WALKER, WILLIAM (1824-1860), American adventurer, was born in Nashville, Tenn., on May 8, 1824. He graduated at the University of Nashville in 1838, and in 1843 received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Later he studied law and was admitted to the bar in New Orleans. On Oct. 15, 1853, he sailed from San Francisco with a filibustering force for the conquest of Mexican territory. He landed in Lower California, and on Jan. 18, 1854, he proclaimed this and the neighbouring State of Sonora an independent republic. Starvation and Mexican attacks led to the abandonment of this enterprise, and Walker resumed his journalistic work in California. On May 4, 1855, with 56 followers, Walker sailed for Nicaragua, where he had been invited by one of the belligerent factions to come to its aid. In October Walker seized a steamer on Lake Nicaragua belonging to the Accessory Transit Company, a corporation of Americans engaged in transporting freight and passengers across the isthmus, and was thus enabled to surprise and capture Granada and to make himself master of Nicaragua. Peace was then made; Patricio Rivas, who had been neutral, was made provisional presi dent, and Walker secured the real power as commander of the troops. At this time two officials of the Accessory Transit Com pany determined to use Walker as their tool to get control of that corporation, then dominated by Cornelius Vanderbilt. They advanced him funds and transported his recruits from the United States free of charge. In return Walker seized the property of the company, on the pretext of a violation of its charter, and turned over its equipment to the men who had befriended him.
On May 20, 1856, the new government was formally recognized at Washington by President Pierce. Walker managed to maintain himself against a coalition of Central American States, led by Costa Rica, which was aided and abetted by agents of Cornelius Vanderbilt, until May 1, 1857, when, to avoid capture by the natives, he surrendered to Commander Charles Henry Davis, of the U.S. Navy, and returned to the United States. In Nov. 1857 he sailed from Mobile with another expedition, but soon after landing at Punta Arenas he was arrested by Commander Hiram Paulding of the American Navy, and had to return to the United States as a prisoner on parole. On his arrival he was released by order of President Buchanan. After several unsuccessful attempts to return to Central America, Walker finally sailed from Mobile in Aug. 186o and landed in Honduras. Here he was taken prisoner by Capt. Salmon, of the British Navy, and was surrendered to the Honduran authorities. He was executed Sept. 12, 1860.
See Walker's own narrative, accurate as to details, The War in Nicaragua (Mobile, 186o) ; also William V. Wells, Walker's Expedition to Nicaragua (1856) ; Charles William Doubleday, Reminiscences of the "Filibuster" War in Nicaragua (1886) ; James Jeffrey Roche, The Story of the Filibusters (1891), revised and reprinted as Byways of War 0900 ; and William 0. Scroggs, Filibusters and Financiers (1916). (W. 0. S.)