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Show A IrlEM1 AMESHBSAlf. "CHINESE "WMIB" SOLDIER FOBTUM? AND MAKER OF HISTORY V BY C.T. FERRIS I 1 Amepkh if a JBE$ 1 V A Pi? ;toy. EFWSMa H N THE early autumn of I860 a New ffl pr-jZSBSM H York merchant Interested in the ma-fa ma-fa fc-'i :,1'n,:rr uli1 Junk business received I n a 'L'Uer fro,n Shanghai, China, which Kbi ij h Interested him curiously. It was ZI' V from an old friend and associate, O ii whom he had believed to be anollipr example of unaccountable disappearance. Frederick Townsend Ward had gone to Mexico more than two years before to sell some old ordnance ord-nance to the government. Having accomplished this In due season, ho had suddenly dropped out of ken, on the eve of supposedly returning home. Fancy, then, the surprise which greeted these words, If any act of so erratic a person could amaze. "I have entered into the Chinese service, have very fino prospects at present and hope soon to have a comfortable fortune. I have been transformed trans-formed from a Yankee Into a Chinaman In good style, with a good establishment. I, a few days ago, took the second city of Importance in the vice-royalty vice-royalty frum the rebels. I have made a pretty good tiling of it and hope in a few weeks to take another city." This communication was a veritable bolt from i the blue. A restless, almost penniless vagabond of a man, whom his friends had given up as lost, suddenly emerging in China as a master of men and a conqueror of cities! Our own bloody slaughter house had not yet opened its shambles, but the newspapers were so absorbed In an extraordinary political situation that they gave scarcely a paragraph para-graph to such a curious piece of news when it was made known to them. A few weeks later another similar letter reached the staid merchant: t .o m rvofQrrir,o-tr, hla first letter! about starling up country, but I have since returned, having been badly wounded while attempting to scale the walls of Sing Poo City, and was compelled com-pelled lo return to Shanghai for treatment. I pot several shot wounds, the worst one went through the cheek and down through the root or the mouth. They, that is, the missionaries and some English and Dutch merchants, talk very badly about me and my measures. I, having used both rather unceremoniously when found having connections with the rebels; but, Jack, I am Independent of them all and consequently do not care a for them. "China is the country for a man who is able to take risks and is gifted with good common com-mon sense. I have made more money in a few weeks than I could at brokerage in New York in twenty years." Sixty years ago American pulpits and church conventions rang with the glad tidings that a Christian movement had sprung, spontaneously as It were out of Chinese soil. The future of missionary effort was thus assured, it was hoped, in the blossoming of a far-reaching native force that would speedily win the heathen to the banners ban-ners of the cross. These hopes, however, were blasted, as the rise of the religious cult of a Makka schoolmaster developed into one of the most ruthless and devastating civil wars of history, his-tory, and the nature of the outrageous travesty, which had perverted a few Christian doctrines Into a grotesque blasphemy, came to be understood. under-stood. Hung Su Tsuen had sought in vain for that recognition before the literary boards at Canton which was the passport of official ambition. In Canton he had absorbed some crude notion of Chri:ian doctrine from a Methodist missionary, and when he returned home, crazed by disappointment, disap-pointment, to live as a humble pedagogue, he began to dream dreams and speak prophecies as. one directly inspired from heaven. As time went on, his propagandism drew to its banner hordes from the ranks of discontent and crime, and an army of ragged desperadoes began to move from west to east in the early fifties to establish the claim of the crazy fanatic (who professed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ and directly consecrated by the Holy Ghost) to be the imperial head of the empire, the annals of Oriental barbarism. It was estimated esti-mated by conservative opinion that in ten years this infernal regime known as the Taiping rebellion rebel-lion had cost the empire some two and a half billions of dollars and the destruction of several millions of lives by war, starvation and wholesale whole-sale massacres. Hung Su Tsuen, as Tien Wang 6r "Heavenly King." was enthroned at Nanking and he practically prac-tically controlled the great provinces of Kiang-Su Kiang-Su and Sheh-Kiang, the heart of the richest tea and silk production of China. His robber bands indeed raided down to the very gates of Shanghai, and the foreign merchants there were sometimes hard put to it to defend the city, though nominally on amicable