Battle of Cầu Giấy ( Paper Bridge ) The Battle of Cầu Giấy or Paper Bridge , fought on 19 May 1883 , was one of the numerous clashes during the Tonkin Campaign ( 1883 – 86 ) between the French and the Black Flags . A small French force under the command of " capitaine de vaisseau " Henri Rivière attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy a few miles to the west of Hanoi , known to the French as Paper Bridge ( Pont de Papier ) . After initial successes , the French were eventually enveloped on both wings , and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi . Rivière and several other senior officers were killed in the action . Background . French interest in northern Vietnam dated from the 1860s , when France annexed several southern provinces of Vietnam to become the colony of Cochinchina , laying the foundations for its later colonial empire in Indochina . French explorers followed the course of the Red River through northern Vietnam to its source in Yunnan , arousing hopes that a profitable overland trade route could be established with China , bypassing the treaty ports of the Chinese coastal provinces . The main obstacle to the realisation of this dream was the Black Flag Army , a well - organized bandit force under a formidable leader , Liu Yongfu ( Liu Yung - fu , 劉永福 ) , which was levying exorbitant dues on trade on the Red River between Sơn Tây and the town of Lào Cai on the Yunnan border . French intervention in northern Vietnam was precipitated by Commandant Henri Rivière , who was sent with a small French military force to Hanoi at the end of 1881 to investigate Vietnamese complaints against the activities of French merchants . In defiance of the instructions of his superiors , Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882 . Although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control , his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China . The Vietnamese government , unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army , enlisted the help of Liu Yongfu , whose well - trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers were to prove a thorn in the side of the French . The Black Flags had already inflicted one humiliating defeat on a French force commanded by " lieutenant de vaisseau " Francis Garnier in 1873 . Like Rivière in 1882 , Garnier had exceeded his instructions and attempted to intervene militarily in northern Vietnam . Liu Yongfu had been called in by the Vietnamese government , and ended a remarkable series of French victories against the Vietnamese by defeating Garnier ’ s small French force beneath the walls of Hanoi . Garnier was killed in this battle , and the French government later disavowed his expedition . The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support . Vietnam had long been a tributary state of China , and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin . The Qing court also sent a strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control . In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin , occupying Lạng Sơn , Bắc Ninh , Hưng Hóa and other towns . The French minister to China , Frédéric Bourée , was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December 1882 he negotiated a deal with the Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence . The Vietnamese were not consulted by either party to these negotiations . Nam Dinh and Gia Cuc . Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée , and in early 1883 decided to force the issue . He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France , giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi . On 27 March 1883 , to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast , Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command . During his absence at Nam Dinh the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi , but they were repulsed by " chef de bataillon " Berthe de Villers in the Battle of Gia Cuc on 28 March . Rivière was jubilant : ' This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question ! ' In April 1883 the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Ching - sung , who had been sent to Vietnam in 1882 to assess the Vietnamese government ' s ability to resist French encroachment in Tonkin , reconciled the quarrel between Liu and Hoang and persuaded Liu to take the field in earnest with the Black Flag Army . Liu ' s decision to commit the Black Flag Army against the French was to have profound consequences , setting in train a chain of events that culminated eventually in the Sino - French War ( August 1884 – April 1885 ) . The Battle of Paper Bridge was precipitated by a challenge by Liu Yongfu , who posted up placards in Hanoi on 10 May 1883 daring Rivière to come out and meet the Black Flag Army in the open field . Rivière believed that French prestige required him to respond to this challenge , and at dawn on 19 May led a column of around 450 French soldiers and sailors to attack the Black Flag Army in its positions at Phu Hoai , a few miles west of Hanoi . The column consisted of two companies of marine infantry , the landing companies of the French warships " Victorieuse " and " Villars " , and three artillery pieces . The French plan was discovered by Liu Yongfu ' s spies , and the Black Flag Army ambushed the French column near the village of Cầu Giấy at Paper Bridge ( Pont de Papier ) , a bridge across a small river that took its name from a nearby paper mill . The Black Flags were deployed just to the west of Paper Bridge , in the villages of Trung Thong , Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong . All three villages were surrounded by thick bamboo groves and clumps of trees , providing excellent cover for the Black Flags and also allowing Liu Yongfu to manoeuvre his men without being observed by the French . The battle of Paper Bridge . The French column set out from Hanoi at dawn and reached Paper Bridge at around 7 . 