Frederick Townsend Ward
“Chinese” Gordon
A Chinese army under British command during the Taiping Rebellion of the mid-nineteenth century.
The most massive and vicious war of the 19th Century was the “Taiping Rebellion” (1851-1964)in China. A revolt against the foreign “Manchus”, it was the incubus to the Boxer Rebellion 30 years later. It is acknowledged that 20 to 20 million died. The U.S. Civil War raged in this period also, but does not come close to the magnitude of this conflict.
The Taipings, at the start, had a very disciplined army that rolled over the Manchu opposition. There are many great battles, and the Manchus came to hold their own. But it also involved one of the most wonderfully (?) named armies in History, “The Ever-Victorious Army”, though they certainly weren’t, until Charles “Chinese” Gordon (then age 30, but of Khartoum fame) took them in hand. He confounded the Taipings with is tactical prowess until the leaders chose to go to their eternal reward by their own hand.
In 1851 China was on the verge of civil war. A religious leader had arisen to unite various factions opposed to the increasingly oppressive rule of the Manchu dynasty. This leader was Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, who took the name Tien Wang, or “Heavenly King.” He claimed to have had visions that took him to heaven and inspired the crusade against worldliness and corruption rampant in the Manchu court, especially on the part of the Emperor Hsien Feng. Tien Wang’s religious message was a strange amalgam of Christianity and Taoism wherein he played the third part of the Trinity, replacing the Holy Spirit. His “New Christian Testament” appealed to many of China’s poor, and Tien Wang also appealed to the established antigovernment Triad societies. Tien Wang’s movement was dubbed the Taiping Tien-kuo, or “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace.” Great slaughter, instead, was the result.
At first the Taiping Rebellion, as it came to be called, remained fairly true to the stated ideals, as the soldiers were bound to remain celibate while in the field and could not loot or pillage after victories. Both cowardice and opium smoking were capital offenses. Under this stringent discipline, the soldiers scored impressive early successes, conquering from their mountainous homeland into the Yangtze Valley. In 1853 the Taipings were in a position to march on the capital at Peking, which almost certainly would have fallen, but instead decided to occupy Nanking as the ancient capital of the Ming dynasty they claimed to want restored. Nanking fell easily because the defenders thought it prudent not to resist, but the Taipings still slaughtered so many inhabitants that their corpses blocked the river when Tien Wang arrived in his barge to take formal possession of the city. The imperial army held on to Peking with a hastily recruited unit that came to be called the Hunan Braves, reinforced with units recalled from Mongolia. The Taipings, however, captured Chinkiang, which put them into a position to threaten the major port city of Shanghai with its large European population.
By 1856, the Taiping movement began to slow. Tien Wang started to emulate the dissolute life of the emperor he was at- tempting to overthrow. Struggles between him and his generals intensified as some tried to challenge his authority, while Tien Wang used others to stave off the threats. The imperial court had its troubles as well. In 1857, the British and French sent in troops and ships in response to threats against their merchants and diplomatic personnel. The Westerners forced a new trade treaty from the emperor, but in 1860 they were back in force again to counter new Manchu demands. When the imperial army did not immediately allow the west- ern force to march to Peking, the British and French shot their way toward the city. When the emperor proposed negotiations with the westerners at his gates, a new treaty was negotiated, but the British burned the emperor’s summer palace as a warning against future vacillation.
This friction with the Manchu government put British troops in China, and they were there in time to assist with the new Manchu offensive against the Taipings. The Manchus had had some success with an army of mercenaries under the command of an American, Frederick Townshend Ward. They fought fairly well, and the Chinese awarded them the nickname of the Ever Victorious Army. When Ward was killed, whatever unit cohesion the force may have had fell apart. Because it had been successful, however, the Chinese hoped for a new commander to whip the force back into shape and continue its winning ways. The Manchu government appealed to the British commander in China, General Staveley, to appoint a new leader to restore the Ever Victorious Army to its former glory. Staveley had on his staff a young engineer named Charles Gordon, with whom he had worked in the Crimean War. Gordon was keen to see action, and Staveley rather reluctantly appointed him to the position. Luckily, Gordon had already impressed the regional Manchu commander, General Li Hung-chang, so he proved a good choice and took command in March 1863 at age 30.
