enemy nearby. So Guardiola ordered the attack. When the Legitimistas charged, Walker and the other men outside were first alerted by popping sounds and puffs of white smoke coming from the direction of the transit road. To the west, Valle's pickets were racing back toward the village and Legitimista troops could now be seen coming over the hill, firing their muskets as they charged. The pickets were firing behind them as they ran. Valle's drummer was quickly ordered to bang the alert to the rest of the men in the village that they were being attacked. Walker stayed calm as hundreds of Legitimistas stormed over the hill and he issued orders to his men as to how to defend the settlement. Charles Hornsby and 20 rifle toting Americans were sent to secure the right flank to prevent the Legitimistas from occupying the higher ground there. 15 more Americans were sent with John Markham to protect the left flank. The rest of the Americans under Robert Gay took to the beach behind the settlement to stop any Legitimistas who might try to attack from the rear. Valle and his musket-bearing Democraticos were ordered to protect the center. Walker drew his sword with one hand and his six-shot pistol with the other and he joined Valle and the Nicaraguan troops out of the fear that they would flee. Charles Doubleday, Walker's right-hand man, stayed beside him as well. Most of the citizens of Lavierhen were American employees of the transit company or their wives and children. They took shelter in various buildings. Cushing took refuge in the company warehouse, along with six other Americans who were frantically piling wooden boxes against the door to create a makeshift barricade. Hornsby and his men crept forward on the right, firing their rifles sparingly, only doing so when they had a target. They yelled out every time they took out a Legitimista with their superior firearms and their commotion gave the impression that they were a larger force than only 21 men. In reality, they were heavily outnumbered, but the Legitimistas had poor training, inferior firearms, and they were full of liquor. So as they advanced, the Americans were able to pick them off like fish in a barrel. By the time the Legitimistas were in close enough range to use their bayonets, they'd already lost a couple dozen or so men, and their courage ran out and they deserted. Where Walker and the Nicaraguans were, another band of Legitimistas made a frontal assault. The Democraticos did not have rifles like the Americans, so they did not have as easy a time picking off the charging enemy soldiers. Legitimista troops charged forward, fired, and then dropped to one knee to rearm their muzzle loaders while a second line of soldiers fired theirs. Officers rode behind them on horseback, carrying riding whips in one hand and swords in the other, urging their troops on. Eventually, the Legitimistas were close enough to the Democraticos guarding the center to make a bayonet charge. Valle's men returned fire and the Legitimistas fell. In the words of Doubleday, the enemy soldiers quote, "'Went down as if grass before the scythe.'" Enough men in the first line fell to the ground that those behind them stopped charging to avoid tripping over the bodies of their comrades. They raised their muskets and fired off a volley of 200 musket balls at the Democraticos. Doubleday saw Walker fall to his knees next to him, grabbing his chest. He'd been hit twice. The first ball grazed him in the throat but caused no real damage. The second ball hit him square in the chest. Doubleday helped his commander do his feet and Walker was surprised to find that he wasn't bleeding. The musket ball had torn clean through his jacket, but it was blocked from piercing his body by a stack of letters he had in his breast pocket from Don Castillon. The letters were destroyed, but they saved Walker's life. After firing this volley, the second line of Legitimistas stepped over their fallen comrades and charged with their bayonets. But they were unaware that several of Valle's men had snuck away into houses on either side of the troops. So as the Legitimistas charged, they found themselves under a hell of musket balls flying from both sides of them. Several of the Legitimistas fell and the rest scattered, terrified of gunfire that seemed to have come out of nowhere. To the left, Markham and his 15 Americans were taking refuge behind wood and fences, but they fired their rifles at the Legitimistas as they reloaded, holding them off successfully as they tried to get to the breach. But they were in danger of being outflanked any minute. So Walker sent Doubleday to Hornsby with instructions for him to take his Americans to reinforce gaze troops on the beach. Hornsby complied and led his men toward the lake. As Doubleday was returning to Walker, he saw Colonel Manuel Arguello of the Legitimistas sitting on top of a white horse. Doubleday didn't actually know it was Arguello. He only learned this later. As Arguello was urging his troops forward, he was thrown from his horse, which fell dead to the ground after taking a bullet. Doubleday was distracted, watching Arguello's men help him to his feet, and he felt a sharp sting in his side. He collapsed. Dr. Alex