“On February 21, 1862, General Ward took the offensive with a thousand men, supported by Admiral Hope and the French Admiral Protet, in a movement to enforce the observances of the thirty-mile limit. This movement involved many encounters and was a brilliant success. From it Ward won great credit for his courage and strategic sense, together with the high appreciation of both his naval supporters. Of the six thousand Rebels who were expected to make of the fortified town they were defending an impregnable fortress, a large part were captured and turned over to the mercies of the Shanghai Imperialists, who proceeded to decapitate them, with every circumstance of barbarity, in the public square of the city. Ward succeeded in arresting the slaughter as soon as it was brought to his knowledge.
“This victory was hailed with great enthusiasm, and earned for Ward’s corps the compliments of an Imperial decree. Its numbers were doubled, and Admiral Hope found it in his great heart to forgive his quondam prisoner and to praise him warmly. In March, 1862, a memorial to the British Consul-General from representative citizens of Shanghai, shows that progress was making, though slowly, for the relief of the port.
“At this time Ward discovered that the Rebel leaders were contracting for gunboats in the United States. On learning from him this fact, Li Hung Chang made an effective protest to the American Minister, and applauded the loyalty which prompted Ward’s information and which defeated the Rebel plan. But gunboats and implements of war were a necessity to both parties and Ward, through his brother who had joined him in China, and through his father, now a ship broker in New York, was in a position to supply the Imperialists with muskets, artillery and river steamers, and this he did.
“On April 26th, an attack was planned on a strong walled town twenty miles from Shanghai. A half-dozen armed steamers and transports furnished by the Allies, together with thirty little Chinese gunboats, moved up the river in support of Ward’s force, which consisted of three battalions with howitzers, and of a body of three thousand Chinese troops. The city fell and was looted, mainly, it was charged, by French sailors.
“On May 6th, the English and French Admirals took their turn at the work and the French Admiral Protet, universally esteemed, was killed. A bronze statue commemorates the distinguished Frenchman at Shanghai, and Imperial honors were accorded him in an edict commanding gifts “to comfort the departed soul of the faithful,” and sacrifices to be arranged by Li Hung Chang, “to the manes of the French Admiral.” A detachment of the “Ever Conquering Legion” was present at the military mass celebrated in his honor at the Cathedral of Shanghai.
“On May 13th, Ward made his fourth attempt to capture Tsing-pu and this time with complete success. No looting was permitted. Ward received in hand the stipulated thirty thousand taels as the price of this important capture, returning at the head of his victorious troops to the Sung Kiang headquarters. He had now equipped his men with arms bought from the English Army in India and with Prussian rifles. He had been supported in this attack by English and French troops and by a French gunboat carrying a heavy rifled gun which, after a three hours’ bombardment, effected a breach and let in his force. But his men were later dislodged by an overwhelming Rebel horde, after a most creditable defense.
“General Ward and his troops earned great distinction in an action on May 19th. Ward’s ambition at this time seems to have been to lead a corps of twenty-five thousand men of all arms, and to be empowered by the Emperor to operate with a free hand, independently of English and French Allies, and to be responsible directly to him. The London Times, in a notice of his death, intimates that he had achieved this object.
“At last, in August, 1862, he started out without support for a fifth attack upon the stronghold of Tsing-pu. A reward was offered for the first man to enter the city and a Manila-man, Macanaya, General Ward’s devoted aid-de-camp, secured it. The ‘Legion’ succeeded at last in taking and holding the town. Probably this was the action so feelingly described by the one great captain among all the hosts enlisted under the Rebel flag. He complains that Li Hung Chang was employing “devil soldiers” against him, and found it necessary to march in person against these “Foreign Devils” at the head of ten thousand picked men. “Imagine it,” he says, “a thousand devils keeping in check my ten thousand men! Who could put up with such a thing!”
“Ward’s relations with Taki were at this time most cordial, and they were now joint owners of two American-built gunboats. With other gunboats chartered by them, the banker and General Ward—he was now a Chinese Admiral as well—fitted out an expedition against the river pirates. Bombarding failed to dislodge them from their stockades, but Ward disembarked a force and they fled before him.
“Ward’s success in disciplining the Chinese was beginning to stimulate the Allies. The French in turn raised a native legion and put a French officer at the head of it, and when an expedition was organized against a force of Rebels threatening Ning Po, with the support of Captain Rhoderick Dhu commanding the Encounter whose draught of water forbade a near approach, a French lieutenant leading a corps of the new Franco-Chinese contingent was taken into action on board the river boat Confucius, while Ward’s men, in equal numbers, were towed in launches up the river by the British gunboat Hardy. At the end of a six hours’ struggle Ward fell back with the loss of eight officers and a hundred and fifty men. Next day the attack was renewed with success and the Rebels fled to Tsz Ki.”