page_title: Siege of Tourane
section_title: Capture of Tourane and the Tien Sa peninsula
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Tourane / Capture of Tourane and the Tien Sa peninsula
caption_attribution_description: Tiếng Việt: Bản đồ Đà Nẵng xưa tìm được trong nhà một vị võ quan Đại Nam ngày 15-9-1859. Bức bản đồ này đã được việt hóa tại đây @ https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%ADp_tin:B%E1%BA%A3n_%C4%91%E1%BB%93_vi%E1%BB%87t_h%C3%B3a_%C4%90%C3%A0_N%E1%BA%B5ng_1859.jpg. Français&#160;: Carte de Tourane trouvée dans la demeure d'un mandarin militaire vietnamien en 1859. La carte est à la droite, annotée en caractères sino-vietnamiennes; une légende se trouve à gauche, écrite en français. English: Map of Tourane (Da Nang) found in the home of a mandarin of the Vietnamese military in 1859. The map itself is at right, with annotations in Sino-Vietnamese script; a legend is at left, written in French. The translated Vietnamese version of this map can be found here @ https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%ADp_tin:B%E1%BA%A3n_%C4%91%E1%BB%93_vi%E1%BB%87t_h%C3%B3a_%C4%90%C3%A0_N%E1%BA%B5ng_1859.jpg.
context_page_description: The Siege of Tourane was a Vietnamese victory during the Cochinchina Campaign, a punitive campaign against the Vietnamese launched by France and Spain in 1858. A joint Franco-Spanish expedition under the command of Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly captured Tourane in September 1858, but was then besieged in the city by the Vietnamese and forced eventually to evacuate it in March 1860.
context_section_description: The allied expedition arrived off the entrance to Tourane Bay at nightfall on 31 August.  At dawn on 1 September the warships took up positions facing the five Vietnamese forts on the Tien Sa peninsula.
  During the morning of 1 September Admiral Rigault de Genouilly summoned the Vietnamese to hand over the forts within two hours.  The summons was taken ashore by a French staff officer and laid at the entrance to the Fort de l'Aiguade.  No response was received within the stipulated period, and the French admiral ordered the allied flotilla to open fire, hoisting a French flag at the main mast of Némésis and a Spanish flag at the mizzen mast.
  The warships of the allied flotilla soon dismounted the guns in the northern group of Vietnamese forts.  The Vietnamese response was feeble, and none of the allied ships suffered any damage.  Rigault de Genouilly then put ashore the landing companies of Némésis, Primauguet and Phlégéton, under the orders of capitaine de vaisseau Reynaud.  The sailors captured their first objective, the Fort de l'Aiguade, with little trouble, charging into the Vietnamese positions with cries of 'Vive l'Empereur!'  Rigault de Genouilly's summons was found on a table inside the fort, unopened.  The attackers also overran a Vietnamese shore battery a little to the west of the fort.  While this attack was being made, French soldiers went ashore in their turn.
  The southern objectives, Eastern Fort and Western Fort, were also taken without difficulty.  Two French gunboats and the Spanish despatch vessel El Caño anchored off the entrance to the Da Nang river and bombarded Western Fort and Eastern Fort.  A shell burst inside Eastern Fort as the attackers approached and the survivors of the Vietnamese garrison abandoned their positions forthwith, as did the defenders of Western Fort.
  Most of the Vietnamese made their escape from the Tien Sa peninsula, but the defenders of Observatory Fort were unable to evacuate their positions in time.  The French stormed the fort, and its defenders were either killed where they stood or taken prisoner.
  The allies followed up their victory by occupying Tourane and the Tien Sa peninsula.
  Admiral Rigault de Genouilly left Da Nang with the bulk of his forces on 2 February 1859, to launch an attack on Saigon.  The French left only a small garrison of soldiers and sailors at Tourane, under the command of capitaine de vaisseau Thoyon, and two gunboats.  Meanwhile, the Tourane peninsula had been placed under siege by a Vietnamese army under the command of Nguyen Tri Phuong.  The siege lasted for several months, though there was relatively little fighting.  The Vietnamese adopted a scorched earth policy, laying waste the countryside around Tourane in the hope of starving the French and Spanish out.
  In April 1859, in the wake of his Siege of Saigon on 17 February, Rigault de Genouilly returned to Tourane with the bulk of his forces to reinforce Thoyon's hard-pressed garrison.  The French made two attacks on the Vietnamese positions later in the year.  On 8 May Rigault de Genouilly personally led 1,500 French soldiers and sailors in a successful assault on the Vietnamese trenches.  A number of Vietnamese earthworks were destroyed and several cannon were captured and brought back to the French lines.  French casualties were 78 men killed and wounded.
caption: Map of Tourane (Da Nang) found in the home of a mandarin of the Vietnamese military in 1859. The map itself is at right, with annotations in Sino-Vietnamese script; a legend is at left, written in French.
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