Under whose command did the 'ever-victorious army' play a part in putting down the 'Taiping Rebellion' in 1864?
"soldiers, and was led by Li Xiucheng. It was routed in 1860, after occupying Jiangsu Province (except for Shanghai). Tan also fought in the Battle of Shanghai (1861). Li Xiucheng's mansion was built in Suzhou, where it is the only one from the Taiping Rebellion still existing today. In July 1863 Li ordered his son-in-law, Tan Shaoguang, to assume control of Suzhou. Li Hongzhang led the Huai Army; the ""Ever Victorious Army"", which had been raised by an American, Frederick Townsend Ward, was placed under the command of Charles George Gordon. With its support Li Hongzhang won several battles, leading"
"decisive battles that ended the Taiping Rebellion. Though Gordon has received most of the credit for the victories, it was Ward who originated the concepts that resulted in the Ever Victorious Army, and its ability to win those victories for Gordon. In recent years, there has been an effort to pay tribute to the man who molded the Ever Victorious Army, Ward, aided by Li Hongzhang, rather than Gordon. The infantry of the Ever Victorious Army was organised into battalions, usually referred to during the period of Gordon's command as regiments. By 1864 there were six regiments numbering between 250"
"Ever Victorious Army The Ever Victorious Army () was the name given to an imperial army in late-19th-century China. The Ever Victorious Army fought for the Qing Dynasty against the rebels of the Nian and Taiping Rebellions. The Ever Victorious Army consisted of Chinese soldiers trained and led by an American and European officer corps. Though the Army was only active for a few years, from 1860 to 1864, it was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion. It was the first Chinese army which was trained in European techniques, tactics, and strategy. As such, it became a model for"
"In 1860 the Taiping rebels were successful in taking Hangzhou and Suzhou to the east (See also: Second rout of the Army Group Jiangnan), but failed to take Shanghai, which marked the beginning of the decline of the Kingdom. An attempt to take Shanghai in August 1860 was initially successful but finally repulsed by a force of Chinese troops and European officers under the command of Frederick Townsend Ward. This army would later become the ""Ever Victorious Army"", led by ""Chinese"" Gordon, and would be instrumental in the defeat of the Taiping rebels. Imperial forces were reorganized under the command"
"later Chinese armies. The Ever Victorious Army had its beginnings as a force formed under the command of Frederick Townsend Ward in 1860, assisted by the local strategic support of the French diplomat Albert-Édouard Levieux de Caligny called ""le breton"" by the Chinese in the Shanghai French Concession. The Ever-Victorious Army repulsed another attack on Shanghai in 1862 and helped to defend other treaty ports such as Ningbo. They also aided imperial troops in reconquering Taiping strongholds along the Yangtze River. Qing forces were reorganised under the command of Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, and the Qing reconquest"
"December 1861. He was again the Commissioner of Customs for Ningpo in 1864. After spending the following spring working in the coordinated French and English campaign to drive the rebels from Shanghai, Giquel returned to Ningpo to organize the force which eventually became the Ever-Triumphant Army (常捷軍), also known as the ""Franco-Chinese force"". The force numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 men. On 15 March 1863, the force, under the command of Ensign Paul d'Aiguebelle (德克碑) captured the city of Shao-hsing from the Taiping rebels. Prosper Giquel took command of the ""Franco-Chinese force"" when Paul d'Aiguebelle returned to France, but the"
"by James Lande, which relates the tale of the first three years of the Ever Victorious Army, from its beginning as the Foreign Rifles in 1860 through September 1862. Ever Victorious Army The Ever Victorious Army () was the name given to an imperial army in late-19th-century China. The Ever Victorious Army fought for the Qing Dynasty against the rebels of the Nian and Taiping Rebellions. The Ever Victorious Army consisted of Chinese soldiers trained and led by an American and European officer corps. Though the Army was only active for a few years, from 1860 to 1864, it was"
"their compatriots, and engage them in mortal combat with ther bamboos.—(Fisher.)"""" During the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), the rebel forces led by able generals such as Shi Dakai were well organized and tactically innovative. After the rebel armies defeated Manchu generals in a series of battles, the Qing government allowed armies made up of foreigners, such as the Ever Victorious Army, and eventually responded by forming armies mainly composed of Han Chinese, and under Han Chinese commanders such as Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai. Examples of these armies were the Xiang Army and the Huai Army. The"
"uniforms with red facings and trouser stripes. Infantry wore dark green in winter dress with red facings and shoulder straps in regimental colours. In summer all branches wore white uniforms with scarlet facings. All units wore green turbans. Gordon's stringent discipline led to an increase in desertions and several small scale mutinies. Accordingly, by June 1863 the force had declined in numbers to 1,700 men. In the final year of its existence, the Ever Victorious Army was largely recruited from former Taiping rebels who had been taken prisoner and persuaded to change sides. By April 1864 the Army had become"
