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From The Archives
Hell In China
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"My Dear Mother," wrote LT Smedley D. Butler, age just 20:
"Well, here we are about 200 miles from our destination and steaming 15 knots or about 17 miles an hour. We expect to arrive about noon tomorrow, but I doubt if we land until the next day. We were ordered away from
Lt Butler, far from his well ordered Quaker home in Pennsylvania, was on the Yellow Sea, aboard USS Solace, with 106 Marines ("a very fine body of men") including an impromptu overstrength of two, "that had sneaked aboard in the dark." The date was 17 June 1900.
Two weeks earlier,
In 1900, Queen
"Underneath the Starry Flag,
Civilize 'em with a Krag . . ." and Little Drown Brother as well, dedicated to the new governor-general and the Philippine insurrecto, which ran:
"He may be a brother of William H. Taft, But--He ain't no brother of mine. . . ."
Twenty thousand
In
"The weather is becoming hot, even here in latitude 40 and in the month of May. The
That was Peking, capital city of
As 1900 dawned,
"We are beginning to call them Boxers" - continued the diarist, "grudgingly and sometimes harking back and giving them their full name, 'Society of Harmonious Fists,' or the 'Righteous Harmony Fist Society'." And so it was that I Ho Tuan got the name by which the West still remembers it.
In open sympathy with the Boxers were the bloodthirsty soldiery of the Kansu Army. Led by a fierce commander, Tung Fu-Hsiang, these Mohammedans from Inner Mongolia had been brought to
On 28 May 1900, a Boxer column sacked and burnt several railroad stations on the Belgian-owned line between
At this very moment when-in Smedley
Every soldier and Marine who could be spared from
Thus the resources which could be spared from the
Land the Landing Forces
The first US ship to reach Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea roadstead 40 miles down-river from Tientsin, was USS Newark, protected cruiser, which knifed through the Gulf of Pechili at her full 19 knots, and anchored on 27 May.
From
Following
When
At four in the morning, 29 May, McCalla sent off Marines- (48 men from Newark and Oregon, under "Jack" Myers and Newt Hall) -a 3-inch landing gun with bluejacket crew, a trusty Colt machine-gun, and Assistant Surgeon T. M. Lippitt, USN, Newark's junior medico. Following three hours later, as soon as the sailor-men could wrestle themselves into white leggings and heavy marching order, were four naval officers, 60 seamen, and another Colt machine gun. The first
Having joined forces at Tong-Ku, inside the river bar, McCalla's expedition set out for
From Tientsin, it seemed obvious to Capt McCalla and
On 31 May, international pressure was too much for the Chinese: after the British threatened to hang the Stationmaster, a special train was arranged. On this rattling fire-carriage entrained Capt Myers, Capt Hall, Surgeon Lippitt, the 48 enlisted Marines, five bluejackets, and the better of the two Colt guns with 8,000 rounds, plus 400 rounds per man. In addition to the US Marines, the Peking train carried 79 red-coated, pipe-clayed British Marines, 75 French sailors (Compagnies de Debarquement), 75 Russian sailors, 50 German Marines, 30 Austrian Marines, 40 Italian sailors and 29 Japanese Special Naval Landing Force-a redoubtable breed whose prowess US Marines would re-learn years later from Tarawa to Iwo Jima.
Aside from individual weapons and the US Marines' Colt machine gun, this mixed trainload included an Italian one-pounder, an Austrian Mannlicher machine gun, and a Nordenfelt gun belonging to the British (". . . an old-fashioned, clumsy machine gun which jams at every four shots," subsequently chronicled a frustrated observer in Peking).
All told, the troops bound for
The
By 10 June 1900, it was clear that the legations in
Meanwhile, Capt McCalla's bluejacket contingent at
On 9 June, after a long-winded international council of war, walrusmoustached old Bowman McCall faced the assembled senior officers and consuls at
That did it. Next day, leaving a detachment behind to protect the women and children in Tientsin,
Within a week, the column was at Lang Fang, only 25 miles from the besieged capital, but was in as much trouble as any foreign troops in
From 18 to 22 June, Seymour and McCalla (the latter aboard a commandeered white mule) slogged back toward Tientsin through the
Beleaguered in the arsenal, with Tientsin's foreign concessions under attack from the native city, the
"Brave Hearts and Bright Weapons"
With three sieges going on at once, as the Chinese burnt, looted and murdered, the Boxer cause appeared to be prospering.