Jones, the American doctor who had dug a musket ball out of Doubleday's skull after the Battle of Rivas, ran up to Doubleday. Are you all right? Yes. Doubleday responded, I've got it this time, plumb through me. While Doubleday was lying on the ground clutching aside, Jones spotted more Legitimistas charging toward the beach. He yelled out a warning to hornsby and his men, then ran to take cover in a nearby building. Doubleday tried to get to his feet, but they wouldn't respond, so he was left on the ground. Legitimistas soldiers assumed he was dead, so they stepped over him as they pursued their enemies. With the Legitimistas soldiers now in front of him, with their backs toward him, Doubleday tried to stand again, and this time he managed to do so. He pushed through the line of enemy soldiers from behind and ran toward the house with enemy bullets flying from behind him. But by some miracle, he made it inside without taking another hit. The major action was now taking place on the beach, and another group of Legitimista soldiers were headed that way to reinforce their comrades. Robert Gay had already lost some of his men, but he and five other Americans continued firing at the enemy as they advanced. When they got close enough, his men threw down their rifles and pulled out their pistols. They yelled wildly and charged at the enemies, emptying all six rounds from each of their pistols, successfully forcing the Legitimistas to retreat. On the left flank, John Markham saw that Gay and his men had driven off the Legitimistas on the beach, so with his rear secure, Markham ordered his men to charge at the Legitimistas to their front. Now that the Americans were advancing, the Legitimistas attacking the left flank, scattered, making a break for the woods. Valle and his men were still holding the center, but now his right, left and rear were all secure, so he ordered his men forward. The Democraticos advanced, forcing their enemy back up the hill toward the transit road. Walker was no longer with them, having gone to the beach to reinforce Robert Gay against the remaining Legitimistas there, but he could hear the Democraticos cheer as the Legitimistas' soldiers waging their frontal assault were now in full retreat. The officers were still trying to keep their men together, but the scared soldiers had had enough. They tossed their muskets and took off. Of the survivors, many deserted completely and the rest returned to Rivas. The battle of Lavier-Hinn was over and Walker was victorious. The casualties suffered by the filibusters and the Democraticos were light. All the Americans survived, those some had been injured. Dr. Jones checked double day's wound and discovered that it was less serious than the pain indicated. The musket ball had hit his belt buckle and the buckle prevented the bullet from entering the body, but it drove the belt buckle to a side, giving him a gouge that would take several months before it stopped bothering him, but it was hardly life-threatening. Two other Americans had taken bullets, but the wounds were not life-threatening either. Valle had lost only two men with three others wounded. The legitimistas, by contrast, were littered across the village with more than 100 dead or injured. Walker ordered his men to carry the injured legitimistas to the village where Dr. Jones could treat their wounds. But once the men brought word that one of Valle's officers was killing the wounded enemy soldiers, which remember was the standard practice in Central America, Walker sent double day to put a stop to this. Double day found the officer to be Mariano Mendes, one of the democraticos who fled to Costa Rica rather than staying to fight in the Battle of Rivas. Now Mendes was walking through the wounded to finish them off by bashing them in the head with the Budavis musket. Double day ordered him to stop his executions. Mendes shrugged and tossed his musket to the ground. As Mendes was walking away, he only got a few steps before he found another injured legitimista at his feet. He picked up one of the legitimista muskets that was lying nearby on the ground and looked back at double day. The two men made eye contact and then Mendes stabbed the injured legitimista in the neck with a bayonet. And since double day repeated his command, this time forcefully enough that Mendes complied. The victory at Labirhen meant that Walker was able to retrieve about 150 muskets and carts of ammunition left behind by the enemy. There were also several horses left behind that had not been killed and the officers used them to scout the area, verifying that the village was completely secure. After spending the night at Labirhen, Walker and his men traveled back to San Juan del Sur. He also sent a messenger with a letter to Castillon back in Leon informing him of the victory and requesting reinforcements. The provisional director received the note on his deathbed. Like many others, he had contracted cholera and he read the report of Walker's victory an hour before he died. Taking his place would be a man named Don Nasario Escoto who sent news of Castillon's death to Walker in San Juan del Sur but also offering congratulations for his victory against Guardiola. Back at San