China in 1900 was a powder keg of resentment. For 60 years the Europeans and Japanese, the 'foreign devils', had seized ports and declared sovereignty over more and more Chinese territory. They brought with them technological changes like the telegraph and railroad to 'modernise' the country. In their wake Christian missionaries were converting the populace. These changes were perceived as a threat to the very roots of Chinese society and culture. Ancient ways of living and working were turned inside out as many Chinese found themselves labouring for the enrichment of foreigners.
The rapidly growing 'Society of the Righteous Harmonious Fists', or 'Boxers' as they were known to the Europeans, were the foreigners most bitter enemy. In the past the Chinese dowager Empress Tzu Hsi had used her army to suppress the Boxers. A strong tide of popular feeling was running against the foreign powers however, and Tzu Hsi now found it to be in her interest to turn a blind eye towards the activities of the Boxers. The movement now claimed that some 8,000,000 'Spirit Soldiers' were standing by to drive the foreigners out. They also proclaimed all true believing Boxers to be immune to bullets. The Boxers rated their European and Japanese enemies as 'first-class devils' with Chinese Christians being rated 'second-class devils' and any Chinese who assisted the foreigners as 'third-class devils'. All devils were to be destroyed in order to save China. In the midst of this discontent were American missionaries and businessmen.
The United States had entered East Asia by inheriting the Philippines after the Spanish-American War of 1898, but they had avoided landing troops or seizing any property or territory within China. However, Americans did run a significant number of businesses and Christian missions in China. The Boxers did not appreciate the subtle nuances of the US stance and, as unrest spread, Americans were in as much danger as any 'first-class devil.'
By the spring of 1900, European and American refugees began appearing in Peking and in coastal cities. They were fleeing rampaging Boxer gangs who were massacring foreigners with an ever-increasing frequency. The foreign embassies, or legations, in Peking began nervously calling for troops to protect them.
The Legations are garrisoned
The Europeans landed troops near Taku, at the mouth of the Pei Hu river, approximately 100 miles (160km) from Peking. Elements of the US Far East Naval squadron raced to the Chinese harbour and, on 29 May, landed just over 100 Marines and sailors under the command of the USS Newark's Capt B.H. McCalla USN. They were pulled upriver by tug to the nearby city of Tientsin, to be greeted joyously by the nervous international community. The next day 48 Marines and five sailors, equipped with one 6mm Colt machine-gun, all under the command of 29-year-old Capt John T. 'Handsome Jack' Myers USMC, were despatched to Peking on a commandeered train. They, along with 370 additional foreign troops, arrived in the capital that evening. Marching through the outskirts of Peking to the foreign-legation quarter they were met by gathering crowds of stonily silent Chinese. This eerie greeting seemed to Capt Myers 'more ominous than a demonstration of hostility would have been'.
On 9 June Chinese rioters burned down the European racetrack in Peking. The rioting and the murder of missionaries over the previous months had made only a limited impression in political circles. However, the destruction of the racetrack caused the senior British diplomat, Sir Claude MacDonald, to unilaterally call on Admiral Sir Edward Seymour RN, commander of the British Far East naval squadron, to send forces to the relief of the Legations.
In Peking, tensions escalated. On 11 June, Boxers killed a Japanese official in the street. Telegraph and rail services were cut by now, and increasing numbers of Europeans and Christian Chinese continued to enter the Legation quarter, bringing tales of riot and massacre. On 20 June, the German Ambassador was murdered in the street on his way to register a protest to the Chinese government. The Legations threw up barricades and Chinese exchanged fire with the defenders. Except for an occasional cry for help, nothing more was to be heard from the foreign Legations until the Allied relief army marched into Peking some 55 days later.
Allies by circumstance, the Europeans, Japanese and Americans near Taku agreed that Adm Seymour, the senior officer, should lead the available troops to nearby Tientsin. Here a conference was to be held. The Admiral wanted to continue on to Peking, but the majority opinion was to wait for reinforcements. Capt McCalla, commanding the American contingent, stood up and declared 'I don't care what the rest of you do. I have 112 men here, and I'm going tomorrow morning to the rescue of my own flesh and blood in Peking. I'll be damned if I sit here 90 miles away and just wait.' The argument swayed the allies, and the next morning (10 June) the troops loaded onto five trains bound for Peking.
Seymour's expedition
The first train had half the British troops, all of the American sailors and Marines, a contingent of Austrians, with Adm Seymour on board and Capt McCalla as second in command. Also on board was a Chinese rail gang, supplies to repair track damage and, fortuitously, an American sailor who was a former rail section-hand. A flat car with troops and a machine-gun was placed on the front of the train. The expedition had three days' rations, though its leaders expected the trip of almost 100 miles (161km) to take little longer than a day. Officers had even packed their dress uniforms for use in Peking. After all, how could a Chinese rabble possibly hope to block a 'European' military force intent on getting through?
