WJohn Parker Boyd was an officer in the United States Army at various periods from 1786 to the end of the War of 1812. He attained the rank of Brigadier General and commanded during the American defeat at the Battle of Crysler's Farm.
WFrederick Russell Burnham DSO was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa, and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell in Rhodesia. He helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement.
WThe Filibuster War or Walker affair was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central American armies. An American, William Walker, briefly invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with a small army. He seized control of the country by 1856, but was ousted the following year.
WLeon Winfield Christmas, usually called Lee Christmas, was an American mercenary in Central America.
WGeorge Rogers Clark was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war. He is best known for his celebrated captures of Kaskaskia (1778) and Vincennes (1779) during the Illinois Campaign, which greatly weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory. The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, and Clark has often been hailed as the "Conqueror of the Old Northwest".
WGeorge Washington Dixon was an American singer, stage actor, and newspaper editor. He rose to prominence as a blackface performer after performing "Coal Black Rose", "Zip Coon", and similar songs. He later turned to a career in journalism, during which he earned the enmity of members of the upper class for his frequent allegations against them.
WSamuel Drebin, sometimes misspelled "Drebben" or "Dreben", and known as "The Fighting Jew", was a highly decorated soldier in the US Army and a mercenary who fought in a variety of wars and revolutions.
WDynCorp, most recently DynCorp International, is an American global service provider. Started as an aviation company, the company also provides flight operations support, training and mentoring, international development, intelligence training and support, contingency operations, security, and operations and maintenance of land vehicles. DynCorp receives more than 96% of its more than $3 billion in annual revenue from the U.S. federal government.
WJordan Guy MacDonald Goudreau is a Canadian-American mercenary who claimed responsibility for organizing the Macuto Bay incursion into Venezuelan territory on 3 May 2020. He is the owner and operator of a private security firm based in Florida called Silvercorp USA, which he set up in 2018. The Silvercorp website described Goudreau as a “highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.“ Goudreau previously served in the Canadian Armed Forces and the U.S. Army Special Forces.
WGunslinger and gunfighter are words used historically to refer to people in the American Old West who had gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and had participated in gunfights and shootouts. Gunman was a more common term used for these individuals in the 19th and early 20th century. Today, the term "gunslinger" is more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a pistol, but can also refer to riflemen and shotgun messengers. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, video games, and literature.
WSamuel "Sam" Wesley Hall was an American Olympic silver medalist diver and member of the Ohio House of Representatives. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, where his father Dave was mayor. His brother was Ambassador Tony P. Hall. During his last years he resided in Florida, working in real estate.
WJosiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor was an American adventurer, best known for travelling to Afghanistan and Punjab with the intention of making himself a king. While there, he became involved in local politics and factional military actions, eventually winning the title Prince of Ghor in perpetuity for himself and his descendants in exchange for military aid. Rudyard Kipling's short story The Man Who Would Be King is believed to be partly based on Harlan.
WCharles Frederick Henningsen was a writer, mercenary, filibuster, and munitions expert. He participated in civil wars and independence movements in Spain, Nicaragua, Hungary, and the United States.
WHomer Lea was an American adventurer, author and geopolitical strategist. He is today best known for his involvement with Chinese reform and revolutionary movements in the early twentieth century and as a close advisor to Dr. Sun Yat-sen during the 1911 Chinese Republican revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and for his writings about China and geopolitics.
WFrederic Ives Lord or sometimes Frederick Ives Lord, was a captain, a World War I flying ace, and a soldier of fortune who fought in five wars.
WHenry Douglas McIver (1841–1907) was a soldier of fortune who fought for 18 countries.
WRichard Dorsey Loraine Mohun was an American explorer, diplomat, mineral prospector and mercenary. Mohun worked for the United States government as a commercial agent in Angola and the Congo Free State. During his time as commercial agent, he volunteered to command a unit of Belgian artillery in a campaign to force Arab slavers from the colony.
WThaddeus Phelps Mott was a 19th-century American adventurer, sailor and soldier of fortune. A former Union Army officer during American Civil War, he also took part in wars in Mexico, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. He was primarily responsible for recruiting former Union and Confederate soldiers for service in the Egyptian Army, in which he held the rank of major general, and was the first officer to take service with the Khedive Isma'il Pasha as his aide-de-camp in 1870. At the time of his death, he was also the last surviving son of the eminent surgeon Valentine Mott.
WEdward Sinnott "Tex" O'Reilly was an American soldier of fortune who is said to have fought in ten wars under many flags. Initially serving in the U.S. Army in the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War, as well as the Boxer Rebellion, he would claim to fight in Venezuela, Honduras and Nicaragua. He fought with Pancho Villa in Mexico and claimed to have fought in the Rif War with the Spanish Foreign Legion in North Africa, as well as serving as an international policeman in Shanghai. He became a writer, including as a reporter for the Associated Press. He wrote an autobiography, Roving and Fighting, and Lowell Thomas wrote Born to Raise Hell about him. The latter book has been reprinted and is distributed by The Long Riders' Guild Press. He was the author of Pecos Bill.
WJordan Guy MacDonald Goudreau is a Canadian-American mercenary who claimed responsibility for organizing the Macuto Bay incursion into Venezuelan territory on 3 May 2020. He is the owner and operator of a private security firm based in Florida called Silvercorp USA, which he set up in 2018. The Silvercorp website described Goudreau as a “highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.“ Goudreau previously served in the Canadian Armed Forces and the U.S. Army Special Forces.
WWashington Carroll Tevis, also known as Charles Carroll Tevis, Nassim Bey and Charles Carroll de Taillevis, was an American-born soldier of fortune who served in a variety of armies and conflicts during the 19th century.
WIvor Thord-Gray was a Swedish-born adventurer, sailor, prison guard, soldier, government official, police officer, rubber plantation owner, ethnologist, linguist, investor, and author. He participated in thirteen wars spanning the continents of Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe.
WFrank Glasgow Tinker was an American volunteer fighter pilot for the Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española, during the Spanish Civil War.
WFrederick Townsend Ward was an American sailor and soldier of fortune known for his military service in Imperial China during the Taiping Rebellion.
WMitchell Livingston WerBell III (1918–1983) was an OSS operative, mercenary, paramilitary trainer, firearms engineer, and arms dealer.
WChatham Roberdeau Wheat was a captain in the United States Army Volunteers during the Mexican War, Louisiana State Representative, lawyer, mercenary in Cuba, Mexico, and Italy, adventurer, and major in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.