"Suzhou and remained inactive at Kunshan until February 1864. Gordon then made a rapprochement with Li and visited him in order to arrange for further operations. The ""Ever-Victorious Army"" resumed its high tempo advance, leading to the Battle of Changzhou, and culminating in the capture of Changzhou Fu, the principal military base of the Taipings in the region. Gordon wrote in his diary: ""The HOUR GLASS BROKEN"" and predicted that the war would soon be won. The Ever Victorious Army did not take part in the final offensive that ended the war with the Sack of Nanking as the ""Imps"","
"began in earnest. By early 1864, Qing control in most areas was reestablished. Townsend Ward introduced what were for the time radical ideas involving force structure, training, discipline, and weaponry (though there are historians who question whether his lieutenant and confidant Li Hongzhang was also responsible for some of the then-unique ideas that forged the Ever Victorious Army). He believed in a more flexible command structure, and that well trained, disciplined, mobile units could defeat larger forces lacking these qualities. Following several early victories, the Qing dynasty officially bestowed the title ""Ever Victorious Army"" on the corps in March 1862."
"as Gordon called the Imperial Army, wanted the honour of taking Nanking, the Taiping capital, for themselves. Instead, the Ever Victorious Army was given the task of taking the secondary cities of Yesing, Liyang and Kitang. At Kitang, Gordon was wounded for a second time on March 21, 1864 when a Taiping soldier shot him in the thigh. The wound was only slight and Gordon was soon back in action, fighting his last battle at Chang-chou in May 1864. Gordon then returned to Kunshan and disbanded his army in June 1864. During his time with the Ever Victorious Army, Gordon"
"a perpetually stalemated siege of Nanjing. In Hunan, a local irregular army called the Xiang Army or Hunan Army, under the personal leadership of Zeng Guofan, became the main armed force fighting for the Qing against the Taiping. Zeng's Xiang Army proved effective in gradually turning back the Taiping advance in the western theater of the war. In 1856 the Taiping were weakened after infighting following an attempted coup led by its East King, Yang Xiuqing. During this time the Xiang Army managed to gradually retake much of Hubei and Jiangxi province. In May 1860 the Taiping defeated the imperial"
"less effective and had suffered several setbacks. It was disbanded in May 1864 with 104 foreign officers and 2,288 Chinese soldiers being paid off. The bulk of the artillery and some infantry transferred to the Chinese Imperial forces. Robert Jordan named the Seanchan army in his ""Wheel of Time"" fantasy series after the Ever Victorious Army. Ward turns up in George MacDonald Fraser's fictional ""The Flashman Papers"" series novel ""Flashman and the Dragon"" as a Yangtse opium smuggler (apocryphal) and as the leader of the embryonic Ever Victorious Army. Ward appears as Fletcher Thorson Wood in the novel ""Yang Shen"""
"the moniker ""Ever Victorious Army"". Taiping's Lt. Gen. Li Rongfa began the battle with an invasion of Pudong by 20,000 men, transported in thousands of boats. Upon his occupation of the whole district the city requested help from the British and French. In October (according to the Chinese calendar), the American Frederick Townsend Ward brought 2,000 Filipino and Chinese soldiers, whom he had trained, against the Taiping forces. Following a 15-day Christmas ceasefire called by Li Rongfa, the government of Shanghai asked Beijing for assistance in December. In response the Huai Army with its 20,000 soldiers was sent to reinforce"
"people. For a fuller selection, please see the section Taiping Rebellion: Further reading Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, officially the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, was an oppositional state in China from 1851 to 1864, supporting the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Hong Xiuquan and his followers. The unsuccessful war it waged against the Qing is known as the Taiping Rebellion. Its capital was at Tianjing (present-day Nanjing). A self-proclaimed convert to Christianity, Hong Xiuquan led an army that controlled a significant part of southern China during the middle of the 19th century, eventually expanding to a"
"Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, officially the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, was an oppositional state in China from 1851 to 1864, supporting the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Hong Xiuquan and his followers. The unsuccessful war it waged against the Qing is known as the Taiping Rebellion. Its capital was at Tianjing (present-day Nanjing). A self-proclaimed convert to Christianity, Hong Xiuquan led an army that controlled a significant part of southern China during the middle of the 19th century, eventually expanding to a size of nearly 30 million people. The rebel kingdom announced social reforms and"
