Tycoon's War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America's Most Famous Military Adventurer »

Stephen Dando-Collins is an Australian-born historian who has written a number of fiction and non-fiction books, including Caesar’s Legion and Standing Bear Is a Person. He lives in Tasmania.

A historically important account of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s war that says as much about where America is going as where it has been.

Library Journal

Dando-Collins (Caesar's Legion ) recounts the conflict between tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt and adventurer William Walker over the control of Nicaragua from 1855 to 1857. Walker, with mercenary support, entered Nicaragua's civil war in 1855 on the side of the Democratico forces against the Legitimistas. Historians have seen the Tennessee native as wishing to reintroduce slavery to Nicaragua and encourage settlement by American Southerners. Dando-Collins claims that Walker initially acted out of personal ambition, seeking to emulate Sam Houston of Texas. Only after he was elected president of Nicaragua in 1856 did he turn to slaving-holding interests to support colonization and to bring in African labor. Dando-Collins's basis for his defense of Walker? That he came from a family hostile to slavery and there is no record that he supported the practice of slavery himself. Even if the paper trail is not there, Walker's willingness to reintroduce and thus expand slavery demonstrates tolerance for the institution and/or unscrupulous desire for power. His actions put him into conflict with Vanderbilt, who controlled a major portion of shipping routes that used Nicaragua as overland transit between the Atlantic and Pacific. After the Democratico government seized his company's assets, Vanderbilt, with the tacit encouragement of the U.S. government, supplied Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador with money for arms to depose Walker in 1857. While Dando-Collins presents the story readably, his questionable historical interpretation limits his book's value. Only for academic collections seeking comprehensive coverage.-Stephen Hupp. West Virginia Univ. Lib., Parkersburg

Maps

Introduction 1

1 Gun-Barrel Diplomacy 16

2 Down, but Not Out 29

3 Enter the Colonel 46

4 Landing Behind Enemy Lines 55

5 The Battle of Rivas 65

6 Victory at La Virgen 84

7 Walker's Secret Plan 99

8 Taking Granada 108

9 The Walker Way 117

10 Closing In on the Prize 136

11 On a Collision Course 145

12 Blindsiding Vanderbilt 151

13 The Gathering Storm 162

14 Going to War with Walker 172

15 The Battle of Santa Rosa 179

16 Courts-Martial and Firing Squads 186

17 A Killing or Two 193

18 The Second Battle of Rivas 205

19 President Walker 221

20 Battles on All Fronts 236

21 New Battlegrounds 250

22 Wheeling and Dealing 262

23 Here Was Granada 275

24 Closing Nicaragua's Back Door 284

25 Operation San Juan 295

26 To the Victor, the Spoils 309

27 The Surrender 324

Epilogue 329

The Protagonists' Motives 341

Bibliography 343

Notes 347

Index 359