The Devil Soldier (51 page)

Prince Kung
, Hsien-feng’s half brother and the most capable statesman in Peking at the time. After Hsien-feng’s death Kung served Yehonala and T’ung-chih well by realizing that rather than berating Westerners the Chinese should make treaties with them and then hold the Westerners to the terms of the treaties, thus limiting their aggressions. He established the suppression of the Taiping rebellion as the imperial government’s first goal. Though he distrusted foreign adventurers such as Ward, Kung, like Tz’u-hsi, became willing to make use of them.

Tseng Kuo-fan
, the brilliant Chinese bureaucrat and military leader who organized the progressive Hunan Army to fight the Taipings and became the architect of China’s “self-strengthening movement.” By reemphasizing Confucian values and dealing with the rebels in an uncompromising fashion, Tseng became the first imperial leader to check and then turn back the advancing Taiping wave. But, because he was so grounded in antiquated Chinese tradition, Tseng’s determined attempts at military and political reform ultimately amounted to relatively little. Opposed to any foreign involvement in the Chinese civil war, Tseng distrusted Ward but understood that his own strategy of crushing the Taipings at Nanking with two mighty pincers—one moving from the east and one from the west—might not work without the participation of the Ever Victorious Army.

Li Hung-chang
, Tseng’s most accomplished student and lieutenant. Destined to become nineteenth-century China’s most famous statesman, Li shared all his tutor’s brilliance but little of his scrupulous honesty. Appointed governor of Kiangsu province by Tseng in 1862, Li was brought into close contact with Ward, whom he admired, if cautiously. The two cooperated in a series of crucial actions against the rebels in 1862, and it was Li who broached to Tseng the idea of Ward’s playing a part in an eventual attack on Nanking.

Hsüeh Huan
, governor of Kiangsu at the time of Ward’s arrival in Shanghai. Hsüeh gave initial approval to the idea of Ward’s force, although he did not admit to this approval until the army had demonstrated success. By then, however, his own military incompetence had been revealed, and he subsequently tried to salvage his reputation by discrediting Ward.

Wu Hsü
,
taotai
, or circuit intendant, of Shanghai and Ward’s initial employer. A master of all the forms of corruption that made the Chinese bureaucracy function, Wu was reluctant to reveal publicly his sponsorship of Ward until the latter had proved himself. Though deeply impressed by and fond of the young American, Wu felt no compunction about turning his back on Ward when tact demanded doing so.

Yang Fang
, also known as Taki because he headed a financial firm of that name. Wu Hsü’s partner in a variety of official and unofficial undertakings, Yang was the crafty veteran of decades of dealing with foreigners. He took an immediate liking to Ward and worked hard to raise the money that would supply Ward’s men and pay their salaries. Yang and Ward’s relationship became legendary in Shanghai and was sealed in 1862 when Ward married Yang’s daughter.

Yang Chang-mei
, Yang Fang’s daughter, twenty-one at the time of her marriage to Ward. Healthy, attractive, and the child of a wealthy family, Chang-mei was nonetheless regarded as bad luck by most Chinese because her first fiancé had died. She survived Ward by just one year; the only known explanation for her death is “extreme grief.”

Hung Hsiu-ch’üan
, a peasant whose humiliation at being unable to enter the only path to social advancement open to him—the imperial civil service—led him to illness and madness. Believing himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ, Hung organized a band of quasi-Christian followers and set in motion the most savage civil war in world history, the Taiping rebellion (1850-1864), during which somewhere between 20 and 40 million people died.

Li Hsiu-Ch’eng
(also known as the Chung Wang, or “Loyal King”), Hung Hsiu-ch’üan’s most talented general. In the Taiping rebellion’s later years, as Hung withdrew into a world of debauchery and mysticism and his advisers battled among themselves, Li kept the movement alive through a series of brilliant campaigns against the imperialists. His last and most crucial assignment was to seize Shanghai and its rich trade. Had he succeeded, the movement would have gained extended life. The attempt brought him into direct conflict with Ward’s Ever Victorious Army.

This book is dedicated to Simon Carr, Ethan Carr,
C. Daniel Way Schoonover, and David H. Johnson:

“And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered—

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”

—Shakespeare,
Henry V

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Richard J. Smith of Rice University made this book a practical proposition, not only through his years of groundbreaking research in the field but by generously making his materials and insights available to me at all times. He is a scholar in every sense of the word, and has my heartfelt thanks and respect.

Beatrice Bartlett of Yale University helped me with translation and research at Sterling Library. John K. Fairbank of Harvard University took the time to read the manuscript, for which I am indebted. Needless to say, any errors or misinterpretations that occur in these pages are mine and have nothing to do with any of the above-mentioned distinguished experts.

A talented and warmhearted group of scholars in Shanghai helped me solve (insofar as it
is
solved) the riddle of what happened to Ward’s memorial hall, as well as his grave and remains, after the Communist revolution. Understandably, they do not wish their names mentioned; but they know who they are, and I hope they take satisfaction from knowing that they made an immense contribution to this work.

Nancy Heywood, Paula Richter, and the rest of the staff of the Essex Institute worked carefully and patiently with me during my stay in Salem and through the ensuing months of writing. I am deeply grateful.

The staffs of the New York Public Library, the National Archives
and Library of Congress in Washington, Sterling Library at Yale University, the New-York Historical Society, and the New York Society Library all rendered invaluable assistance. I am especially indebted to Angie Speicer at the National Archives, who located obscure materials at a time when the Archives’ collections were in a state of confusion as a result of their being moved and photographed for microfilm.

Li Jing at Rice University, Huang Peiling at Columbia University, and Kan Liang at Yale University all provided timely translation services. Their renderings of classical Chinese were clear and of the utmost importance.

