Battle of Taku Forts ( 1859 ) The Second Battle of Taku Forts , in June 1859 , was an Anglo - French attack on a series of Chinese fort s protecting Taku , China during the Second Opium War . A chartered American steamship arrived on scene and assisted the French and British in their attempted suppression of the Taku Forts . Background . Taku is a village near the mouth of the Pei - ho River , which flows between low , muddy banks and runs into the Gulf of Pe - cho - li . Thirty - four miles above the river is Tientsin , constructed at the fork of the Pei - ho with the Grand Canal . Tientsin is the port of Peking and a place of much commerce . Peking is the capital of China and is about eighty miles above Tientsin . In the year 1858 , French and British forces had battled their way to Tientsin , passing the Taku Forts at the Pei - ho ' s mouth with little difficulty , the works were insufficiently armed and held by a weak garrison which put up little defense . When Tientsin was occupied , the Chinese sued for peace , thus the first period of the war ended and a treaty was signed there containing among other stipulations , an agreement that the envoys of British and France were to be received at Peking within a year , and that the treaty was to be ratified there . Now the Chinese , as soon as the allies withdrew from Tientsin , began to regret having consented to allow the foreign ambassadors to enter their capital and attempted to have it arranged so that the treaty would be ratified elsewhere . The United Kingdom and France insisted on the original agreement and when the envoys of the two countries arrived off the mouth of the Pei - ho in June 1859 and announced their intention of proceeding up the river to Peking . They were opposed by the garrison of Taku . A British fleet , under the command of Admiral James Hope , escorted them for protection against the Chinese fortifications . It was found that not only had the forts at the river mouth , which had easily been silenced the year before , been put into a state of repair , also , the river was blocked for stopping anything larger than rowing boats by a series of strong metal barriers . The Admiral was informed that these had been placed on the river to keep out pirates and it was promised by the Chinese government that they would be removed . Despite the promise , the local Mandarins began to start work on strengthening the defences of the river . On June 21 , Admiral Hope sent the Chinese commander , Hang Foo , a letter warning him that if the obstructions were not cleared out of the channel of the Pei - ho by the evening of the 24 , he would remove them by force . Three days of peace passed and the Chinese failed to remove their defenses so the Anglo - French fleet began to prepare for battle . Hope had several powerful ships in his squadron , none of these could take a direct part in the coming fight though . This was due to the entrance of the Pei - ho , which was obstructed by a wide stretch of shallows , the depth of water on the bar being only two feet at low tide , and a little more than eleven at high tide . Because of this , the British could only rely on eleven steam powered gunboat s for the actual fight against the Chinese forts . The Royal Navy gunboats were small wooden steamers of light draft built during the Crimean War for service in the shallow waters of the Baltic and Black Seas . Admiral Hope crossed the bar with his eleven boats and anchored below the forts on the June 23 . The gunboats were ; HMS " Plover " , HMS " Banterer " , HMS " Forester " , HMS " Haughty " , HMS " Janus " , HMS " Kestrel " , HMS " Lee " , HMS " Opossum " and HMS " Starling " all of four guns apiece . HMS " Nimrod " and HMS " Cormorant " , both of six guns , were also present . Each of the gunboats had a crew of around fifty or sixty officers and men , so that the eleven small steamers together brought forty - eight guns and 500 men into the battle . The more heavily armed steamers , outside the sand bar , were to offload another 500 or 600 men , marines and sailors via steam launches , boats and an unknown number of junks . This force was meant to be used as a landing party to attack the forts once they had been silenced . A French frigate , the " Duhalya " , was also on the scene but was too large to engage in the battle . Her crew would participate in the final land engagement . None of the Britons expected that the ensuing battle would prove a difficult task . The Taku Forts consisted of many structures , a big Chinese fort on the south side protected the coast , with earthen rampart s stretching nearly half a mile long , and guard towers behind them . At the other end of the complex sat another large fortress on the north bank of the river , many other smaller forts sat in between the two larger forts . Though the British believed that only a small Chinese garrison held the defences , this due to a previous bombardment and attack in which the British and French successfully captured the positions . After this engagement it was found that hundreds of artillery