The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-09-07
ROMANCE is RECALLED.
Foster Inquiry Brings Out Wards
Military Record.

One of the greatest of military ro-
mances is suggested by the action OF
the committee on expenditures in the
state department in looking into the
transaction whereby about $368,00O
was paid to John w. Foster, former
secretary of state, for himself and
the heirs of Gen. Frederick Town
send Ward, the hero of the TAPPING
rebellion.
In the newspaper dispatches the
word general" has been placed in
quotation marks, and this gallant
commander has been alluded to as a
ssoldier of fortune" That he may
have been in one sense is true, but
in the sense that he rendered great
yet helpless country the most ines
timable of services he is entitled to
rank among the great commanders
of his time.
Frederick Townsend Ward was
born in Salem, Mass, in 1881. He
became ship broker in New York,
but appeared to begin his career OF
worldwide fame in Shanghai in 1860.
The TAPPING rebellion had broken out
and Ward went to the government
with the proposition that if the gov.
ernment would give him $4,000 he
would capture the town of Sun-Ki.
ang, near Shanghai, then held by the
rebels. .
The money was promised, and in
short time he gathered together a
| miscellaneous band of two hundred
foreigners and with them went out
and overthrew five thousand rebels
He received his $4,000 and wa:
made a mandarin of the fourth class
Ward was at first distrusted by the
British officers in command of Shang
hal, but finally was permitted to CO.
operate with them and through his
energy succeeded in clearing up the
country for forty miles or more
around the city.
He disappeared completely from
sight for a time, and turned up agai1
at the head of three Chinese regi
ments. He took the field again, his
army was augmented from day to da!
and he won a succession Of victorie:
which made him a mandarin of thu
first class, and gave him the remark
able title of admiral general"
highest the grateful Chinese couli
bestow on him.
The civil war had then broken ou
in the United States, and Ward is re
ported to have offered Secretary Bur
lingham $4,000 for the Union cause
and to have prepared to start home
But he was shot in 1862, and the Chi
nese not only built monument owe
his grave, but memorialized in ston'
the scenes of several of his victories
Probably because of his intention
to come to the United States he hat
converted his fortune, whatever i
was, into drafts and negotiable sc
curities. They were on his person
when he was killed, and are supposed
to have been stolen by an English
man. However that may be, IS fam
lily in the United States-he had mar
ried a Chinese wife, but had no chill
dren-never received a copper fol
his services.
The army which Ward had created
was then taken by Chinese Gordon, .
who, after several years Of fighting
put down the rebellion and achieved
international fame. It was Gordon
who reaped, the glory, but Ward who
laid the foundation.
When the Boxer indemnity was
paid the United States by the Chinese
government many claims besides
those strictly appertaining to the
Boxer uprising were included in the
awards. Among them was this
$368,000 for the heirs of General
Frederick Townsend Ward.