terms with the Nanking despot, on whom their trade so largely depended. One autumn morning at Shanghai in 1S59 a slight. ' dark-complexioned. insignificant-looking man called at the office of Tah-ke, a mandarin of the third button, a banker and merchant well regarded by the foreign residents. It was Frederick Townsend Ward, who had just landed in Shanghai from San Francisco. He v was rough and seedy-looking, with a sailor's roll In his gait, but with a glance of fire and a solid, square-set jawbone to redeem his face. Tah-ke was not encouraging when Ward spoke of his desire to enter the Chinese service as a free lance, and answered that he could get a belly-full belly-full of fighting by joining the Shanghai volunteers. volun-teers. "Thank you for nothing," said Ward, "but I can do that without your help. I didn't come for that sort of advice. I could make you help me and help yourself at the same time. Y"ou don't see it now, but you will." Who, then was Ward? Borri at Salem, Mass., about thirty-two years before his arrival In China, he came of a race of deep-sea skippers, who had sailed on all oceans, arctic and tropical, tropi-cal, and been noted for their handspike and be-laying-pin discipline. Daring an-1 resolution ran his blood. At the age of nineteen he had won his first mate's certificate. He took a turn in New York at the business of ship brokerage and marine supplies. Thence he disappeared for several years and was heard of in Central America, where he had joined W'alker, the filibuster, narrowly nar-rowly escaping the fate of that adventurer. Rumor Ru-mor also associated him with the ill-starred exploits ex-ploits of Wheat and Henningsen in the same region. He had been heard of also In the Crimea Cri-mea as enlisted in the French zouaves, from which he managed to escape by desertion to save himself from drum-head court martial after having slapped his captain in the face. These and other adventures loomed In his background. Not disconcerted by Tah-ke's cold reception, he took things into his own hands. He had enough money to hire a small force of rapscallions, rapscal-lions, native and foreign, the kind that infest an Oriental seaport like rats, and among them a few deserters from the British military and naval forces, who knew something about drill. The most important of these acquisitions was James Burgevine, a North Carolinian adventurer, adventur-er, who had severed allegiance to the "Heavenly KInt." Tah-ke had sold to Ward for a bagatelle baga-telle a batch of condemned muskets and bayonets bayo-nets which armed this ragged and unreliable battalion. Ward and Burgevine whipped thera into shape not only by camp drill but by skirmishing skir-mishing with the Taipings at every opportunity, for from their cities of Sung Kiang and Sing Poo, only two or three days' march from Shanghai, Shang-hai, the rebels made constant irruptions. Ward's primary object was to inspire his men with confidence in him and in themselves. He lived on the country and when he captured Taipings he converted them Into recruits instead in-stead of refusing quarter, as was the habit of the imperialists. Very soon the exploits of Ward's irregulars began to make a buzz in the foreign clubs and counting rooms. He had created cre-ated his own standing and when he went again to Tah-ke that worthy received him with low salaams. He went straight to his mark like a bullet, with the manner of one dictating, not accepting, accept-ing, terms. He proposed a formal contract, which Tah-ke was to negotiate with the Futai of Shanghai. Ward was to have $100,000 from the government for every city he captured, of which $25,000 was to go to the Chinese .partners. .part-ners. He was to have the first day's looting, after which the captured place would be turned over to the imperialists. Tah-ke was pledged to finance Ward for one year, furnishing him with arms, ammunition and stores, within a certain limit of cost which the other thought would suffice. Within a month Ward led his first expedition against Sung Kiang, which was garrisoned by about 5,000 Taipings under the command of an Englishman named Gardiner, an ex-officer of the British army. The attack failed, with serious loss to Ward's 500 assailants. One thing had happened, however, which proved of vast import to him. He had taken a rebel prisoner of some rank, who confessed to him that one of the bastions had a choked-up subterranean sallyport If he could make a secret entrance through this, it would save the necessity of a desperate and bloody assault. General Ward reoganized his little command and, with 5,000 imperialists to co-operate, made his second attempt. Sung Kiang. with its five-mile five-mile circuit of wall twenty feet high, was captured; cap-tured; and to Ward's great credit he prevented anything like indiscriminate massacre. Leaving Sung Kiang with an officer of his