#3 An imperial edict regards rewarding Ward and Henry Burgevine. This edict is in a letter of Governor Hsueh to Ward, dated April 9, 1862 (the eleven day of the third month, the first year of Tongzhi Emperor).

The edict says,

"According to the memory of Hsueh, the official army, co-operated with British-French troops, attacked the rebels at Xiaotang (hsiao-t'ang) and received a great victory. Ward, the fourth-rank-hat holder, soon after defeated the rebels at Gaoqiao Town, he turned to attack the enemy at Xiaotang. On February 1, Ward led the "Ever-victory Army," and worked with the officials of the Anglo-French troops. They led their own troops respectively crossed the river. They fired at rebels' camps with all the batteries. (But) the rebels resisted with their forts. Charging under heavy fire, Ward was wounded at several places. Burgevine, the second-in-command, directed another group of troop crossed a trench, and broke the southwest fort. Then the Anglo-French troops got in, and killed more than a thousand rebels. When Burgevine found some rebels hiding in peasants' houses, he was the first person to dash into one of the houses. Then, he was wounded seriously when a bullet went through his right thigh. At that time, Ward still led his troop burning the camps of rebels. His army ruined five forts, and killed countless rebels. Another group of rebels, who from Nanqiao came to assistant, also was attacked by the official army. Many of them were killed and arrested. Totally (in this battle), over two thousand rebels were killed and more than seven hundred were arrested. Over a thousand refugees who had been captured by rebels were saved. All of the troops did good job. Let Hsueh supervise the troops to follow up the victory with hot pursuit in order to wipe out the rebels. Ward and Burgevine, both now the fourth-rank-hat holder, completely disregarding their own safety, charged and shattered enemy positions, never shrunk back even after they were wounded repeatedly. They really performed wonderfully. Both of them could be awarded and become the third-rank-hat holder. Let Hsueh transmit this edict and cite them for their meritorious service."