The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1860-11-21
General syelvs.
The War in China

in which the Tarter troops
behaved CALAMITY, but stood no chance
against the improved firearms of the
Allies. Next, the fortified town of
Tong Kee was captured, and finally
the Taku forts was taken. This last
engagement is described as follows:
The plan of attack for the 2lst, |
believe, was that the lst division of
English, with the rest of the French,
should cross the river and threaten the
southern forts, while the Cd division
should assault the nearest of the moth
ern forts. Accordingly, on the even
ing of the Goth, the Cd division moved
out and took position in front of
the said fort, but just ont of range,
while working parties were thrown
ont to erect batteries for the siege
train, and accommodating parties exam
ined the intervening ground as closely
as possible, in order to select the
most favorable points for attack. The
Chinese evidently had some inkling
of what was going on, for they threw
ont showers Of fire balls from the walls
of the fort, in order to discover where
our men were and what they were
about but, whether it was that they
either could not make them out, or
did not consider the work they were
engaged in as elfecting them at all
seriously, they only fired one or two
guns during the right. At drybreak
next morning, the division then ad-
vanccd. some four or five of our bat
teries having got into position, and
pouring in tremendous fire upon the
fort with precision; while the infantry
that is to say, one wing of the For
ty-fourth, Royal Marines, and Sixty
seventh, and One Hundred and Sec
ond regiment of French-advanceG !;
the Bluffs, the other wing of Forty
fourth, and a Punjaub regiment in re-
serve, the Chinese replying with great
spirit, but little apparent skill, almost
all their shell bursting short, and their
round shot falling everywhere but in
the right places. On arriving at a
long low embankment, about 1900
yards from the fort, the infantry were
halted and made to lie down, while
the batteries were all advanced to ram
ges varying from 500 to 1000 yards,
and opened still more telling fire,
exploding two immense magazines in
side the fort, and in about an hour
nearly sileneing the enemy's big guns.
The infantry then advanced again,
half on the French regiment and the
wing of 44th being thrown out as
sharp shooters, while one wing of the
Royal Marines advanced with scaling
ladders and pontoons, and the other
wing. with the rest of TIE sixty-sev-
enth, followed in support. AS the
storming party got close, the fire
poured from our batteries became alb
solutely terrific. Five or six shot or
shot went flying into it every minute,
and the enemy could not show them
selves above the parapet at ALL
Through the loopholes, however, they
kept up a heavy fire of gingals, which
were briskly responded to by our sharp
shooters. Occasionally too, a big
gun from the south side sent a round
shot plump in among the storming
party, but the tremendous explosions
that had taken place inside the fort,
and the terrific fire they had b. <fsub-
iect to, had probably paralyzed them
to great extent, and their shots
were, consequently, few and far be-
tween. This fort, like the wall at
Tongku, Unjust tell you was also 'front.'
ed by two wet bitches, both eighteen
feet in width, and about eight or ten
feet deep, the first one defended more
over by a strong abatas, the second
by sharp stakes on both sides. On
arriving, at the first ditch, great diff
Guilty was, of course, experienced in
laying the. pontoons, the men being
knocked over here by the dozen. The
Engineers, under Col Mann, and the
Royal Marines, under Col. Travers,
stuck to their work, however, and at
last got the pontoons over the first
ditch, and they shortly after made
bridge over the second, I believe, with
the strongest of the scaling ladders
The lighter were then planted against
the wall, and over they went, some of
the French and some of the Sixty-sev-
enth getting in first, I believe, closely
followed, however, by some Marines,
and these by the rest of the storming
party. The French adopted novel
mode of getting in. They got up
some of their Chinese coolies, and
made them stand in the ditch holding
scaling ladders up over their heads
against the wall, and so at once cross
ed the second ditch and got to the top
of the wall. The Tarters fought
bravely even after our men got in, u
sing spears and swords, as well as
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