On the first and second days of the journey, minor track damage was encountered and mended by the troops. By the evening of the second day, 11 June, still 35 miles (56km) short of Peking, the relief force reached the still-smouldering ruins of Langfang station. On the 3rd day only four track-damaged miles (6.5km) were made as the days grew hotter and drinking water scarcer. That afternoon, the Chinese attacked the lead train. 'Not more than a couple of hundred, armed with swords, spears, gingals [blunderbusses] and rifles, many of them being quite boys...there was no sign of fear or hesitation, and these were not fanatical braves, or the trained soldiers of the Empress, but the quiet peace loving peasantry - the countryside in arms against the foreigner.' The attack was over in 20 minutes, leaving 60 dead Chinese and a surprisingly shaken trainload of soldiers. The assaults grew steadily fiercer and continued into the next evening, 13 June. Seymour's force began to take casualties and to run short of supplies and ammunition. A train couldn't return to Tientsin for supplies because the Boxers had destroyed bridges and track to the column's rear. Under the circumstances, it seemed foolhardy to attempt a direct march on Peking. Seymour decided to retreat 15 miles (24km) to Yangtsun and the Pei Ho River.
The trains retreated slowly to Yangtsun and arrived on 18 June to find the railroad bridge over the river unsafe to cross. They also found that Imperial Chinese troops had joined with the Boxers, and were threatening Adm Seymour's rearguard. Faced with limited options, Seymour ordered the abandonment of the trains and a retreat along the river to Tientsin. A few captured boats were used to transport the wounded and the artillery, which was later jettisoned because the river became too shallow. Led by three Marine sharpshooters, the harried force made a three-day fighting retreat along the west bank of the Pei Ho. Just short of Tientsin, they stumbled across a Chinese arsenal at Hsiku.
On half rations, with 200 wounded and worn out by the fighting and heat, Seymour decided to storm the arsenal and hold it until a relief force reached them. Two assault columns carried the position against sharp, but ineffective, opposition. The arsenal was well stocked with food, water, weapons and ammunition. Three days later they were relieved by a Russian Cossack column out of Tientsin. Seymour's force dragged into Tientsin proper on 26 June with 62 dead and 232 wounded. American losses totalled four killed and 28 wounded.
The Taku Forts
During Seymour's absence, the European powers at Taku roadstead had decided to bombard and seize the large Chinese army fort guarding the harbour. The senior American, Adm Louis Kempff, had been forbidden to take any offensive action against the Chinese by Washington, and declined to participate in the attack. On 17 June, while Seymour was retreating to Yangtsun, the Europeans landed sailors and marines upriver of the fort and successfully stormed it from the landward side. This attack secured the harbour, but it also pushed the Chinese government further into an uneasy partnership with the Boxers. On 21 June, the Chinese government declared war on the foreign powers.
When Seymour's column departed Tientsin on 10 June, he had left only a small force to protect the city's international quarter. The American contribution was 11 sailors and Marines under the command of a navy officer, Cadet George Pettengill. Fortunately, as the Boxer threat to the city increased, Russian and other European troops arrived, however, within a week the international quarter was under siege. On 17 June a large, dangerous but unsuccessful Chinese assault was made. The city appealed to Taku for relief and Maj Littleton W.T. Waller and 138 Marines, freshly arrived from the Philippines, along with a Russian battalion (440 men), agreed to attempt to reinforce Tientsin. Early on the morning of 21 June, Waller gave his lone Colt machine-gun to the advance guard and formed his Marines behind the Russian battalion.
The Major had wanted to wait until the afternoon for expected reinforcements, but the Russian commander insisted on an immediate attack. By 0700 the Russians had reached Tientsin and were heavily engaged with 2,000 entrenched Chinese defending the city's east arsenal. The Marines protected the Russians' right flank, and the Colt gun gave yeoman service, but no headway was made. Both the machine-gun and its crew were soon disabled, and the Russians fell back. The Marines, with 27 killed and wounded, formed the rearguard as the force returned to the previous evening's bivouac. That afternoon and the next morning British, German and Russian reinforcements arrived. The force then advanced to the previous day's battle site.
At 0400 on 23 June, one column of British sailors and Royal Welch Fusiliers led by Waller's US Marines moved towards Tientsin along the eastern riverbank. A Russian/German column attacked the Chinese East Arsenal position.