Juan del Sur, Walker's fortune was turning around. With the news of his victory spreading, he found it much easier to find new recruits. Many legitimista defectors showed up to join the democraticos bringing with them tales of the abuse they suffered at the hands of the legitimista officers. As a show of good faith, they offered information about the Garrison at Rivas. Other new volunteers showed up from San Jorge to join Valle's forces and even more came from Costa Rica where they had fled previously enlarging the democratico force to 200 men. One man coming with the volunteers from Costa Rica was another American physician named J.L. Cole who had married a girl from Rivas and came now to join Walker's filibusters. The new provisional director, Escoto, told Walker in his message that he wanted to send him reinforcements but with the cholera outbreak he was finding it impossible to find men but Walker was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of Don Maximo Espinosa. If you remember from the previous episode he was a democratico who owned the Hacienda that Walker had taken refuge in at Rivas until the legitimista set it on fire. Walker had last spoken to him in the village of Tola before the battle. Walker was glad to see Espinosa was still alive and made him the democratico commissioner of taxes in San Juan del Sur. So Espinosa set off to do his new job. He was happy to raise money for the democraticos. In San Juan del Sur there were two popular bars that enjoyed business from American and European travelers passing through the town. One was owned by the French consul to Nicaragua and the other, a bar called the Dime Saloon, was owned by the US consul, a man named John Priest. When Espinosa told Priest he was there to collect taxes Priest was furious. He hadn't paid any taxes to the legitimistas and he threatened to bring in a US warship to protect his right to sell alcohol to Americans tax-free. Espinosa carried this threat to Walker who calmly ordered the men to stand guard in front of his tavern to block customers until the taxes were paid. The show of force worked and Priest paid the taxes demanded of him hours later. It's hard to imagine a time when Americans were so outraged at having to pay taxes that you would actually have to carry out the violent threat that all taxes are collected under. But that's an aside. Walker's good fortune continued. On September 20th, a steamer called Sierra Nevada came in from San Francisco. This was a 1,257 ton ship and it carried a large number of passengers all of whom were met by Walker's recruiting officers as they came into town. The news of Walker's victory had already reached them and public opinion had swung in his favor. Among them came a handful of new recruits already armed giving Walker a force of 60 combat ready Americans. Walker also received word that the commanding general of the legitimistas Major General Ponsiano Corral had dismissed Guardiola and left Granada to take personal charge of the Rivas defenses. Guardiola was now in Honduras without any troops to command. Valle informed Walker that Corral was popular and was likely to raise morale at Rivas. Granada was the legitimista capital during the war but with Corral occupied in Rivas and desertions in cholera plaguing the legitimista forces Granada was left poorly defended. This information was brought to Walker by a legitimista courier who was intercepted while traveling from Granada to Lavier-Hinn. The courier had with him a dispatch to Corral from Major General Fernando Chamorro who had been left in charge of Granada telling Corral that he was unable to send the requested reinforcements. So this was Major Intel for Walker. He thought Corral was preparing to attack him but now he realized that Corral was clamoring for more troops and Granada was weak. Walker gave the dispatches back to the courier along with a note to Corral. The note informed the Major General that Walker had read the dispatch and that Nicaragua needed peace. The courier's horse was returned to him and he was sent to Rivas to deliver both messages to the legitimista commander. Walker received a response from Corral later the same day. The note from Corral merely acknowledged that he had received Walker's messages but it included another note with signs that Walker couldn't read. He suspected that they were symbols of the Freemasons sent to serve as a coded message. Walker was not a member of the Freemasons but Charles Hornsby and Julius de Brisa were so Walker showed them the note. They confirmed Walker's suspicions and informed him that the symbols were Masonic code, basically meant to find out if Corral was able to communicate confidentially with Walker. Walker took this to mean that Corral wanted to sue for peace but Walker was still being cautious and he refused to march to Rivas just in case Corral wanted to fight. He wanted to wait until he had more men. Walker got his wishes in October when another steamer arrived from San Francisco. Among the many passengers, Walker recognized one of his closest companions from his adventures in Mexico. Again, I hope you've listened to the previous episode because that was where I told the story of Walker having to amputate