The expedition, which was strengthened by a French force, was ready to begin operations against the Taku Forts by July 1860, but owing to the swampy nature of the country around them a halt had to be called while the engineers set to work to make roads. These were completed by the middle of August, and then the attack commenced in real earnest.
Under a heavy fire from the Chinese gunners English and French vied with each other to be the first to cross the ditches in front of the forts. Scaling-ladders and pontoon bridges were requisitioned, but the delay in placing these in position galled a number of our men to such an extent that privates and officers alike plunged boldly into the water and swam across. The first to reach the walls were Lieutenant Robert Rogers, of the 44th Regiment, two Lieutenants of the 67th, E. H. Lenon and Nathaniel Burslem, with Privates John M’Dougall and Thomas Lane. Up through the embrasures they all clambered, Burslem and Lane being specially noticed as they knocked away a portion of the wall and enlarged the opening sufficiently to enable them to scramble through, just as did Dunley at the Secunderabagh fight.
Where they showed the way their comrades quickly followed, the while some of the French with ladders vainly attempted to climb the walls. At the head of the 67th Regiment came Ensign Chaplin, bearing proudly the colour which he was determined to plant first upon the fort. He had hardly gained the ditch, however, when a bullet struck him in the arm, making him drop the standard. There was a brief pause while he bound a handkerchief tightly round his wound, then on he went again, colours raised aloft.
A French regiment of infantry was pressing forward at the same time, and Chaplin playfully called to their colour-bearer to race him to the fort. The challenge was promptly taken up. As soon as the breach was clear the ensign dashed for it, and by strenuous effort forced his way inside. Before him were Chinese riflemen and pikemen, but he cut his way through them with his sword, and hurried on to his goal.
Suddenly a second bullet caught him, making him stagger, at which a private clutched at the swaying standard pole.
“Hands off!” cried Chaplin vehemently, for he saw that the French colour-bearer was now close behind him. And, pulling himself together gamely, he made a last spurt for the summit, which he reached well in advance of all others. In a moment the flag was planted, amid a ringing British cheer; then the brave young ensign was seen to fall. A shot in the leg had brought him down at last.
Seeing him prone on the ground at their mercy, the Chinese made a rush for him, but they were luckily too late. The 67th swarmed up the hill, and Chaplin was rescued to survive that engagement and many others, and wear on his breast the Cross for Valour in token of his gallantry. At the same time that he was gazetted the names of Rogers, Lenon, Burslem, M’Dougall, and Lane also appeared, the V.C. having been bestowed upon them for that bold dash at the breach.
The obvious similarity of the incidents makes it unnecessary for me to more than just refer here to the deed for which Midshipman D. G. Boyes and Captain of the After-Guard Thomas Pride, of H.M.S. Euryalus, won the Cross. Their vessel formed one of the fleet under Vice-Admiral Kuper which was sent to Japan in 1863 to demand reparation from the Mikado’s Government for certain outrages committed. At the attack on Shimonoseki Boyes carried the colour of the leading regiment, with Pride as one of his colour-sergeants (the other fell mortally wounded in the thick of the fight), and was almost the first to get inside the enemy’s stockade. That the middy ran a terrible risk is evident from the fact that the colour he carried was pierced no fewer than six times by musket balls.
Out in the Indian state of Bhotan in 1865 an act of remarkable daring was performed, which brought the V.C. to two distinguished engineer officers, Captain (now Major-General) William Spottiswoode Trevor and Lieutenant James Dundas. In that year war broke out with the independent Bhotias, originating in a quarrel over frontier territories in Assam, and a British force under Major-General Sir Harry Tombs, V.C., the hero of a little outpost skirmish at Delhi, already recorded, was despatched to restore order.