Juan Santamaria asked for one thing before he ran. If he died, he said, someone had to look after his mother. Then the young Costa Rican soldier grabbed a torch and sprinted toward the hostel where William Walker's filibusters had barricaded themselves. Others had tried and failed. Santamaria made it far enough to set the building ablaze before enemy fire cut him down. The flames forced Walker's men into retreat, and Costa Rica claimed victory at Rivas on April 11, 1856. Today Santamaria is Costa Rica's national hero, his sacrifice commemorated every April 11. But the battle that made him famous was only one act in a saga that entangled Cornelius Vanderbilt, the institution of slavery, and the geopolitics of an entire hemisphere.
Before the Panama Canal existed, the fastest route between New York and San Francisco ran through southern Nicaragua. Ships from the Atlantic entered the San Juan River, crossed Lake Nicaragua, and offloaded passengers near the city of Rivas, where stagecoaches carried them overland to the Pacific. Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company held the commercial rights to this route -- until two associates, Charles Morgan and Cornelius Garrison, wrested control of the company from him. When the American filibuster William Walker seized power in Nicaragua in 1855 with their backing, he revoked Vanderbilt's charter and handed the transit route to Morgan and Garrison. Vanderbilt responded not with lawyers but with armies. He financed and trained a coalition of Central American states led by Costa Rica, cut off Walker's supply lines, and offered free passage home to any defector.
Walker declared himself president of Nicaragua in July 1856 after a farcical election. As his position weakened -- cholera thinning his ranks, desertions mounting -- he made a desperate bid for support from the American South by revoking Nicaragua's emancipation edict of 1824 and reintroducing the institution of slavery. The gambit attracted attention from Pierre Soule, an influential New Orleans politician, and drew some recruits from the American South. But it also deepened the alarm of neighboring countries and European investors. Walker was no longer just an adventurer; he was rewriting the laws of a sovereign nation to serve the economic interests of slaveholders thousands of miles away. Costa Rican President Juan Rafael Mora had watched Walker's consolidation with growing dread. On March 1, 1856, backed by Vanderbilt's resources, Mora declared war -- not on Nicaragua, but specifically on Walker and his mercenaries.
The battle on April 11 centered on a fortified hostel in Rivas where Walker's forces had dug in. Salvadoran General Jose Maria Canas proposed setting the building alight. Several soldiers attempted it and failed. Santamaria's successful charge turned the tide, but he was not the only individual whose courage shaped the outcome. Francisca "Pancha" Carrasco, serving the militia as a cook and field medic, filled her apron pockets with ammunition, picked up a discarded rifle, and confronted retreating Costa Rican soldiers, shaming them back into the fight and preventing what might have become a full rout. Juan Alfaro Ruiz cleared Walker's men from the church; he survived the battle only to die of cholera in the days that followed. A canton in the province of Alajuela still carries his name.
Walker and his surviving soldiers fled to Granada under cover of darkness. Costa Rica had won the battle, but the country could not celebrate. Bodies from the fighting had been thrown into the city's wells, and a devastating cholera epidemic erupted. Believing the disease was caused by the hot lowland climate, the troops demanded to go home. As they retreated southward, they carried the epidemic with them. Cholera swept through Costa Rica, killing roughly one-tenth of the entire population. President Mora bore the blame for the catastrophe -- the casualties, the outbreak, and the crippling war debts. He was removed from power in 1859 and executed in 1860 after a failed attempt to reclaim the presidency, alongside General Canas. The war against Walker continued under a broader Central American coalition, which focused on severing his transit route. Walker's reign ended, but the cost for those who stopped him was staggering.
Located at 11.44N, 85.83W near the city of Rivas in southwestern Nicaragua, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific coast. The area is flat lowland, best viewed from 3,000-5,000 feet AGL. Lake Nicaragua is visible to the east, and the narrow land bridge to the Pacific is evident from altitude. Nearest airports: Augusto C. Sandino International (MNMG) in Managua, approximately 60 nm north; Daniel Oduber Quiros International (MRLB) in Liberia, Costa Rica, approximately 50 nm south.