the legs of one of his soldiers in the desert as they fled back to the US following their failure at Sonora. That man's name was Charles Gilman and he had since been fitted with a wooden leg. Now he limped with his wooden leg off the steamer toward Walker. Gilman was among Walker's most loyal followers and he brought with him 35 fresh recruits from California. Walker immediately made Gilman a Lieutenant Colonel placing him under Charles Hornsby who he promoted to full Colonel. Among Gilman's new recruits were a handful of US Army veterans. Walker now had 96 American soldiers under him and he divided them into three companies. One led by Hornsby and Gilman, another by John Markham and the third company led by two of the new recruits who had military experience named A.S. Brewster and George Davidson. Davidson was a Mexican war veteran. With a stronger force, Walker sent Mendez packing. Mendez had twice proved himself problematic and he was only kept around because Walker needed men. Now he felt no need to keep them so he sent Mendez back to Leone. Glad to be rid of him. But in a worse turn of events, Double Day also left. He and Walker had had a falling out and the reason for it is a matter of historical dispute. Double Day later claimed that he left because Walker had privately confided in Double Day his desire to become emperor of Central America. Double Day claimed he took a stand against the upfront to the American values and the principles of liberty. Maybe, but there's no evidence that can corroborate this and Double Day could easily have been trying to make himself look good in retrospect. It's more likely that Double Day was insulted by Walker's rejection of his advice with Double Day seeing himself as essentially his chief advisor after Walker revealed his latest plan. Walker told Double Day he wanted to march on Lake Nicaragua which Double Day thought was foolhardy. Regardless of the reason, Double Day resigned and returned to Ohio. Walker had lost his right hand man. But the same day that Double Day left San Juan del Sur, another boat arrived carrying democratic reinforcements sent by Escodo, bringing Valet's force up to more than 250 men. The new troops were led by Captain Ubaldo Herrera and he also brought with him a small two pound cannon. Walker purchased for himself a six pound naval gun from one of the ships that was docked at San Juan del Sur to add to Herrera's cannon. Then he ordered his men to build carriages for both of the guns, which delayed Walker's plan for another week. On October 11th, Walker was ready and his troops marched back to Lavierhen. Back in the village, a steamer arrived bearing the same name as the town. Some of the names are really confusing in here because you have rivers, you have cities and you have steamers and a lot of them carry the same name. So there's San Juan del Sur as a city that's not connected to the San Juan River which is really confusing. And then there's a steamer named Lavierhen and there's a town named Lavierhen and then there's steamers later on that are named after the people that are in the story. So if you ever read up on this it can get very, very confusing and I'm trying to accommodate as best I can in the way that I tell the narrative but it can get a little convoluted so do forgive me if some of this is hard to follow because of that. So they were in Lavierhen where they boarded the steamer called Lavierhen. The passengers unloaded and Hornsby and his company of Americans boarded Hornsby informed the captain that the ship was being commandeered by Walker. When Cushing found out about this he joined in with the skipper Joseph Scott and their protests at Walker's decision to take an American steamer. They said that because the ship was owned by a US company it was selling under the flag of the United States. But Walker was a lawyer remember and he was brilliant and studious. He had already familiarized himself with the contract between the transit company and the government of Nicaragua and it stipulated quite clearly that transit company ships were to operate under the flag of Nicaragua which meant that Nicaraguan officials could requisition them as needed and that included Walker as a democratic even if the country was currently warring over who had the legitimate authority in the country. So he loaded his men into the ship taking with him the two cannons and a pair of horses one for Valle and one for Gilman since he only had one leg. Then the steamer departed. Now it might be helpful to remind you of the geography. I went over this a little bit in the last episode but I want to reiterate it for context. San Juan del Sur is a town on the Pacific coast in southern Nicaragua. Lava Hin was on the other side of the strip of land next to Lake Nicaragua. The steamer's official destination was San Carlos on the southeast corner of the lake connecting to the San Juan River. Not far northwest of Lava Hin was Rivas and on the far northwest corner of Lake Nicaragua much farther away than nearby Rivas was Granada. Nobody on board knew where the ship was ultimately headed except for Walker and Valle. When the steamer took off it headed on its normal course to San Carlos well away from any of the legitimate