In the face of this three-alarm emergency, the first US troops ready to go to China from the Philippines were a tiny provisional battalion under Maj Littleton W. T. ("Tony") Waller, which had been mounting gloomily out from Cavite for Guam. As young Lt Butler recounted:
"Major Waller came ashore at 4:45 p.m. and told me that Company A was the one chosen for the expedition and that I was to go in command of it. He also told me that I was to get the company ready by 8:45 that same night. For a while I seemed dazed and then it dawned on me and we all began preparations. Peter Wynn and myself first went out to the quarters and set all the men wild by the news and in my short but eventful life I have never seen such a howling mob. We then went back and packed ourselves and at 8:15 p.m., I started for the quarters to bring the company down to the boat. That was pretty quick work when you consider that I took out a half hour for dinner."
Following this whirlwind embarkation, the ship sailed for Taku on 14 June 1900. Hours later, Minister Conger reported to the Department of State that the foreigners in
Five days later, at 0330, the Marines debarked in lighters, reinforced by 30 more Marines from
With the rough-and-ready help of Navy machinist's mates and water-tenders from the vintage Monocacy, now the Allied station ship at TongKu, Waller coaxed a wheezy Chinese train back to life, loaded it with spare ties, rails, and Marines, and chuffed from Tong-Ku toward
At 0200 on 20 June, within ear-shot of the Chinese guns shelling
The retreat was signalized by the rescue of a wounded Marine, inadvertently left behind, by a rear guard consisting of IstLts Smedley D. Butler and A. E. Harding and four enlisted Marines. Under continual Chinese pursuit and fire, by cavalry and artillery, the six Marines carried the wounded man seven miles without a stretcher-and got away with it. All four enlisted rescuers (two of whom were themselves wounded) got Medals of Honor. Since officers were not eligible to receive the Medal of Honor in those days,
By nightfall, having hiked 30 miles, fought all day on nothing but a little hardtack, and sustained 13 casualties, Waller's battalion was back where it started, on the rail-road 12 miles from
The Marines led the way up
After the rescue of Tientsin's foreign concessions, two jobs demanded immediate action: 1.) relief of Adm Seymour's column still holding out in Hsi-Ku Arsenal (known to later generations of China Marines as the French Arsenal); and 2) reduction of the fast-growing Boxer stronghold within Tientsin's walled Chinese city. Here the western-trained Chinese had mounted modern Krupp cannon on the walls, and maintained a steady fire on the foreign concessions a mile or so distant. Even so, reported
On 25 June, after moving out before dawn, the relieving force reached Hsi-Ku Arsenal, raised the siege, ". . . said goodbye to the Boxers by setting fire to the Arsenal" (related Butler), and "marched back to Tientsin, loaded down with souvenirs." In addition, however, they brought in more than 300 of
But more Marines were on the way. Under be-moustached old Col Robert L. Meade, the remainder of the 1st Regiment at Cavite, P. I., had embarked in the armored cruiser Brooklyn, and were at Taku on 10 July. Meade brought one more infantry battalion, regimental head-quarters, and an "artillery company" (three 3-inch landing guns, the same as Huntington had used at Guantanamo Bay, and three Colt machine guns)-some 318 Marines in all.
Meanwhile, Waller's Marines at
At the moment, taking a much needed breather while the now thoroughly alarmed powers built up their forces for the campaign ahead, Waller reported on his operations to date:
"Our men have marched 97 miles in five days, fighting all the way. They have lived on about one meal a day for six days, but have been cheerful and willing always. They have gained the highest praise from all present, and have earned my love and confidence. They are like Falstaff's army in appearance, but with brave hearts and bright weapons. . . . They have made history, marked with blood, if you please, still glorious and brilliant. They were the first in the field, and, please God, they will remain until the last man, woman, and child is relieved from the toils of these barbarians."
Forwarding Waller's report, RAdm Kempff who commanded the
"And Saint David . . ."
The outer world's excitement over the plight of besieged Peking and
The first substantial American force to augment the Marines was the 9th Infantry, which reached
Four (lays later, Col Meade's contingent of the 1st Marines followed up. This gave the
In council-of-war the respective commanders agreed that the next step was to clean out
The native city was ringed by two walls-a 30-foot outer mud wall, relic of the Taiping Rebellion in the 1860's, and, about a mile inside, the stone city wall proper, 24 feet thick and likewise 30 feet high. On the latter, the Chinese had mounted their numerous cannon, with which they continued to shell the foreign devils. Allied counterbattery fire came mainly from five historic British 12-pounder naval guns (from HMS Terrible) which, earlier in 1900, had been hammered together with boiler-plate mounts and hauled across
At 0300, 13 July, as agreed, under overall command of British BGen A. R. F. Dorward, DSO, the American, British and Japanese forces commenced their attacks on the south face of the native city. The Marines had the extreme left flank; on their right were the Royal Welch Fusiliers, commanded by Maj F. Morris; still further on the right, the 9th Infantry (in support of the British Naval Brigade). At Maj Waller's request, young Mr. Hoover accompanied the Marines "as a sort of guide in their part of the attack on the
"We charged over the mud wall at seven in the morning," related Smedley Butler, who was now the only lieutenant in command of a company, "and began our advance. The whole country was flooded. The Chinese had diverted the water from the canals into the open space between the two walls. We struggled through this filthy swamp, with bullets splashing and whining around us. The low mud walls of the rice paddies provided some slight protection. We crouched behind them, firing furiously, slipping, sliding and stumbling from one to another."
While the rifle companies of the 1st Regiment and Royal Welch Fusiliers were thrashing about through the mud and debris, the artillery company, under Capt B. H. Fuller, went into position behind the mud wall. Here the 3-inch Navy landing guns opened fire at the native city wall and into the city itself. This fire soon drew attention from the numerous 4.7-inch Krupp guns of the Chinese, whose counterbattery was so effective that the Marine battery had to shift position. After firing all its ammunition, the batteryin a tradition which would distinguish Marine artillery on many another battlefield, including Wake and Saipan-reformed as infantry to reinforce the right flank of the 9th Infantry, which was in considerable trouble. For the rest of the day Fuller screened the 9th, and, that evening, covered their withdrawal, an action which the Army's report generously mentioned as follows: "Our final withdrawal was handsomely covered by the British naval troops and United States Marines sent to our aid by General Dorward. These gallant men also aided us in the removal of our wounded."
By eight that night, after a day of inconclusive action under intense though mercifully inaccurate Chinese fire, all hands were pulled back behind the outer mud wall, and the operation was no farther ahead than it had been at dawn. Out of the 451 Marines engaged, 21 had become casualties, including four officers (Capt A, R. Davis, killed; Capt W. B. Lemly and 1stLts Henry Leonard and S. D. Butler, wounded). The 9th Infantry, which never got beyond the mud wall, suffered considerably heavier casualties (17 killed, 71 wounded). Worse still, their gallant regimental commander, Col E. H. Liscum,
Before dawn the next day, however, the Japanese had broken the stalemate. In a skillfully conducted night attack, they gained the south gate of the Chinese city, blew it in, and swarmed through. By daybreak, the whole allied force was inside, sweeping the Boxers before them. The native city was afire, and looting was already rampant.
"Soldiers of all nations joined the orgy," wrote 2d Lt Wise. "Men of the allies staggered through the streets, arms and backs piled high with silks and furs, and brocades, with gold and silver and jewels." As the ashes of
A by-product of the fighting on the 13th was the fine friendship which sprang up between the 1st Marines and the Royal Welch Fusiliers (a regiment which, as the 23d Foot, had fought at
Ever since the Boxer uprising, it has been the annual custom of the two corps that, on St. David's Day (1 March), the national holiday of Wales, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Colonel of the Royal Welch exchange the traditional password of Wales-". . . And Saint David!"
The Defense of the Legations
While turmoil raged from Taku to Tientsin,
That afternoon at four, precisely 24 hours after delivery of the Chinese ultimatum, troops of the Kansu Army fired on the Austrian and French lines. The French replied with a volley.