"Taipings by the ordinary Chinese people. One British officer serving with the Ever Victorious Army described Gordon at this time as: ""a light-built, wiry, middle-sized man, of about thirty two years of age, in the undress uniform of the Royal Engineers. The countenance bore a pleasant frank appearance, eyes light blue with a fearless look in them, hair crisp and inclined to curl, conversation short and decided"". The Ever Victorious Army was entirely a mercenary force whose only loyalty was to money and whose men were interested in fighting only in order to gain the chance to plunder. Gordon felt"
"Jinling Town (), Nanjing. Although the fall of Nanjing in 1864 marked the destruction of the Taiping regime, the fight was not yet over. There were still several thousands of Taiping rebel troops continuing the fight. It took seven years to finally put down all remnants of the Taiping Rebellion. In August 1871 the last Taiping rebel army, led by Shi Dakai's commander, Li Fuzhong (), was completely wiped out by the Qing forces in the border region of Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi. The Heavenly King was the highest position in the Heavenly Kingdom. The sole people to hold this"
"entrusted the country's most powerful military unit against the Taiping rebels into the hands of a Han Chinese, Zeng Guofan. Additionally, in the next three years, Cixi appointed Han Chinese officials as governors in all southern Chinese provinces, raising alarm bells in the court, traditionally protective of Manchu dominance. Under the command of Zeng Guofan, the victorious Xiang Army defeated the Taiping rebel army in a hard-fought battle at Tianjing (present-day Nanjing) in July 1864. Zeng was rewarded with the title of ""Marquess Yiyong, First Class"", while his brother Zeng Guoquan, along with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and other Han"
"Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion or total civil war in China that was waged from 1850 to 1864 between the established Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Hong Xiuquan. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was an oppositional state based in Tianjing (present-day Nanjing) with a Christian millenarian agenda to initiate a major transformation of society. A self-proclaimed convert to Christianity and brother of Jesus Christ, Hong Xiuquan led an army that controlled a significant part of southern China during the middle of the"
"Xiang Army The Xiang Army or Hunan Army () was a standing army organized by Zeng Guofan from existing regional and village militia forces called ""tuanlian"" to contain the Taiping Rebellion in Qing China (1850 to 1864). The name is taken from the Hunan region where the Army was raised. The Army was financed through local nobles and gentry, as opposed to through the centralized Manchu-led Qing dynasty. The army was mostly disbanded by Zeng after the re-capture of the Taiping capital at Nanking. Although it was raised specifically to address problems in Hunan, the Army formed the core of"
"Townsend Ward to command the Ever Victorious Army after Ward's death. Burgevine's assignment was against Ward's will, who wished his loyal Filipino subordinate Macanaya to succeed him as the commander, but the imperial Chinese court selected Burgevine instead. However, Burgevine betrayed the Qing Dynasty by later defecting and joining Li Shixian's army. He was later repatriated to the United States but he returned to China after completing half of his journey. On his return Qing police arrested him once again. In 1865 he drowned along with 10 Qing police in Xiamen's sea on the way to Shanghai, China, although some"
"Zuo was given command of a force of 5,000 volunteers, the Xiang Army (later known as ""Chu Army""), and by September of that year, he drove the Taiping rebels out of Hunan and Guangxi provinces, into coastal Zhejiang Province. Zuo captured the city of Shaoxing and, from there, pushed south into Fujian and Guangdong provinces, where the revolt had first begun. In 1863, Zuo was appointed Provincial Governor of Zhejiang and an Undersecretary of War. In August 1864, Zuo, together with Zeng Guofan, dethroned the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's teenage ruler, Hong Tianguifu, and brought an end to the rebellion. He"
"longer be second-guessed by his backers in Shanghai. By March 1862, Ward's force would be officially named by the Qing government, and to history, as “The Ever Victorious Army”, and Ward himself would be made first a 4th-rank, and then a 3rd-rank mandarin, high honors from the Manchu court for a ""barbarian"". Through the course of 1862, “The Ever Victorious Army” (常勝軍); would essentially live up to its name, again and again defeating numerically superior opponents, often in entrenched positions. Further, its presence on the battlefield and example of effective Chinese soldiering served as a “force multiplier” for Imperial Anhui"
"and in full. Gordon's insistence on paying his men meant that he was always pressing the Imperial government for money, something which often irritated the mandarins who did not understand why Gordon did not just let his men loot and plunder as a compensation for wages. Gordon designed the uniform for the Ever Victorious Army, which consisted of black boots together with turbans, jackets and trousers that were all green while his personal bodyguard of 300 men wore blue uniforms. In March 1863 Gordon took command of the force at Songjiang, which had received the name of ""Ever Victorious Army."""