Gordon got right to work. While under Staveley’s command he had overseen operations that cleared any Taipings out of a 30-mile circumference around Shanghai. He took the Ever Victorious Army, which had just been badly handled in an attack on the city of Taitsan northwest of Shanghai, and imposed his own form of discipline on it. Mainly by example, he created a strong- ly loyal force. Gordon showed no fear. He personally reconnoitered enemy positions, getting so close he often put himself under fire. When he went into battle he did not carry a weapon, but instead a bamboo walking stick. His force of 4,000 Chinese with western officers were given new uniforms of dark green serge with turbans, a pay raise, and timely payment of their wages.
His first move was to relieve a Taiping siege of Chanzu, where Taiping rebels had given their allegiance to the government and were now under attack by their former comrades. Gordon’s army first captured the city of Fushan on the way to Chanzu. Seeing this, the Taipings decided to lift their siege rather than be caught between two forces. The major Taiping fortress of Taitsan fell to Gordon’s artillery and a spirited assault through the breach, which the cannon fire produced. At Quinsan, Gordon attacked with a fleet of gunboats along the many canals that surrounded the town. Although Quinsan was a strongly walled city, Gordon’s attack was such a surprise that the defenders fled after minimal fighting. Many were drowned in the canals.
The last major Taiping stronghold was Soo Chow, which was surrounded by a 12- mile-long wall. Gordon decided against an assault and laid siege. He also captured the city of Woo Kiang upriver in order to cut off any reinforcements or supplies to Soo Chow. The siege lasted from October through December 1863, when the defenders surrendered on condition of clemency for their leaders. Gordon granted it, but the imperial troops supporting his force killed them anyway. Gordon was so upset he considered marching his men against Peking, then decided instead to resign his commission. The Manchus finally were able to convince him to reconsider, but he refused to take any monetary reward from the emperor for his victories.
The Ever Victorious Army was disbanded in June 1864, having sustained almost 100 casualties among its officers and 1,440 among the rank and file, more than one-third its strength. Imperial troops were given the task of assaulting the final Taiping stronghold of Nanking. They surrounded the city with 80,000 men and the increasingly corrupt Tien Wang committed suicide rather than face capture and execution. The Taiping Rebellion lasted 15 years, and estimates of its cost reach as high as 30 million lives. Gordon’s performance in China brought him to the attention of the government in London, where he became a popular public figure. He died in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in 1885 when he was surrounded by the forces of another messianic figure, the Mahdi. Still, his nickname of “Chinese” Gordon, was earned in his first command.
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The 19th Century Chinese Flags Collection
The Definitive selection of Flags for the conflicts in China, from the Tai-P’ing and Boxer Rebellions, and even Chinese Pirates. Flags Sets already available include the “Pingers” themselves, and units such as the “Ever Victorious Army” raised against them. Four Sets of Boxer Flags are already in hand, with two more pending. And the most recent release is a Set of Pirate Flags from the 1840′s through the early Nationalist period. The complete Collection will provide full coverage of the Manchu/Qing Armies for the various wars fought from the Opium and Arrow Wars, as well as the Boxer Rebellion. All designed by Mr. Eric Cox, with contributions by June and Frontis Wiggins.
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Armies of the Nineteenth Century: Asia
CHINA
Ian Heath has assembled 183 line drawings and 39 photographs to illustrate the huge array of costumes and uniforms worn during this period. Coverage includes the Taipeng and Boxer rebellions, Formosa, the Mongols and Gordon’s Ever Victorious Army. Ian Heath’s accompanying text is one of the most coherent accounts available of Chinese history during this turbulent period. Includes extensive bibliography. All the volumes in this series have a high quality traditional gold-embossed cloth cover and no dust jacket.
81/2 x 12″,167 pages, 222 b/w illustrations, 6 maps
