Captain Reilly’s guns had been remounted on their carriages, and with them we left our forward positions at about 4 a.m, as an advance party to cover the few remaining miles to Peking on that memorable 14th August. Heavy rains the previous night had made the roads thick tracks of mud and water, through which the miserable horses tried to drag the guns and their limbers. As we proceeded the sun began to make itself felt, and the day to become unpleasantly hot. The combined influence of those awful roads and the heat made our progress necessarily very slow, and many of the men were nearing exhaustion.
Without serious opposition we arrived at the northeast corner of the Chinese city, having brushed away some enemy troops that fired from villages to our left and front. At about 10 o'clock, Colonel Chaffee held up our advance to maintain the advantage of the ground that we had obtained, while the rest of our force moved up behind us. Then at 11, two companies of the 14th Infantry, under the immediate command of Colonel Daggett, assaulted the wall of the Chinese city and, with the assistance of Reilly’s guns below, drove the Chinese defenders from the corner of the wall towards the Guangqui gate to the south of the city, where the British entered without opposition later in the day.
The shared sense of pride and victory that inevitably accompanies the achievement of a military objective such as this was soon tempered, however, by the news brought back to Chaffee by one of our forward scouts. He reported what many of us had already suspected; that, in search of glory in being the first force to relieve the Legations, the Russians had violated the agreed battle plan, ignored their assigned target, the Dongzhi gate, and instead attacked the Dongbien gate during the night. They had killed a number of Chinese soldiers outside the gate and blasted a hole in the door with artillery. Once inside, though, in the courtyard between the inner and outer doors, they had been caught in a crossfire and had been pinned down there for several hours.
We made haste to the gate and arrived soon afterwards to find the Russian artillery and troops in great confusion in the passage, their artillery facing in both directions, and no clear effort being made to extricate themselves and give passage into the city. One company of the 14th was deployed in the buildings to the right of the gate and poured effective fire onto the Chinese troops atop the wall. Captain Reilly got two guns through a very narrow passage to his left, tearing down a wall to do so, and found a position a few yards to the left of the road where he could enfilade the enemy, section by section, with shrapnel. A second company crossed the moat and, taking a parallel position, deployed along a street facing the wall from where, with the aid of the artillery they swept it of Chinese troops. In this way, gradually working to the westward, the great wall was cleared of opposition.
A young trumpeter, Calvin Titus, approached Colonel Chaffee volunteered to climb the 30-foot wall which, given permission, he did successfully. Others followed him, and just before noon, the American flag was raised on the wall of the Outer city. We exchanged fire with the few remaining Chinese soldiers on the wall and then climbed down the other side and headed west toward the Legation Quarter in the shadow of the wall of the Inner city. Here we encountered heavy resistance from a group of about 30 Chinese snipers who had taken good cover in the many destroyed buildings in the grounds. We had little cover and some four hundred yards of open ground to cross but the snipers had us pinned down and a number of our men were wounded. This halted our advance until General Chaffee deployed the marines to clear the ground, which task they achieved successfully within an hour, but at the cost of seven of their number killed. Thus at about 3.30 p.m we arrived at the wall of the Legations, the fire of the Chinese having now all but ended.
We entered the Legation grounds by the Water Gate, a drainage canal running beneath the wall of the Inner city. The 14th Infantry was selected to enter as the leading force on this occasion, in recognition of their gallantry at Yangtsun and during this day; I was proud to be with them …
Without serious opposition we arrived at the northeast corner of the Chinese city, having brushed away some enemy troops that fired from villages to our left and front. At about 10 o'clock, Colonel Chaffee held up our advance to maintain the advantage of the ground that we had obtained, while the rest of our force moved up behind us. Then at 11, two companies of the 14th Infantry, under the immediate command of Colonel Daggett, assaulted the wall of the Chinese city and, with the assistance of Reilly’s guns below, drove the Chinese defenders from the corner of the wall towards the Guangqui gate to the south of the city, where the British entered without opposition later in the day.
The shared sense of pride and victory that inevitably accompanies the achievement of a military objective such as this was soon tempered, however, by the news brought back to Chaffee by one of our forward scouts. He reported what many of us had already suspected; that, in search of glory in being the first force to relieve the Legations, the Russians had violated the agreed battle plan, ignored their assigned target, the Dongzhi gate, and instead attacked the Dongbien gate during the night. They had killed a number of Chinese soldiers outside the gate and blasted a hole in the door with artillery. Once inside, though, in the courtyard between the inner and outer doors, they had been caught in a crossfire and had been pinned down there for several hours.
We made haste to the gate and arrived soon afterwards to find the Russian artillery and troops in great confusion in the passage, their artillery facing in both directions, and no clear effort being made to extricate themselves and give passage into the city. One company of the 14th was deployed in the buildings to the right of the gate and poured effective fire onto the Chinese troops atop the wall. Captain Reilly got two guns through a very narrow passage to his left, tearing down a wall to do so, and found a position a few yards to the left of the road where he could enfilade the enemy, section by section, with shrapnel. A second company crossed the moat and, taking a parallel position, deployed along a street facing the wall from where, with the aid of the artillery they swept it of Chinese troops. In this way, gradually working to the westward, the great wall was cleared of opposition.
A young trumpeter, Calvin Titus, approached Colonel Chaffee volunteered to climb the 30-foot wall which, given permission, he did successfully. Others followed him, and just before noon, the American flag was raised on the wall of the Outer city. We exchanged fire with the few remaining Chinese soldiers on the wall and then climbed down the other side and headed west toward the Legation Quarter in the shadow of the wall of the Inner city. Here we encountered heavy resistance from a group of about 30 Chinese snipers who had taken good cover in the many destroyed buildings in the grounds. We had little cover and some four hundred yards of open ground to cross but the snipers had us pinned down and a number of our men were wounded. This halted our advance until General Chaffee deployed the marines to clear the ground, which task they achieved successfully within an hour, but at the cost of seven of their number killed. Thus at about 3.30 p.m we arrived at the wall of the Legations, the fire of the Chinese having now all but ended.
We entered the Legation grounds by the Water Gate, a drainage canal running beneath the wall of the Inner city. The 14th Infantry was selected to enter as the leading force on this occasion, in recognition of their gallantry at Yangtsun and during this day; I was proud to be with them …
(courtesy of Digital Collections. NYPL)
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