| Battle of Shanhaiguan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Boxer Rebellion | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United Kingdom |  Qing China  Boxer movement | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Edmund Barrow | Song Qing | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 17,000 British troops | 14,000 Chinese troops | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 199 killed 587 wounded Railway destroyed | Unknown "Old dragon head" destroyed | ||||||
The Battle of Shanhaiguan took place in 1900 when Qing dynasty imperial troops and the Boxers engaged in combat against British forces.
The permanent Chinese forces stationed at Shanhaiguan consisted of the left division under commanding officer General Song Qing. It consisted of two battalions, one under General Ma Yukun, however, both withdrew to Tianjin in June and July before the battle, which they did not participate in. [1] In June Ma Yukun then received orders from Empress Dowager Cixi to enter Beijing, to crush the Boxer rebels along the way. [2]
Part of the Great Wall, the "old dragon head", was destroyed during the battle by the British during a sea attack. [3] [4] In response, Chinese Boxer forces responded with a counterstrike and destroyed the railroad nearby. [5]
Louis Livingston Seaman wrote about an incident in which the Chinese Honghuzi bandits, who were also Boxers, captured, tortured, and executed Eight-Nation Alliance Sikh soldiers at Shanhaiguan:
"In January, 1900, during the Boxer campaign (and the Hunghutzes were all Boxers in those days) I chanced to be on the Great Wall of China at Shan-HaiKwan, when a party of five sikhs, with two coolies and a cart, went through a gateway on a foraging expedition for wood. Shortly after one of the coolies rushed back, so frightened he could hardly articulate, and reported that a party of mounted Hung-hutzes had swooped down on the sikhs, who had carelessly neglected to take their arms, and had carried them off and stolen their ponies. The coolies had escaped by hiding in a near-by nullah. [6]
It was " boots and saddles," and in less time than one can write it, the Royal Bengal Lancers, Beluchis, and Gourkas were swarming over the hills in a vain hunt for their comrades and the Boxers. But they were late. Several hours after, they came upon the scene of torture. All was over. There remained only the mutilated remains of their companions and the inhuman instrument that had accomplished its deadly work.
The death instrument was a sort of iron cage, about eight feet high, made of rods fastened to a small ring at the base, resembling somewhat the steel frame of an umbrella on an enlarged scale. The rods were closed round the victim much as they are round the handle of a closed umbrella, and a rudely constructed nut or screw at the top forced them tightly together. In this infernal device the unfortunate sikhs had been forced, one after another, and as the screw was tightened and the flesh of the victim protruded between the bars, these fiends had sliced it off with their swords until the end came, and it came quickly." [7]
In September, Shanhaiguan was occupied by Britain, which wanted to prevent Russia from entering the area. [8]
of twenty well-mounted men to accompany us wherever it suited our convenience to go, and directed that we should be furnished with good mounts whenever we desired. The photograph of Li Hung Chang, already referred to, contributed in no small degree to the cordial relations that we had established. General Chung was a great admirer of the old statesman, and through this influence our new host welcomed us as old friends. This was not, however, my first acquaintance with the Hung-hutzes. In January, 1900, during the Boxer campaign (and the Hunghutzes were all Boxers in those days) I chanced to be on the Great Wall of China at Shan-HaiKwan, when a party of five sikhs, with two coolies and a cart, went through a gateway on a foraging expedition for wood. Shortly after one of the coolies rushed back, so frightened he could hardly articulate, and reported that a party of mounted Hung-hutzes had swooped down on the sikhs, who had carelessly neglected to take their arms, and had carried them off and stolen their ponies. The coolies had escaped by hiding in a near-by nullah.LONDON SIDNEY APPLETON COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Original from the University of California Digitized Nov 21, 2007
It was " boots and saddles," and in less time than one can write it, the Royal Bengal Lancers, Beluchis, and Gourkas were swarming over the hills in a vain hunt for their comrades and the Boxers. But they were late. Several hours after, they came upon the scene of torture. All was over. There remained only the mutilated remains of their companions and the inhuman instrument that had accomplished its deadly work. The death instrument was a sort of iron cage, about eight feet high, made of rods fastened to a small ring at the base, resembling somewhat the steel frame of an umbrella on an enlarged scale. The rods were closed round the victim much as they are round the handle of a closed umbrella, and a rudely constructed nut or screw at the top forced them tightly together. In this infernal device the unfortunate sikhs had been forced, one after another, and as the screw was tightened and the flesh of the victim protruded between the bars, these fiends had sliced it off with their swords until the end came, and it came quickly.LONDON SIDNEY APPLETON COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Original from the University of California Digitized Nov 21, 2007 Archived 2014-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
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