pieces protected the forts with hundreds of Qing Army troops . Battle . On the evening of June 24 , no answer having been received from the Chinese commander , Rear Admiral Hope announced that the attack would be made within next day and after dark the Admiral sent in one of his officers , Captain George Willes , and a few enlisted men to examine the obstacles in the river and see what he could do to remove them . Three armed launches , filled with explosives , accompanied Captain Willes . Rowing up quietly under cover of the darkness , Willes discovered a row of iron stakes , each topped with a sharp spike and supported with a tripod base . The spikes were positioned so that they could pierce through the hull of a ship coming up the river at high tide . The first barrier was just opposite the lower side of the big South Fort as it was called . After passing cautiously between two of the spikes , the British sailors rowed up the river for a quarter of a mile when they came to a second barrier . The barrier was a heavy cable of cocao fibre and two chain cables , all strewn across the channel , twelve feet apart and supported at every thirty feet by a floating boom , securely anchored up and down the river ' s flow . Two of the British boats were left to place a mine under the middle of the second floating barrier . Captain Willes pushed on farther into the darkness , headed for a third obstacle in the Pei - ho of two huge rafts , moored as to leave only a narrow channel in middle of the waterway , this passage was also defended with large iron spikes . Willes got out on one of the rafts and got on hands and knees and after investigating the situation , Willes decided that mere ramming with a gunboat ' s prow would not be enough to displace the barricade . As he lay on the raft he could see the Chinese sentries on the riverbank , but was unseen by them . Returning to his boat , he rode the Pei - ho ' s current back down to the second barrier . By this time the mine was ready and once the fuse was lit , the Britons pulled down the stream to the main flotilla . The resulting explosion revealed the Briton ' s presence to a Chinese artillery battery who proceeded with firing a few cannon shots from the South Fort but the cannon ball s missed . The small expedition was regarded as a complete success ; despite Willes failure to destroy two of the three barriers . Before the next morning the Chinese had repaired the space blown clear by the mine , thus rendering Willes mission as pointless . On Saturday morning , June 25 , reportedly a bright and hot day , the gunboat flotilla cleared for action . Admiral Hope ’ s orders were that nine of the ships should anchor close to the first barrier and bring their guns to bear on the forts , while the two others break through the barriers and clear the way for a further advance . High tide came at 11 : 30 am , and it was intended that all of the gunboats would be in position by that time . However , the difficulty of moving so many ships in a narrow channel no more than 200 yards wide , with a strong current and with mud banks covered by shallow water on each side , moving gunboats through the channel proved to be a great risk and it was not long before " Banterer " and " Starling " were aground . During all of the initial maneuvers , the Chinese forts had not shown any sign of life . Their embrasures were closed ; a few black flags flew on the upper works , not a single soldier was seen on the mud ramparts . " Plover " , with all steam and Admiral Hope aboard , was close to the first barrier of iron spikes with " Opossum " , now commanded by Captain Willes . The task of " Opossum " was to destroy the first obstacle . Upon a signal from the Rear Admiral , " Opossum " attached a cable , passed it over one of her winches , reversed her engines , and tried rip the spike up and out of the river bottom . It was so well emplaced that it was not until 2 : 30 am , after half an hour of work , that the obstacle finally gave way and removed . The British commander in " Plover " now steamed through the gap opened by " Opossum " . The two little gun boats approached the floating barrier . It was at this point the Chinese in the South Fort opened fire from a leftmost rampart . Immediately along the walls of all the forts ; banners were raised on every flag pole , embrasures were opened and guns pushed out . From about 600 yards away on the leftmost rampart and from the front of the North Fort , the Chinese artillery rapidly fired amazingly accurate cannon shots , aimed at the leading ships . General Hope Grant ' s signal came , " " Engage the enemy , " " flew from the masthead of " Plover " ; her four guns opened , three of them on the big fort to the left . Two hundred yards off , the other gun responded to the North Fort . After the other ten gunboats received the signal , they began to open fire on the Chinese positions . The battle was a close quarters gunnery action , the Chinese fire , instead of slackening from British return fire , seemed to have grown fiercer . The British later