Note XVII-25 — Chapter XVII · END OF FILIBUSTERING IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 1856-1867.
Reading edition
It has been calculated that from first to last he lost from 5,000 to 6,000 men by sickness. Several of his chief officers having died at about the same time, it was imputed to the natives selling poisoned edibles. A letter of Feb. 16, 1857, has it that Walker received 4,600 recruits since June 1855. The author sets down his deserters at 500, and his dead at no less than 3,600, there being from 1,500 to 2,000 buried in Granada. Pan. Star and Herald, Feb. 17, 1857; Hayes' Scraps, Angeles, ii. 255. However, an official report of P. R. Thompson, Walker's adj.-gen., dated Feb. 24, 1857, has the following figures, which do not seem to express the whole truth, as it might have been injudicious to have the real facts made known. Original number of men enlisted 2,288, of whom 61 were officers. Totals of death, 685, of whom 109 were officers; 37 resigned; 206 discharged; 9 dropped; 293 deserted, including 9 officers; leaving a total of 733 officers and men, with 141 unaccounted for. Stout's Nic., 209.