Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-12-19
Walkers Position.

a detachment of Walkers men, was stationed
at Virgins Bay, distant some twelve miles on
the lake,) attempted on the 9th to disodge
them, but failed. On the 18th of November,
General Walker arrived with some additional
men; the Costa Ricans were dislodged. and
retired to Rivas. On the 9th General Walk
er returned to Virgin Bay, leaving force of
one hundred and seventy five men at San
Juan del Sur. He then proceeded to Grana-
da, and on the 18th made on attack on Mas
saga, (Which is about fourteen miles North of
Granada.) On Ills way thither intelligence
reached him that the transit road from San
Juan del Sur to Virgin Bay, the two tcrmini,
was threatened, and he despatched part of his
men to protect 1t, who barricaded themselves
at the latter place.
The attack on Massaya was totally unsuc-
cessfnl, and Walker, on the 18th or 18th of
November, retired to Granada. Being unable
to hold that place. he gave orders for the sick,
the women and the children, to be removed to
an island upon the lake, and the town to be
destroyed, himself and staff retiring to Virgin
Bay.
So far we have taken the reports of Walk
er's friends, prepared manifestIy with view
to secure him assistance and recruits from the
United States. We come to the statements
of passengers by the Tennessee and other par
condition of affairs. A drummer boy, who
escaped from Walkers service and came PAS
senger in the Tennessee, named Robert Ack.
er, native of this city, gave an account sub
stantially as follows: About three months
ago. on the strength of the representations
usually made in such eases, he went to Mica
ragua by the Tennessee, with some two hun
dred and fifty others, men and boys. He de-
scrlbes them as ''lard cases." mostly drunk
when they went on board and drinking all
they could get on the voyage. Daring the six
weeks they remained at Granada, thirty of
them died Of chills an fever, and at the end
of three months they were nearly all dead
n otby intoxication, for they had no money to
buy liquor. Their only food was fresh beef
and coffee. They had neither bread nor salt.
He described the fight at Leon, at Massaya,
and was disposed to put favorable construc-
tien on the state of affairs. His broken con-
stItation, and scaht and ragged apparel, now
ever, belied his representations. he says that
when broken down by sickness, and disabled
from duty, he applied to Gen. Walker for
permission 10 come home. The reply was, 81
cannot pay the passage of people to Nicaragua
and get no service out of them. I wish to get
service out of you for it, He escaped by the
connivance Of the California passengers.
Mr. Peter Turner Of Michigan, passenger
from San Juan, reports that about one hun
dred men left San Francisco on the Goth of
November, in the Orizaba, for New York via
Nicaragua. 1t was all well understood that
they were 10 stop at the Isthmus, for they had
been enlisted by an agent of Walkers. On
arriving at the lsthmus, The miserable condi-
ton Of Walker men, and the gloominess of
the prospect, discouraged them, and they
would fain have returned or come for
ward, but being without money, they were
compelled to remain. A number OF General
Vi sf-...er men were conveyed in she same boat
with the Tennessee's passengers from San
Juan to Virgin Bay, and their wretched con-
dition excited general commiseration. He
confirms the statement that Walkers troops
had neither bread nor salt, but were fed en-
tlrely on fresh beef. Mr.. Turner alsoreports
that the bulk Of Walker men had been left at
Granada, where they were surrounded by the
Costa Rican forces, while disease was daily
reducing their numbers. Of those with Walk
er, from ten to twelve died daily for the ten
days preceding the departure of the Tsnnes-
gee
A writer in the Herald gives the following
account OF the reported destruction OF GIana-
da -
at was on hts return to the capital that
Walker resolved upon its destruction and
evacuation. For that end, he left there some
four hundred men, under the command of
Gen. Henningsen, whose instructions were
to take charge of the artillery ammunition,
public archives, and all the appurenances Of
the army, and convey them to Virgin Bay
the design being to make that base of oper-
atoms for the capture of the city of Rivas,
where Walker intended to establish his gov
eminent Granada was given to the flames.
Property to an enormous extent was eonsum-
ed-much of it owned by foreigners, whose
governments will doubtless Geek indemnity.
For some days, the troops under Henningsen
gave themselves up to the widest debauehery.
Plumber, drunkenness, and all sorts of excess
SEES were the order of the day. Suboldination
was lost sight of, and no sort of control was
exercised over the men. Henningsen was
perfectly powerless i'll his attempts to bring
them to their duty. The consequences which
were to have been expected, followed. Before
any OF the munitions of war could be trans
ported from Granada to Virgin Bay, the al
lied forces besieged the plaza where the troops
were garrisoned. This siege was still going
on when the Tennessee left. The besiegers
had succeeded, after an obstinate struggle, in
taking the fort between the lake and the city,
only one man of its twenty eight or thirty de-
tenders surviving to tell the tale. In the
plaza, or in suburban church which escaped
the flames, were Henningsen and his men,
shut up and surrounded. There seemed to be
no resource left but an unconditional surren-
der or humiliation"
Walker is cut off from all communication
with Henningsen and that portion of his
forces. His time was chiefly spent on board
a vessel on the lake. Four hundred of his
men were besieged in Granada; two hundred
and fifty, under Col. Jacques. were garrisoning
Virgin Bay; and about one hundred others
were stationed at SerRpiqui and Fort Collis-
in all about seven hundred and fifty remain.
ing out Of the large supplies from California
and from the Atlantic and Souther cities, and
this number was rapidly diminishing. The
four hundred at Granada may be counted as
lost The soldiers appear to have been paid
in fifty dollar scrips, acknowledging the gov
ernments Indebtedness, but naming no time
for payment, and bearing no interest.
DR.. Derickson, q surgeon i'll Walker army,
who arrived in the Tennessee, reports to the
Herald substantially as follows 1.-THE rein
forcements which Gen. Walker brought down
to Virgin Bay, to assist Gen. Hornsby in driv-
ing the Costa Ricans from the transit route,
were picked rihemen, and the most efficient
part of his forces. They were with him in the
futile attack on Massaya. He confirms the
report that the men remaining in Granada
were closely besieged by the Costa Ricans,
the number Of whom he estimates at twenty
five hundred. Among them are several de-
serters from Walkers army. All commune
cation with the beseged is cut off, and the
besieging force was being increased.
All the artillery, and at least half the ammu-
milton possessed by Walker, were in Granada,
The allied forces had such command Of the
lake by means Of guns captured from Walk