reported that when one gun and crew were killed by their fire , another gun and crew would quickly filling the embrasure . Chinese troops fired so steadily and aimed that for years afterwards many of the British veterans believed that trained European artillerymen were actually firing the Chinese gun batteries . After less than twenty minutes , " Plover " had thirty - one killed or wounded out of a forty - man crew . Her commander , Lieutenant Rason , was cut in half by a round shot ; James Hope was wounded in the thigh but refused to leave the deck and Captain McKenna , who was attached to his staff , was killed while at Hope ' s side . Only nine unwounded men were left on board , but they , with the help of some of their fellow wounded crew , kept two of the guns in action . They fought on a deck covered with blood and bits of splintered wood . Around this time the American steamer " Toey - Wan " of the Pacific Squadron arrived and anchored outside the bar . Commodore Josiah Tattnall of the United States Navy was on board , and he went to " Plover " , under fire from the Chinese guns , to offer assistance to the British . Commodore Tattnall , a veteran of the War of 1812 , put aside his mistrust of the British and justified his presence by stating " " blood is thicker than water " " , a now famous saying . The United States government , as a neutral power , did not order any American vessels to proceed in this attack . Tattnall offered to send in his steam launch to help evacuate the dead and wounded from danger , an offer which was gratefully accepted by the Britons . When Tattnall left Rear Admiral Hope for " Powhatan " in his launch , he was forced to wait a moment at " Plover " s port side for his men who had come aboard with the Commodore . A moment later a few men returned , covered in black powder marks and sweaty from excitement . The American Commodore asked , " What have you been doing , you rascals ? " " " Don ’ t you know we ' re neutrals " " " " Beg pardon , sir , " " said one of the men , " " but they were a bit short - handed with the bow - gun , and we thought it no harm to give them a hand while we were waiting . " " At 3 : 00 pm , James Hope ordered " Plover " , now nearly destroyed , to drop down the river to a safer station , and he transferred his flag to " Opossum " . A few minutes later , a round shot crashed through " Opossum " s rigging close to the Admiral , knocking him down and breaking three of his ribs ; a bandage was fastened around his chest and he was seated on the deck of the gunboat where he still kept his command . Later on he even insisted on being lifted into its barge in order to visit and encourage the crews of " Haughty " and " Lee " . " " Opossum " , " ahoy ! " " called an officer from " Haughty " , " Your stern is on fire . " " Can ' t help it " , shouted back " Opossum " s commander . " Can ’ t spare men to put it out . Have only enough to keep our guns going . " After this " Opossum " was apparently relieved and gave up the fight for a while to steam down to the first barrier . " Lee " and " Haughty " now bore the brunt of the engagement , they suffered severely . Everything on the two gunboat ' s decks was turned into scraps from Chinese fire and " Lee " was hit well in several places at and below the water line . Woods , her boatswain , informed her commander , Lieutenant Jones , that unless holes in his hull could be plugged " Lee " would sink , as her pumps and engine could not get the water out as fast as it was rushing in . " " Well , then , we must sink , " " said the lieutenant ; " " you cant get at the worst of the holes from inside , and I ' m not going to order a man to go over the side with the tide running down like this , and our propeller going . " " Woods replied by promptly volunteering to go over the side and see what he could do . His commander warned him that the screw must be kept going , or the ship would drift out of place . Besides the possibility of drowning , Woods would risk being killed by the propeller blades ; but Woods , went over the side anyway , with a line around his waist and with a few plugs and rags in his hands . when Woods dove in he was almost swept up by the screw several times . Fortunately for him , he was capable of escaping the screw and successfully plugged several shot - holes . All of this became unnecessary though because " Lee " continued to fill up with river water and had to give up her place in the fight to run aground , preventing her sinking . " Cormorant " which was now the flagship , replaced the grounded " Lee " . " Plover " , after severe damage was sunk just after Admiral Hope transferred to the other gunboat . Hope suffered from fainting at some point so his doctors persuaded him to send himself to one of the three steamships on the other side of the bar . Captain Shadwell , the next senior officer , then took command of the attacking fleet . At 5 : 30 pm and after three hours of fighting , " Kestrel " sank at her anchors . Of the eleven gunboats , six were sunk , disabled or put out of action . The fire of