born May 8, 1824, Nashville, Tenn., U.S.
died Sept. 12, 1860, Trujillo, Hond.
U.S. military adventurer.
He moved to California (1850), where his interest in colonizing Baja California developed into a filibustering (insurrection) scheme. He landed at La Paz (1853) and proclaimed Lower California and Sonora an independent republic, but Mexican resistance forced him back to the U.S. In 1855 he sailed to Nicaragua, where he effectively established himself as leader. There officers of Cornelius Vanderbilt 's Accessory Transit Co. promised him financial assistance in a plot to take the company away from Vanderbilt. Walker seized the company and turned it over to them, then made himself president of Nicaragua (1856). In 1857 Vanderbilt induced five Central American republics to drive Walker out. In 1860 Walker attempted a filibuster in Honduras, where he was captured and executed.