30 a . m . Rivière was unwell , and the column was under the direct command of " chef de bataillon " Berthe de Villers , an excellent professional soldier who had won a spectacular victory against the Vietnamese only seven weeks earlier at the Battle of Gia Cuc . While crossing the bridge , the French vanguard came under fire from Black Flag skirmishers . Berthe de Villers immediately deployed his men into line and pushed forward against the Black Flags , clearing them from the villages of Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong . Liu Yongfu brought up his reserves , waited until the enemy line was fully committed , and launched a sudden counterattack against the French right wing . A Black Flag regiment trotted smartly into position with rifles at the slope , deployed into line , knelt down and fired a series of accurate volleys at close range . Berthe de Villers was mortally wounded in this engagement , and Rivière assumed direct command of the French column . To avoid being encircled , Rivière ordered his men to retreat and regroup on the far side of Paper Bridge . The French retreat was initially conducted in good order , by echelons , and was covered by the three French cannon . However , disaster struck when one of the cannons overturned with the force of its recoil . Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it , and the Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men . The volley killed one French officer and wounded Rivière and several of his aides . Seeing the French line in confusion , the Black Flags surged forward and drove back the French rearguard . During the fighting Rivière was killed . Complete catastrophe was only averted by the coolness of " lieutenant de vaisseau " Pissère , who assumed command of the demoralised French column , deployed the French infantry behind a dyke on the eastern side of Paper Bridge , and beat off a number of attempts by the Black Flags to cross the bridge and follow up their victory . The battle eventually died down , and Pissère marched the defeated French column back to Hanoi in good order . Casualties . French casualties in the Battle of Paper Bridge were 5 officers and 30 men killed , and 6 officers and 46 men wounded . Besides Rivière himself , the dead included " chef de bataillon " Berthe de Villers , Captain Jacquin , " lieutenant de vaisseau " Héral de Brisis and Midshipman Moulun . Casualties in the Black Flag Army were around 50 dead and 56 wounded out of around 1 , 500 men engaged , and included two battalion commanders , Yang Zhu ' en ( 楊著恩 ) and Wu Fengdian ( 吳鳳典 ) . Significance . The battle was a serious defeat for the French , but its ultimate result was to strengthen the resolve of Jules Ferry ' s administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin . The news of Rivière ' s defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May , and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared ' France will avenge her glorious children ! ' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance the despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin . In later years a reaction set in . Some critics questioned Rivière ' s tactics at Paper Bridge , suggesting that he had lost the battle because he had been too impetuous . In particular , he was faulted for accepting battle so readily and for exposing his guns to capture by placing them too far forward . In the 1930s Colonel Alfred Thomazi , the historian of the French conquest of Indochina , did his best to rebut such criticisms : If Rivière had been more prudent and withdrawn his column as soon as he had crossed the bridge , when Berthe de Villers was wounded , our losses would have been smaller and the engagement would have remained indecisive . But he had marched out to disengage Hanoi and strike a heavy blow at the encircling enemy . To fall back at the first contact would have been to lose face , to encourage the boldness of the Black Flags , and to expose the town to attacks which even a modest success could prevent . And , given the results of the preceding skirmishes , such a success seemed certain . And were we not , by now , used to miracles ? In Tonkin , as previously in Cochinchina , victory seemed the invariable reward for boldness . Henri Rivière , a Parisian who considered himself anything but romantic , a writer who was also a man of action , died a hero , like Francis Garnier , for believing that nothing was impossible .