east to strongholds but after traveling east across the river Walker gave the skipper new instructions and he turned the ship north. The Nicaraguans on the ship being more familiar with the layout of the country quickly realized Walker's plan and they started to cheer. The Americans were confused thinking the Nicaraguans were crazy until somebody explained to them what had the men so excited. Walker's plan was to bypass Rivas completely and head straight for Granada at the far northwest corner of the lake. Corral had made Rivas a priority because of how close it was to Lava Hin but in doing so he left the legitimate east to capital weakly defended. If they could take Granada they could end the war in one quick move. The steamer eased toward Granada on the night of October 11th. The moon was obscured by clouds so they were covered in darkness. The ship's engines were kept low so their approach wouldn't be heard and all the lights on the ship had been put out. The men kept low on the ship so they couldn't be seen. There was a rundown Spanish fort on Granada's lakeside that had a handful of centuries but they were hardly paying attention. Nobody expected an attack so the steamer slipped by them undetected. The ship landed three miles north of Granada at about 10 p.m. The troops unloaded and they started moving toward the city a little before three in the morning. Captain Herrera, the leader of the reinforcements sent by Escoto had been born in Granada and he knew the area better than anybody else so he led the way. But the night was pitch black so they moved slowly until the sun started coming up and the men could see the Mambacho Volcano in the distance. The volcano was south of Granada and Walker described it as being like a sign saying, here is Granada. When they were a half mile from the city the troops could hear church bells ringing. This was the common method of signaling alarm in the United States and the Americans assumed that they had been discovered but the bells were actually ringing to celebrate a legitimacy to victory that had taken place two days prior north of the city. The troops inside still had no idea that an attack was coming when the filibusters entered. They moved past a series of buildings toward the city plaza until Hornsby signaled the charge. The men started to charge a barricade in front of them yelling maniacally as they ran. Hornsby and his men led the charge with Walker following close behind with the rest of the troops. There were numerous barricades blocking the path to the plaza but the men forced through one after another. They finally met resistance inside the San Francisco church where legitimista soldiers were firing their muskets through the windows from the inside. They were only a few and they were quickly captured. They took the plaza but puffs of smoke could be spotted to the left coming from muskets being fired by legitimistas from the second story of the house that had originally been built by the Spanish to serve as the home for the captain general of Nicaragua before the country became independent. Valle's young drummer boy was next to him in the plaza and he was killed by one of the bullets. But the democratic was battered down the doors and stormed the building. This was the full extent of legitimista resistance in Granada. In a total of 10 minutes, William Walker had conquered the city losing nobody except for the unfortunate drummer boy and killing only three legitimista soldiers. The news of Walker's victory would reach the United States quickly. Charles Doubleday would actually read about it in the newspaper from Ohio upset that he missed his share of the glory. In the city, more than 100 Americans had taken shelter in the American embassy with the US minister to Nicaragua a man named John Hill Willer. Walker let them know the city was controlled by Americans and they were safe. Back in the plaza, democraticos were looting the city, which like the execution of prisoners was a standard practice and war in Central America. But Walker had the looters arrested and Valle agreed to enforce this rule, but he did so reluctantly, warning Walker that the troops believed this was their right, especially after their own towns had been looted by legitimistas in the past. Valle also called for the legitimista leaders in the city to be executed by firing squad. But Walker refused and made them prisoners inside the city instead. And many of them were actually allowed to move about freely inside the city limits. Walker also freed the political prisoners. There were more than 100 such prisoners in Granada and many of them had been awaiting their execution. They were only kept alive so they could work as prisoners of labor for the legitimistas. One of the prisoners was even a US citizen. All of them agreed to fight with the democraticos bringing Walker's force to a total of 450 men, American and Nicaraguans combined. Walker sent two emissaries to Rivas to inform Corral that Granada had been taken. He wanted a sue for peace. Corral would be forced to comply and Walker would set up a provisional government for his new republic. But that story will be the subject of the next episode. For more content like this, visit mesus.org.