Perrin Wright and Katy Chevigny proved skilled research assistants, and I have always been impressed by their many talents. Lucy Hanbury in London was able to locate a group of critical documents on short notice, and I thank her.

Suzanne Gluck gave this project its first encouragement, and Ann Godoff gave it the green light, as well as the benefit of her sage advice. They have been more than agent and editor.

I am grateful to Linda Sykes at Photosearch, Inc., for helping me locate many images.

In the category of a new way to pay old debts, I wish to mention Donald Wilson, formerly of Friends Seminary, Reed Browning of Kenyon College, and Robert Scally of New York University, all of whom encouraged me to pursue my interests during difficult periods, and who helped me understand that an interest in history is not inseparable from a life in academia.

Finally, many people helped me keep body and soul together during the writing of this book. I wish in this connection to thank the rest of my family, as well as James Chace, Tom Pivinski, Rob Cowley, and especially Gwyn Lurie.

NOTES

PROLOGUE

1.
one American soldier: Herman N. Archer, writing in the Feature section of the Boston Sunday
Post
, August 21, 1927.

CHAPTER I

1.
an Englishman: Augustus F. Lindley, in his
Ti-Ping Tien Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution
(London: Day & Son, 1866), vol. 1, pp.71–72 (hereafter Lindley). Also taken from Lindley are the descriptions of the Taiping palaces and official ceremonies.

the Chung Wang: The best translation and edition of his brief autobiography, written quickly before his execution in 1864, was done by Charles Curwen in his
Taiping Rebel: The Deposition of Li Hsiu-ch’eng
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p.114 (hereafter Curwen).

2.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.115.

3.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.115.

4.
one British consular official: Thomas Taylor Meadows, in his
The Chinese and Their Rebellions
(London: Smith, Elder & Company, 1856), pp.307–308 (hereafter Meadows).

one Western missionary: the Reverend Dr. Bridgeman, quoted in Lindley, vol. 1, p.215.

5.
one Western expert: Walter H. Medhurst, in his
The Foreigner in Far Cathay
(New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, 1873), p.180.

6.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.111.

7.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.116.

8.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.116.

9.
the Chung Wang: Curwen, p.118.

a pair of the emperor’s senior servants: Their memorial of June 26, 1860, is in the
Ch’ou-pan I-wu shih-mo
[A Complete Record of the Management of Barbarian Affairs] (Beijing, 1930). Volumes in this series are arranged by emperors; this quotation is in volume 52, covering the reign of Hsien-feng, on pages 15b–16. Future citations (including those for the Emperor T’ung-chih series,
TC
) will be abbreviated, in this case to
IWSM, HF 52
, pp.15b–16, June 26, 1860.

10.
one early historian: Francis Lister Potts, in his
A Short History of Shanghai
(Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., 1928), p.19 (hereafter Potts).

11.
one visitor: Laurence Oliphant, quoted in Potts, p.42.

12.
drunken soldiers:
North China Herald
(hereafter
NCH
), May 26, 1860.

13.
imperial corruption:
NCH
, January 28, 1860.

14.
the rebel advance and executed spies:
NCH
, June 2, 1860.

15.
Hsüeh Huan:
NCH
, July 21, 1860.

16.
Wu Hsü:
NCH
, July 21, 1860.

Li Hung-chang on Wu: Stanley Spector,
Li Hung-chang and the Huai Army: A Study in 19th Century Regionalism
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), pp.56–57.

Wu Hsü as a mouthpiece:
NCH
, July 21, 1860.

17.
the British proclamation: reprinted in Andrew Wilson,
The “Ever-Victorious Army
” (London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1868), p.61 (hereafter Wilson).

18.
the “grand national principle”:
NCH
, July 21, 1860.

19.
the “Cinderella” settlement: Potts, p.63.

the American minister and the consul: John Ward to Lewis Cass, February 22, 1860, “Despatches from U.S. Ministers to China,” Record Group 59, microfilm 92, roll 21, U. S. National Archives.

20.
Augustus A. Hayes: in his “Another Unwritten Chapter of the Late War,” in
International Review
, December 1881, p.521 (hereafter Hayes, “Chapter”).

21.
Charles E. Hill and the “Troy dredging machine”: according to Daniel J. Macgowan, in his “Memoirs of Generals Ward, Burgevine, and the Ever-Victorious Army,”
Far East
, vol. 2 (1877), p.104 (hereafter Macgowan). one American official: George F. Seward, whose comments can be found in
Senate Executive Documents, 45th Congress, 2nd Session
, no. 48, pp.24–25 (hereafter
SED 45:2:48
).

Hill on his own dealings: part of his testimony in a later lawsuit against Wu Hsü, which can also be found in
SED 45:2:48
, p.29.

Hill on Yang Fang:
SED 45:2:48
, p.30.

22.
Gough on Ward: as recalled by Wu Hsü, in the
Wu Hsü tang-an chung ti T’ai-p’ing t’ien-kuo shih liao hsuan-chi
(Selections of Historical Materials Concerning the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Wu Hsü’s Archives) (Beijing, 1958), p.125 (hereafter
WHTA
).

CHAPTER II

1.
one great-grandmother: Mary Harrod Northend, in her
Memories of Old Salem, Drawn from the Letters of a Great-grandmother
(New York: Moffat, Yard, 1917), p.50.

2.
Robert S. Rantoul: in his “Frederick Townsend Ward,”
Historical Collections of the Essex Institute
, vol. 44 (1908), p.19 (hereafter Rantoul). The Essex Institute became the repository for the few of Ward’s personal effects that made it back to America and were not destroyed by his family. A library dealing with Chinese history and culture at the institute is named after Ward, following the terms of a bequest by his sister Elizabeth.