The British/American column met no resistance, so Waller moved to support the fight for the arsenal. The Marines survived a bridge mine explosion shaken but unscathed, and assisted the Europeans in capturing the arsenal's frontline trenches. Waller's men returned to the British column on the riverbank in time to help force a Chinese military-college position. By 1300 the Anglo-American column had entered the city and the European cantonment. There they were met with bottles of beer and a handshake from the civilian engineer who had laid out the defences of Tientsin's foreign quarter, future US President Herbert Hoover. Marine losses for the day were one killed and three wounded. The Russian/German column was unable to seize the East Arsenal and instead side-stepped into Tientsin's foreign quarter behind the Anglo-Americans. The Russians launched another attack on the east arsenal on 27 June. A British force with 40 US Marines assisted in the attack.The Allies had now secured the European cantonment, but the Chinese still held the walled city of Tientsin. As reinforcements reached the Allies, the Chinese forces also grew. The US 9th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Col Emerson H. Liscum, and another 300 Marines arrived at Tientsin by 10 July. Col Robert L. Meade USMC, the 55-year-old son of the Union commander at Gettysburg, George G. Meade, commanded the Marine battalion. Soon to arrive was Reilly's F battery of the 5th Artillery Regiment. All three men were Civil War veterans, and two of them would die in action before the campaign was over. The 14th Infantry and the 6th Cavalry Regiments were also expected soon.
'Situation desperate...'
On 29 June, as the Allies gathered strength, a message was received from the Peking Legations: 'Situation desperate - Make haste!' With the arrival of the American army and Marine units on 10 July, the Allies now planned an assault on Chinese-held Tientsin. Col Meade commanded 450 soldiers of the 9th Infantry and 400 Marines with three Marine 3in-guns and three Colt machine-guns. On 13 July the Americans and a large force of Japanese, British sailors and the Royal Welch Fusiliers were to make a dawn attack on the south gate of the walled city.
Neither Liscum nor Meade had seen the ground when they were briefed that night by British Gen Dorwood. The American and British attacks were to pin down the Chinese defenders while the Japanese forced the gate. This action was supported by several 12-pdr guns taken from HMS Terrible, firing Lyditte shells (see 'Lyddite' sidebar in Journal 2.1). These same guns from HMS Terrible had served in the relief of Ladysmith in the Boer War, earlier that year.
The bombardment started at 0500 with the attack going in at 0630. Col Meade's men advanced in a skirmish line towards the city, ultimately stopping several hundred yards short due to swampy ground. Meade reported: 'The country was a flat level one with grave mounds and dikes in great numbers and these already dug trenches were of very considerable help to us in such an open, fire-swept plain we would have had difficulty advancing...The fire of the Chinese both in artillery and infantry was fearfully accurate as the casualty list will evidence and I thank God for the mounds and dikes.' The Chinese made two attempts to flank the Americans that day but, in sweltering heat (104°F), were driven back on both occasions. The Japanese bogged down on a destroyed bridge approach to the gate, and were unable to attack.
Advancing in extended order, Col Liscum's 9th Infantry received fire from a small mud-walled village on their right flank. Forming up they advanced on this position. Unable to close with the enemy due to the swampy nature of the ground, the Colonel ordered his men to take what cover was available. In a scene reminiscent of earlier wars, Liscum was mortally wounded while holding his regiment's flag in the open to rally his troops.
His dying words were 'Keep up the fire.' By the end of the day the 9th had lost about 88 men, including Col Liscum dead and both majors wounded. The Marines lost 40 men with one company commander killed. Lt Smedley Butler USMC had spent the day leading his company of Marines and rescuing the wounded. For his trouble he was wounded in the leg and promoted to captain. Col Meade survived the fight unwounded but with his feet and hands bandaged from severe arthritis. The Japanese, Americans and British spent most of the day under the Chinese guns and retreated as the daylight faded. Very early the next morning, six Japanese sappers died blowing open the gate, and in an anticlimax the city was taken in a swift attack. With all of Tientsin captured, the Allies had secured a base from which to launch their relief of Peking - where the Legations were rumoured to have fallen and the garrison massacred.
The Peking relief force
With Col Meade invalided out, the reinforced 2,500-man American Brigade was now commanded by US Army Gen Adna R. Chaffee. It consisted of both the 9th and 14th Infantry Regiments, a Marine Regiment under Maj W.P. 'Sitting Bull' Biddle, Capt Reilly's battery of six guns, and M troop of the 6th Cavalry (75 men). The Allies now selected British Lt Gen Sir Richard Gaselee as the overall commander for the 25,000-man expedition. With news that the Legations were still holding out, the new relief force struck out for nearby Peh-Tsun on the afternoon of 4 August. Some eight miles (13km) from Tientsin on the morning of 5 August, the Japanese assaulted and seized Peh-Tsun from Chinese Army and Boxer forces.
The next day, another 12 miles (19km) up the road towards Peking, a larger battle was fought at Yang-Tsun, this time involving the Americans. The Japanese advanced up the marshy west side of the Pei-Ho river while the rest of the Allies came up the east side. The British advanced alongside the river towards Yang-Tsun as the Americans protected their right flank. In the heat of the midday sun, the 14th US Infantry and elements of a Sikh battalion supported by Russian and British guns were deployed into dense skirmish lines and advanced. They were subjected to heavy, if inaccurate, Chinese rifle and artillery fire as they approached a small village just south of Yang-Tsun. They had orders to capture the village and the bridge just beyond. Within 150 yards (137m) of their first target the Americans and Sikhs were able to catch their breath behind the protection of a railroad embankment. The infantrymen then took the village and bridge in a single rush, which the Chinese did not wait to receive. With eight dead and 57 wounded, the exhausted Americans all but collapsed in the newly won shade. Fifteen of these casualties were caused by Allied artillery mistakenly continuing to shell the village. An American officer nearly died of heat exhaustion after running back to call off the gunfire.
The 9th Infantry, Reilly's battery, and the Marines were further out on the right of the Allied line. Cavalry scouts reported to Gen Chaffee that several hamlets east of the bridge and Yang-Tsun were held by the Chinese in force. Chaffee ordered the 9th to clear the enemy out. Directed by artillerymen perched atop caissons and 14-foot (4.25m) ladders to see over the standing corn, Reilly's guns supported the advance of the infantry. The 9th had to cross large, stifling cornfields and soft ground which, combined with the heat and humidity, exhausted the advancing riflemen. Innumerable men had to fall out of the advance due to the heat, and two men ultimately died as a result of the extreme conditions.
Col Daggett of the 14th described that Chinese summer sun as having 'more power to prostrate men than I had witnessed in our Southern States or Cuba or the Philippines.'
As the Americans approached the hamlets, the Chinese fled, unhindered by the heat, with Reilly's shells pursuing them. The Marines had advanced in support of the 9th but had not seen action. The fighting started at 1100 hours and was over by 1500. The 9th Infantry lost one man killed and five wounded, with the Marines and gunners losing one wounded each.
During the next seven days the Allies - with the large Japanese contingent in the lead - advanced largely unopposed along the Pei-Ho river toward Peking. The infantry were delayed in their marches by the heat, dust and crooked roads (the Chinese believing that straight roads allowed the rapid passage of evil spirits). Marine Lt Smedley Butler described the march as having, 'no shade, not a drop of rain, nor a breath of air. The cavalry and artillery kicked up clouds of dust which beat back in our faces. The blistering heat burned our lungs. Nearly half our men fell behind during the day, overcome by the sun. In the cool of the night they would catch-up with us and start on again next morning...We were cautioned not to drink the water, but no orders could keep us from anything that was liquid.'
The Assault on Peking
By the night of 13 August the relief force was within five miles (8km) of Peking. They had agreed to use the morning of 14 August for the forces to deploy to the four city gates they were to attack. The coordinated assault on these four gates, which were positioned along the eastern ramparts of the capital, would not begin until all was ready. Late on the evening of 13 August, furious gunfire was heard from the city. Gen Chaffee and most of the Americans nervously assumed a last desperate assault was being made on the Legations. It was, however, the Russian relief force attacking one of the city gates on their own. They found it heavily defended, and made little progress. Gen Gaselee's uneasy coalition had fractured, just as the prize came into sight. By daylight the next morning, it was a free-for-all. Gen Chaffee at first didn't believe a serious attack was underway, but by dawn he had his forces marching to the sound of the guns. He found that the Tung-Pien gate, which had been assigned to his forces, was now being assaulted by the Russians. Confused, Chaffee ordered the 14th and 9th Infantry to advance towards nearby sections of the city walls, adjacent to the gate.
As the 14th Infantry approached they found large portions of the 30-foot-high (9m) wall seemingly undefended. The Chinese generals had ordered most of their troops to other ramparts or to the gates to defend against the Russians. Calvin P. Titus, a teenage bugler, volunteered to scale the wall. As the regiment watched, the unarmed bugler slowly ascended the wall and then popped over. He had found the wall unmanned, and waved on more volunteers. Two officers and a handful of men followed Titus up, but the Chinese soon discovered them and they came under fire. Twine used to drop canteens into deep Chinese wells, was now used to haul up rifles and ammunition. One company of the 14th constructed a makeshift ladder with bamboo poles. By 1100 the Stars and Stripes of the 14th Regiment was visible on the east wall of Peking. The sight of the flag raised a cheer from all the Allies and helped stop friendly artillery fire on the American position. The infantrymen on the wall were able to subdue nearby Chinese resistance and move down to open the Tung-Pien gate. Through this breach the Russian infantry surged into the city.
