The ships and sailors of old Salem

by Ralph Delahaye Paine

The story now approaches the closing scene of Ward’s career. He was now ordered to Ning Po to take command. The order reached him at dusk. Late as the hour was, he at once paraded his troops, reviewed them, and expressed the highest satisfaction with accouterments and drill. He was never to marshal them again. More devoted following no captain ever had. It was their pride to be known as “Ward’s disciplined Chinese.” He reached Ning Po with only the life-guard of Manila-men who were always near him, and at once made his dispositions for driving the Rebels out of Tsz Ki.

On the morning of September 20th he took five or six hundred men up the river and opened an attack on the fort at Tsz Ki with howitzers. A storming party passed him on its approach to the wall it was to scale, and he said to Captain Cook who led it: “You must do it with a rush, or we shall fail, for they are very numerous.” He was shot and carried to the rear before the scaling ladders could be placed. His command was largely made up of troops which were strangers to him, and it has been hinted that he may have been shot by his own men. The assault prevailed. Tsz Ki fell, and the Legion held the town.

Ward’s comrade in arms, Forrester, has thus described the closing scene:

“‘We now turned our attention to Tsz Ki. Ward being anxious to capture the city with the least possible delay, we started out together to reconnoitre the field. We had become so accustomed to the enemy’s fire that we had grown somewhat careless. While we were standing together inspecting the position Ward put his hand suddenly to his side and exclaimed: ‘I have been hit.’ A brief investigation showed that the wound was a serious one, and I had him carried on board the Hardy where surgical attendance was promptly given. I then held a consultation with the officers of the expedition. It was decided to carry out Ward’s plan and attack the city at once. Ladders were quickly thrown across the moat which were then drawn over and placed against the walls, and, before the garrison fully recognized what we were about, our troops were in possession of the city.

“‘As soon as I had my troops properly housed and posted, I set out with General Ward for Ning Po. Arrived there, the General was removed to the house of Doctor Parker, a resident physician, and every precaution taken. But he had been gradually sinking, and he died that night.

“‘Early the next morning I ordered his body conveyed on board the Confucius, that we might reach Shanghai at the earliest possible moment. The captain of the boat (Lynch by name, afterwards with Semmes in the Alabama) proved insubordinate. At nine o’clock we were ten miles out at sea and short of coal. I had the captain put in irons and turned over the command to the lieutenant. We were then in such a strong current that I gave up hope of getting the steamer back to Ning Po, determined rather to work our way to a port near Shanghai. By the middle of the afternoon we ran alongside a British ship flying Dent and Company’s flag. I knew this firm to be warm supporters of the Imperial Government, and so had no hesitance in boarding the vessel and obtaining a supply of coal. The funeral of General Ward at Shanghai was a most impressive one. A great number of civil and military officers accompanied his body to Sung Kiang, where it was interred with great pomp, and enjoyed the extraordinary honor of a resting place in the Confucian Temple.”

Captain Rhoderick Dhu, of the flagship Encounter, in transmitting Lieutenant Bogle’s report of Ward’s death to Sir James Hope, wrote: “It is now my painful duty to inform you that General Ward, while directing the assault, fell, mortally wounded. The Hardy brought him down the same evening to Ning Po, and he died the next morning in Doctor Parker’s house. During a short acquaintance with General Ward I have learned to appreciate him much, and I fear his death will cast a gloom over the Imperial cause in China, of which he was the stay and prop.”

How cordially Sir James responded to these generous sentiments from a gallant British sailor appears from his dispatch to Minister Burlingame, transmitting the announcement of Ward’s death, which the American Minister embodied in his dispatch to Washington:

“I am sure you will be much grieved to hear of poor Ward’s death. The Chinese Government have lost a very able and gallant servant, who has rendered them much faithful service, and whom it will not be easy for them to replace.”

Of the events immediately following the death of Frederick Townsend Ward and the appointment of Colonel Peter Gordon (“Chinese” Gordon) to the command of the “Ever Victorious Legion,” Dr. S. Wells Williams in his monumental work, The Middle Kingdom, writes as follows: