[VOL III] CLOSE OF THE ATTACK ON CHAPOO

CLOSE OF THE ATTACK ON CHAPOO

Cover Image: Close of the Attack on Shapoo,- the Suburbs on Fire / ZhaPu HaiYan JiaXing ZheJiang China / From a Drawing in the possession of Sir Geo. Staunton, Bart – ALAMY Image ID:2X55N7R

*Zhapu, alternately romanized as Chapoo or Chapu, is a town under the administration of Jia Xing Pinghu, in the north of Zhejiang Province, China.[ The Battle of Shapoo（Chapu） was fought between British and Qing forces at Chapu (present-day Zhapu) on the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay during the First Opium War. / From a Drawing in the possession of Sir Geo. Staunton, Bart.

“Hark the fierce music on the wind, the atabal, the gong,
The stern avenger is at hand,—he has not tarried long.”

CHAPOO, on the Gulf of Hang-chow, owes all its commercial importance to the exclusive trade which it enjoys with Japan, monopolized by six imperial junks. The place is situated at the northern boundary of Chekeang province, and, as the sea is rapidly receding all along that coast, not only is approach dangerous to mariners, but the trade, most probably, will soon be transferred to Shang-hai, one of the free-ports of the empire. With the exception of the picturesque hills that rise immediately over the city and suburbs of Chapoo, the surface, for many miles in every direction, is low, flat, and intersected by canals, some of which extend to the great city of Hangchow. Although the rise of tide at Shang-hai, only three days’ sail, is not more than eight feet, yet at Chapoo it exceeds four-and-twenty, so that, at high-water, the harbour may be entered by vessels of large burden.

The city is spacious, walled, with suburbs equal in extent to the enceinte itself. The immediate vicinity is highly cultivated, thickly peopled, adorned with mandarins’ villas, pagodas, temples, pailoos, and halls of ancestors. The scenery amidst the adjacent hills has long received the unlimited admiration of travellers, and not unfrequently the emperor himself condescends to visit this garden of his wide dominions, this pride of China, and pass some months at a time in the enjoyment of its beauties. Residence here, however, is not either safe or desirable at all seasons, ophthalmia prevailing to a great extent, whenever there occurs a continuance of dry and sultry weather.

It was on the 17th of May, in the year 1842, that a British fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, arrived before the city of Chapoo; and, on the following morning, Sir Hugh Gough succeeded in landing a force of 13,000 men on a sandy beach, two miles east of the city, without the least opposition from the Chinese. With childish precaution, the enemy had assembled their entire force, 8,000 men, within the city, relying mainly on the strength of their fortifications, leaving the range of heights, a natural battery, and one that commanded their streets and the bay where the British lay, wholly unoccupied. While the British forces were ascending and forming on the hills, the ships of war opened upon the fortifications on shore, which were immediately silenced, and a brigade of 700 seamen landing, under cover of a heavy fire from the ships, drove the Chinese from their guns towards the city. Sir Hugh Gough was now in possession of the heights, from which the whole Chinese army was descried, defiling regularly through the streets, in full retreat. Their movements appeared to receive occasional acceleration from the fall of shells and grape amongst them, according as the howitzers and field-pieces came nearer and nearer; at length, Colonel Schoedde’s escalading party getting completely over the wall, the rapid volleys of his musketry completed the confusion and route.

Three hundred Mantchou Tartars, feeling the degradation their arms sustained by the desertion of so large a force, took possession of a strong building in the middle of the city, resolved to hold it against every opposition. This little devoted band had wholly escaped the notice of the pursuing army, nor was their resolute conduct understood until they became the aggressors, by discharging a smart volley upon the rear of the Irish brigade. Some twenty of this corps turned to revenge the injury, but they were soon obliged to retire, several of their number being instantly shot down. A second party, however, soon succeeded, and boldly advancing to the entrance, received the murderous fire of the Tartars, by which Colonel Tomlinson and several of his men fell mortally wounded. British gallantry seemed to rise in proportion as danger increased, and the death of their brave companions, the undaunted courage of the enemy, only nerved the arms and steeled the swords of Colonel Mountain and his brave party. Assaulting this “Hougoumont” of the day with all their national heroism, they were yet unable to propitiate the fortune of war, and after the Colonel and his two lieutenants had been severely wounded, the position was again abandoned. What manly daring could effect had now been accomplished by these brave Tartar soldiers, as well as by their equally gallant enemies; but military skill, scientific adjuments, and superior discipline, being at length called in, their fate was sealed. Colonel Knowles now came up with the shells and rockets, and in a few minutes the little fortress was in flames, its luckless defenders were all either shot or bayoneted, with the exception of about twenty, who were spared to grace the triumph of British military prowess. A sort of wild despair took possession of the whole population of Chapoo, upon the sudden discovery of our infinite superiority in the art of war. The men, including 6,500 regular troops and 1,700 Tartars, abandoned the city; the women, ignorant of the English character, and equally horror-struck at the flight of their cowardly husbands, having destroyed their children, committed self-immolation, and numbers were found suspended from the ceilings of their once happy homes. Had our operations been a little more rapid, it is possible that many of those miserable events might have been prevented, for if the citizens but stayed to witness the generosity with which our brave army exercised their power, indignation would thenceforth have pointed at the real authors of these miseries—the calumniators of British national character. Amongst the spoils of Chapoo were ninety pieces of ordnance, jingalls, matchlocks, bows and gunpowder. The loss on the part of the Chinese was estimated at 1,500 men, on ours it is known not to have exceeded nine men killed, and fifty wounded.