House-to-house fighting broke out as the Russians and Americans jammed into the city. Two of Reilly's guns pressed in and, after infantry tore down a house, the guns were able to fire on a battlement and tower. The 14th Infantry and the Russians fought their way toward the Legation compound. Elements of the Marines and the 9th Infantry followed close behind. At 1630 Gen Chaffee led American forces into the Legation quarter only to find he had been preceded by the British under Gen Gaselee by two hours. Gaselee's men had blown open their assigned gate, the southernmost Hsiakuo-men, late in the morning and had marched largely unopposed through the city to be greeted by the US Marines of the Legation at 1430. Amazingly, the days' fighting had cost the Americans only one killed and nine wounded; the 55-day defence of the Peking Legation had cost Capt Myers four dead and 20 wounded.
Maj Waller characterised the literally ragged American relief force now filing into the Legation as 'like Falstaff's army in appearance, but with brave hearts and bright weapons'.
With major portions of the capital and the internal Forbidden City still held by the Chinese, Gen Chaffee decided to continue the attack the next morning. Four of Reilly's guns were put onto the battlements of the Legation and, on 15 August at about 0730, opened fire on nearby Chinese positions. The 14th Infantry thought it was moving to a new bivouac site when it learned that it was to lead an attack into the heart of the capital. The first wall to be passed was an undefended 45-foot-high (13m) masonry edifice with towers and an 8in-thick (20cm) timber gate. Reilly's battery brought forward two guns to within 12 feet (3.6m) of the gate. A lieutenant then walked up to the gate and drew an 'X' on it. The guns fired two rounds and blew the gate in. The 14th entered a long tunnel and emerged in a huge courtyard. The Americans now faced a similar wall, a gate and a moat. A platoon was sent forward to investigate and after 50 yards met a fusillade from a distant battlement. The soldiers took cover in the gravel and grass and their fire suppressed the Chinese. More men were brought forward. The two-gun artillery section and a Gatling gun were brought up to commence an accurate barrage of the Chinese. After about an hour, a company went forward to the position and found only a few snipers still about. The guns then also blew in this gate.
Now another long courtyard was visible, along with another wall and gate which had to be breached. This position was found abandoned and another gate blown in. A further courtyard ended, with another wall and gate. The waiting Chinese opened fire and Chaffee's men took cover and again suppressed the defenders. With two small Russian and Italian units looking on, the gunners were preparing to blow in the gate when the order came to cease fire. This single gateway lay between the Americans and Tzu Hsi's palace. The diplomats had decided not to allow the Americans or any other power to enter the seat of the Chinese government in the Forbidden City. With about 40 wounded or killed, the Americans withdrew to the Legation. Among the dead was the gallant Civil War veteran Capt Reilly, killed early in the day by a sniper's bullet. Fifty-eight Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to the soldiers, sailors and marines in China, including one to bugler Calvin P. Titus.
After a 55-day siege the Legations had been relieved but the fighting continued. More American and European troops were landed. The Chinese Government agreed to a humiliating peace. The dowager Empress had fled, but she would return to rule her now-plundered capital and nation in 1902. Allied solidarity during the crisis had been an amazing but fragile accomplishment. By 1905 the Japanese and Russians would be at war. Nine years later, more of the former Allies would be at each others' throats as World War I got underway. The transient unity seen in the Boxer rebellion was now a faded piece of history. US forces had played a significant role in the swift relief of the Legations. Fighting alongside European troops outside North America for the first time, America had shown what its military was capable of. It would do so again in 1918.
by Mark Henry
Suggested reading
A year in China, Clive Bigham (London 1902)
America in The China Relief Expedition, A. Daggett (Hudson-Kimberly 1903)
Boxer Rebellion, Lynn Bodin (Osprey 1979)
Old Gimlet Eye, Lowell Thomas (Farrar & Rinehart 1933)
The Siege at Peking, Peter Fleming (Harper 1959)
Soldiers Of The Sea, Robert Heinl (USNI 1962)
Various articles in Marine Corps Gazette
About the author
Mark R. Henry has studied the US Army of the 19th and 20th century over a number of years and has written several books and articles on the subject. His first book for Osprey was the superb Men-at-Arms 327 US Marine Corps in World War I 1914-18. Mark is currently working on a three Men-at-Arms titles on the US Army of World War II.