Battle of Taku Forts (1859)
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The Second Battle of Taku Forts () was a failed Anglo-French attempt to seize the
Taku Forts The Taku Forts or Dagu Forts, also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River (Peiho River) estuary in the Binhai New Area, Tianjin, in northeastern China. They are located southeast of the Tianjin urban center. History The ...
along the
Hai River The Hai River (海河, lit. "Sea River"), also known as the Peiho, ("White River"), or Hai Ho, is a Chinese river connecting Beijing to Tianjin and the Bohai Sea. The Hai River at Tianjin is formed by the confluence of five watercourses: the ...
in
Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...
, China, in June 1859 during the
Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
. A chartered American
steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
arrived on scene and assisted the French and British in their attempted suppression of the forts.


Background

After the First Battle of Taku Forts in 1858, the
Xianfeng Emperor The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861), or by temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing (), given name Yizhu (), was the eighth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigned from 1850 t ...
appointed the Mongol general
Sengge Rinchen Sengge Rinchen (1811 – 18 May 1865) or Senggelinqin ( mn, Сэнгэринчен, ᠰᠡᠩᠭᠡᠷᠢᠨᠴᠢᠨ) was a Mongol nobleman and general who served under the Qing dynasty during the reigns of the Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi em ...
to take charge of coastal defense. Sengge Rinchen hailed from a rich lineage - the 26th generation descendant of
Qasar Qasar (also spelled Hasar or Khasar, and also known as Jo'chi Qasar; Mongolian: Жочи Хасар) was one of Genghis Khan's three full brothers. According to the ''Jami' al-Tawarikh'', his given name was Jo'chi and he got the nickname Khasar ...
, a brother of Genghis Khan. He took to this task with ardor, repairing and improving the coastal defenses in preparation for the British arrival. A second, stronger
boom Boom may refer to: Objects * Boom (containment), a temporary floating barrier used to contain an oil spill * Boom (navigational barrier), an obstacle used to control or block marine navigation * Boom (sailing), a sailboat part * Boom (windsurfi ...
was constructed across the river to further restrict the movement of British ships. This second boom was made of full-sized tree trunks, connected with heavy chains. Two rows of ditches were dug in front of the forts' walls, filled with water and mud, and an
abatis An abatis, abattis, or abbattis is a field fortification consisting of an obstacle formed (in the modern era) of the branches of trees laid in a row, with the sharpened tops directed outwards, towards the enemy. The trees are usually interlaced ...
of iron spikes placed immediately behind it. Finally, Sengge Rinchen ensured the Chinese defenders and their cannon were trained and equipped to resist the coming British ships and their landing parties.


Battle

On the morning of June 25, 1859, the British could see that the Chinese fort's defenses were somewhat improved from the previous year. However, there did not appear to be many defenders, they did not see the flags and gongs that might indicating an impending battle, and the portholes for the guns were covered in matting. Local informants indicated to them that the fort was manned only by a skeleton crew. Even when, as an experiment, they cut through the first boom, they encountered no resistance. The British then attempted to ram the second boom with their admiral's ship, ''Plover'', as they had successfully done the year before. This time, though, the heavy boom stopped the British gunship cold.George Battye Fisher, Personal Narrative of Three Years' Service in China, pp. 190-193 As the advance of the British fleet stalled, the matting was removed from the portholes, revealing the fort's defenders, and the fort's guns opened fire. “On the Admiral’s reaching the first barrier the forts suddenly swarmed with men, and a terrible fire from very heavy guns was opened... from all the forts.” - American Commodore Josiah Tattnall The first salvo decapitated the ''Plovers bow gunner. Under heavy fire from the fort, her hull eventually burst, sinking the ship into the mud and killing all of the crew but one. The rest of the British fleet was similarly devastated—two ships were forced to run aground, and two others were sunk in the river by the fort's cannon. Others attempted to retreat as the fort's smaller guns picked off their officers and men from the shore. That evening, when the rate of fire from the Chinese guns finally slackened, the British determined to bring up their reserve forces and launch landing parties for a direct assault. The strength of the Hai River's flow required a ship to tow the infantry boats, as otherwise the soldiers would exhaust themselves with rowing before reaching land. Commodore
Josiah Tattnall III Commodore Josiah Tattnall (November 9, 1795 – June 14, 1871) was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War and the Mexican–American War. He later served in the Confederate Navy during the American C ...
, commanding the chartered steamship ''Toey-Wan'' which was also attempting to navigate past the forts, decided to assist and towed several loaded boats upstream into the battle. This act of military assistance was arguably a violation of the official neutrality between the United States and China. The landing had been delayed for so long that British landing parties were forced to come ashore at low tide, hundreds of meters from the Chinese fort's walls. There, the British marines slipped and stuck in the muddy riverbanks, where they were shot to pieces by Chinese gunners. Those British who were able to make it to the trenches found them filled with a mixture of mud and water too thin to walk on and too thick to swim through, soaking their ammunition and further exposing them to fire. As night fell, those who were finally able to reach the fort's walls found themselves trapped under the fort's walls, as the defenders dangled sizzling fireworks on long poles over the edge of the wall to illuminate them to the archers above. One boat managed to gather a handful of the wounded, but it was struck by a well-aimed cannon shot. It broke in half and sank, drowning all on board. By sunrise the next morning, over four hundred British were dead or wounded, including twenty-nine officers. Chinese casualties were reported to be minimal.


Aftermath

An American interpreter and missionary named
Samuel Wells Williams Samuel Wells Williams (22 September 1812 – 16 February 1884) was a linguist, official, missionary and Sinologist from the United States in the early 19th century. Early life Williams was born in Utica, New York, son of William Williams (178 ...
wrote that this was possibly the worst defeat the British had suffered since the 1842 retreat from Kabul. One of the battle's survivors declared he would rather relive the 1854 Battle of Balaclava, with its disastrous charge of the Light Brigade, three times rather than experience what they'd just suffered at the hands of Sengge Rinchen at the Taku forts. Sengge Rinchen rejoiced in his well-earned victory, writing to the Emperor that while the British and their allies might return with more ships, with one or two more victories "the pride and vainglory of the barbarians, already under severe trial, will immediately disappear."T.F. Tsiang, "China after the Victory of Taku, June 25, 1859," "''American Historical Review'' 35, no. 1 (October 1929) The Emperor was cautious, stating that the foreigners "may harbor secret designs and hide themselves around nearby islands, waiting for the arrival of more soldiers and ships for a surprise attack in the night or in a storm." The battle not only was a loss for the British, it caused them to have to assemble another massive fleet of 18,000 troops which fought in the third battle of taku forts. The battle also delayed British attack for 13 months, making it a serious delay and problem for the British.


References

*Bartlett, Beatrice S. ''Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch'ing China, 1723–1820.'' Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. *Ebrey, Patricia. ''Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook.'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993. *Elliott, Mark C. "The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies." ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 59 (2000): 603-46. *Faure, David. ''Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China.'' 2007. *


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Taku Forts (1859) Taku Forts (1859) Taku Forts (1859) Taku Forts (1859) Taku Forts 2
Taku Forts The Taku Forts or Dagu Forts, also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River (Peiho River) estuary in the Binhai New Area, Tianjin, in northeastern China. They are located southeast of the Tianjin urban center. History The ...
Conflicts in 1859 1859 in China June 1859 events