"the death of the Xianfeng Emperor and ascension Tongzhi Emperor, Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army captured Anqing with help from a British naval blockade on the city. Near the end of the 1861 the Taipings launch a final Eastern Expedition. Ningbo is easily captured in December 9th, and Hangzhou is besieged and finally captured on December 31st, 1861. Taiping troops surround Shanghai in January, 1862, but with the return of British and French troops from to the city returning from Northern China. The Ever-Victorious Army repulsed another attack on Shanghai in 1862 and helped to defend other treaty ports such as"
"Nanking, Zeng disbanded the 120,000 soldiers under his command, although Zuo kept his forces intact. After the fall of the Taiping, in from 1864 to 1890, over half of the viceroys in China were Xiang Army leaders. In 1860, the power of the Xiang Army was unsurpassed, totalling almost 360,000 soldiers. The large main group was led by Zeng Guofan with 130,000 troops. The Qing regular army, the Green Standard Army, totaled about 2,300,000 (included the Xiang Army). Taiping Rebellion soldiers amounted to about 1,800,000 (including 300,000 local gang members who repeatedly changed sides). After 1864 a significant portion of"
"July 1863, Li ordered his daughter's husband, Tan Shaoguang, to capture Suzhou. But Li Hongzhang led the Huai Army combined by the ""Ever Victorious Army,"" which, having been raised by an American named Frederick Townsend Ward, was placed under the command of Charles George Gordon. With this support, Li Hongzhang gained numerous victories leading to the surrender of Suzhou. According to one legend, three months after Donkey Jiang (蔣驢子) became the manager of Li Xiucheng's stables in 1864 — and before the fall of Nanjing — Li Xiucheng took his wealth (including much plunder) to Donkey Jiang. At Li's request,"
"destruction of the Taiping regime, the fight was not yet over. There were still several hundred thousand Taiping troops continuing the fight, with more than a quarter-million fighting in the border regions of Jiangxi and Fujian alone. It was not until August 1871 that the last Taiping army led by Shi Dakai's commander, Li Fuzhong (李福忠), was completely wiped out by government forces in the border region of Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi. In 1865, Liu Yongfu escaped in command of a splinter group known as the Black Flag Army (; ), which mainly recruited soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, and"
"advent of modern weaponry resulting from the European Industrial Revolution had rendered China's traditionally trained and equipped army and navy obsolete. After the humiliating capture of Beijing and the sack of the Summer Palace in 1860, officials like Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and the Manchu Wenxiang made efforts to acquire advanced western weapons and copy western military organization. Special brigades of Chinese soldiers equipped with modern rifles and commanded by foreign officers (one example is the Ever Victorious Army commanded by Frederick Townsend Ward and later Charles George Gordon) helped Zeng and Li to defeat the Taiping rebels. Li Hongzhang's"
"his own – black – flag. Liu organized a ceremony reminiscent of the tiandihui rituals and what became known as the Black Flag Army was born. The ""army"" operated as an independent unit under Wu Yuanqing and under his son and successor, Wu Yazhong (Wu Ya-chung, 吳亞終) or Wu Hezhong. Although not part of the Taiping forces, both Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yazhong laid claim to be Taiping ""princes"". After Qing forces crushed the Taiping Rebellion in 1864 in Nanking, the Qing army proceeded to destroy systematically the many armed bands of south-eastern provinces. Hotly pursued, the desperate Wu Yazhong,"
"like the Ever Victorious Army. Eastern Expedition The Eastern Expedition encompassed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's efforts to capture the Yangtze River Delta, the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang. Most of the areas would eventually be occupied by the Taipings, but they were notably repulsed at several locations, especially the city of Shanghai. Following the Jintian uprising in the southern province Guangxi and the beginning of open hostilities, Taiping forces attacked and captured Nanjing in central China by 1853. The Western Expedition captures cities along the Yangtze River like Zhenjiang, Anqing were captured later the same year. When Hong Rengan"