own in command, he returned to Shanghai where his achievement had caused a tremendous tremen-dous sensation There comes now an Interim in Ward's fighting fight-ing toils, for half a score of unhealed wounds compelled him to go to Paris for treatment, but we find him back again in the early summer of 1S61 where his presence was sorely needed. The foreign rowers still pursued their hands-off hands-off policy and allowed the Taipings to sound their drums and tom-toms within earshot of the swarming treaty port. In a diplomatic way, indeed, in-deed, formal recognition of the "Heavenly King" as the dominant power was in the air. Ward's coming shattered that intention, which, if carried out. would have destroyed the empire. He grasped the situation and, through the Futai of the province of Cheh-Kiang, obtained directly from the Peking authorities a commission commis-sion to raise and command an imperial Chinese levy. His experience told him that, well drilled and daringly handled, the natives had plenty of good soldier-stuff and would fight and die in thdir tracks. A singular -thing happened at this time. At the principal temple of Confucius one day he discovered in one of the consecrated niches a scepter-like staff of ebony with a curiously carved head of jade minutely inscribed. The effect on his native valet was remarkable, and he learned that It was one of the great talismans talis-mans of the empire. When he appeared with it before his troops the next day they fell to their knees in ranks. Thenceforward he carried no sword, only this magic baton attached to his wrist with a thong. In the eyes of the Chinese, even the Taipings, it made him an invincible leader. Shortly afterward, indeed, it saved his life. A large detachment from the main force of Chung Wang camped too near his city of Sung Kiang. Sallying forth with to regiments, he struck their camp like a thunderbolt at night, cutting the force to pieces. The clock now struck twelve for Frederick Ward. A courier arrived post haste from the Futai of Shanghai, ordering him to report there for co-operation with the Anglo-French contingent. contin-gent. He obeyed with two picked regiments, leaving Sung Kiang strongly garrisoned under Colonel Forester. Admiral Sir James Hope had arrived and had insisted that General Ward should be fully recognized as the most efficient factor of salvation. The first move was against Kaschiaou, which threatened the supplies of Shanghai. Ward and his Celestials carried the defenses in the most gallant fashion, leaving Sir James Hope's contingent con-tingent but little to do except gather in two thousand prisoners. All the English officers were delighted with the splendid dash and confidence marking Ward's attack, and when Sir James Michel, the British commander-in-chief, arrived from Hong Kong with Sepoy reinforcements he agreed cordially cor-dially with Admiral Hope when these two reviewed re-viewed Ward's forces at Sung Kiang. It was advised that Ward be commissioned by the Chinese government to raise from 6,000 to 10,000 men and be invested with a large range of authority. The result was an extravagantly phrased rescript re-script from Peking that commissioned General Ward to raise and command 6,000 men, named him admiral-general, and made him a mandarin of the "peacock feather." With It came the famous "Yellow Jacket," equivalent in China to the Golden Fleece or the Order of the Garter. The new force was designated Chun Chen Chun, "The Ever Victorious Army." It was in April, 1S62, that a council of war was held at SuDg Kiang. Sir James .Hope, General Gen-eral Staveley, the French Admiral Potret, General Gen-eral Ward and Viceroy Lich being present. It was here that Ward's general plan was fully sanctioned. This showed great grasp of military strategy. The proposition was to capture the cities of Kahding, Sing Poo, Najaor, Tsaolin and lesser fortified places within a radius of forty miles from Shanghai. Needless to linger on the details of the on Kahding, Sing Poo, Najaor and Tsaolin. General Gen-eral Ward in each case, magic baton in hand, headed the asaulting column through the breach made by artillery, and his men charged to the very gates of Tophet,- resistless in their ardor, mad with the joy of battle. In the Tsaolin affair the gallant French admiral Protet was shot dead at his side. Tz-ki fell before his assault like a house of cardboard, but one of the last hostile bullets fired pierced Ward's chest with a fatal wound. He was taken aboard a British gunboat commanded bv Lieutenant Roderick Dew and was brought down to Ningpo. Splendid funeral obsequies at the temple of Confucius in Sung FCiang w-ere held, at which all the foremost personages of that part of China, native and foreign, attested their grief and paid their homage to the deeds of the man who had practically arrested the disintegration of the emDire. |