the Chinese forts was slackening though and at 6 : 30 pm , after a rushed meeting aboard " Cormorant " , it was resolved to commence with a land attack of marines and sailors who had been waiting in small boats and junks inside the bar . Their objective was to capture the South Fort by means of a frontal assault . The time was after 7 : 00 pm and very little daylight was left for the landing party , when the boats were towed in by " Opossum " , " Toey Wan " and one of the armed steamships , chartered from Chinese sailors . Captain Shadwell took command of the landing party , which was made up of sailors under Captain Vansittart , and Commander s Heath and Commerell . Sixty French sailors , under a Commander Tricault , of " Duhalya " accompanied Captain Shadwell . The marines were under Colonel Lemon and a party of sapper s with ladders for scaling walls . As the boats pulled into the shore , the fire from the North Fort had ceased , and only an occasional shot was fired from the long rampart of the South fort . The landing zone area was 500 yards in front of the rightmost bastion of the South Fort . The tide had fallen so far that it was not possible to get very near to the actual shore , this made the landing of almost 1 , 200 men more difficult than it could have been if the tide was still high . The column of land forces had to make its way across the said 500 yards of mud , weeds , and small pools of water , the ground was reportedly so soft in places that a man could sink to his waist if they step in the wrong spot . As soon as the men of the first landing boat stepped ashore , the entire front of the South Fort responded with a large salvo of cannon fire . The silence of the Chinese guns was obviously a ruse meant to lure the British and French into making a land attack . The plan of the Chinese worked perfectly . Once hearing the sounds of the South Fort , the gunboats resumed fire until the land force began their advance on the fort . The Chinese gunners concentrated their cannons , swivel gun s and rocket s on the landing party . As the Britons and French came within range , Chinese riflemen and archer s opened upon them from a crowded crest of the South Fort ' s rampart . As the Anglo - French shore party struggled onwards , round shot , grape shot and balls from the Chinese swivel guns , musket s , rockets and arrow s , fell among the allies in showers according to survivors . Captain Shadwell was one of the first men wounded ; Vansittart fell , with one leg wounded by a musket ball . Dozens of dead and wounded lay on the field . The wounded had to be carried back to the boats to save them from sinking in the mud . Three broad ditches lay between the landing zone and the fort . No more than 150 men reached the second of these and only fifty advanced to the third which was just below the Chinese rampart . The British and French ammunition cartridges were nearly all useless from moist terrain , and had only one scaling ladder by the time they reached the wall . The ladder was raised against the rampart , and ten men were climbing up it when a volley of small arms fire from above killed three men and wounded five others . The ladder was then thrown back by the Chinese and broken . The British and French were forced to retreat to their boats after facing firm resistance . By the time of retreat the sky was dark but was kept lit by the Chinese who burnt blue lights and launched rockets and fireballs at the retiring French and Britons . After this the battle was over . Sixty - eight men were killed in the land attack and nearly 300 wounded . Twelve of the dead were Frenchmen , along with twenty - three of the wounded , the French commander was also wounded . Eighty - one Britons in total died as result of the fighting with a total of 345 wounded . Sometime during the battle , an American launch , evacuating wounded and with Commodore Josiah Tattnall on board , was attacked by Chinese batteries , one American sailor was killed and one other was slightly wounded , the Commodore was unharmed . Several of the landing boats had been sunk while waiting on the river bank during the land battle . When the Franco and Anglo force retreated , many had to wait in the water till they could be extracted . At 1 : 00 am on June 26 , the last men of the landing party re - embarked their ships . The remaining gunboats retreated down to the bar . Another shore party was sent in later that morning , their mission was to blow up or burn the grounded gunboats that could not be freed and were in threat of being captured by the Chinese , whether this mission was completed or not is not known , though two of the grounded gunboats are said to have been re - floated . Chinese strength and casualties are unknown . The battle on the Pei - ho ended . Within the next year an allied force of British and French troops , under General Sir James Hope Grant and General de Montauban , launched an expedition . This engagement led to the 1860 Third Battle of Taku Forts in which the allies were successful , the Second Opium War ended soon after .