The siege of the legations had commenced.
All foreigners-including some 300 women and children-were concentrated in the compounds of the British, Russian, US, German, Japanese and French legations. This area, in the heart of the Legation Quarter, was bounded on the south and dominated by the immense Tartar Wall, 60 feet high and 40 feet wide, which divides Peking's
The immediate efforts of the besieged foreigners were to erect bulletproof, and later shellproof, barricades, and to take in all available provisions. The latter, fortunately, posed no problem in most respects and, in the Peking Hotel's ample cellars, even included more than a thousand cases of Dry Monopole champagne and vast stores of the finest anchovy paste. Such bonanzas, however, fell somewhat short of making up for the Russian sailors' forgetfulness in leaving their field gun behind on the station platform in Tientsin, while carefully bringing up to
This military
As if turn-of-century international rivalry weren't enough, the Legation Quarter was a ferment of civilian-military cross-currents, intensified by the usual suspicions among the numerous missionaries representing a pantheon of denominations, as opposed to the worldly men of the legations and their guards. This personal turbulence, brought to a boil by privation and tension, made for continued meddling and intrusion in the conduct of the defense.
Against this backdrop, the military characters at the center of the stage included:
Capt John Twiggs Myers, USMC
-Commanding the US Marines, tall, handsome, dashing, urbane and diplomatic, with a perky go-to-hell moustache.
Capt Newt H. Hall, USMC
-That anomaly, a quiet Texan, second in command of the US Marines, destined shortly to become the unwilling center of a controversy which would dog him to his grave.
Capt L. Halliday, Royal Marine Liglit Infantry
-Commanding the Royal Marine detachment, an intrepid leader soon to be desperately wounded, to win the coveted Victoria Cross, and ultimately to command his corps as Adjutant-General Royal Marines.
Baron von Rahden, Russian Navy
-Ace rifleman and sniper whose sport was to stalk unwary Boxers each day as dawn broke.
LtCol Shiba, Japanese Army
-"The plucky little Japanese colonel," admired by all.
The first sortie of ihe Allies was on 23 June, to clear out the burning Hanlin Yuan (". . . at once the
Next evening, the Boxers probed again with fire. Outbuildings south of the British legation were touched off, and stacks of brands were rolled to one gate of the British compound. In the counterattack which had to follow, the Royal Marines lost Capt Halliday, shot through shoulder and lung, but still Marine enough to drop three Chinese with his revolver, to cover his detachment's withdrawal, and then stagger under his own power to the hospital.
Taking advantage of the excitement elsewhere, Capt Myers, who had by now gotten up a shaky barricade across the top of the Tartar Wall, facing west toward Chien Men gate, led a party forward along the wall. Before very long, however, he hit resistance in force (one foreign observer estimated 2,000 Chinese in depth behind at least six successive barricades, with "several big guns.") This showed the power stacked up against the frail
More characteristic of the siege than such sorties and charges was an episode reported by an English official on 25 June:
"Men were wanted to drive back, or at least intimidate, a whole nest of Chinese riflemen, who had tiously established themselves in big block of Chinese houses so placed that enfilading fire can reach a number of points hidden from the Japanese lines. The Chinese riflemen were becoming more and more daring, and half a dozen of the best American shots were requisitioned.
"The six men who came over went deliberately to work in a very characteristic way. They split up into pairs, and each pair got, by some means, binoculars-one man armed with binoculars, the other with the American naval rifle - the Lee straight-pull which fires the thinnest pin of a cartridge I have seen and has but a two-pound trigger-pull. The Marines armed with binoculars were not elated by any one shot. Sometimes it took an hour or even two, to bring down a single man; but no matter how long the time necessary might be, the Ameriams stayed patiently with their man until the sniper's life's blood was drilled out of him by these thin pencils of Lee bullets."
The position selected by Capt Myers on the Tartar Wall-"the Wall" simply, to the defenders-faced west toward Chien Men (Men means "gate" in Chinese). To the immediate left (south) front, the wall opened into a huge bastion, 40 yards across, overgrown with grass and brush from years of neglect. A ramp, inside the
On 27 June, in broad daylight, a Boxer storming party hit the
The next night, although Myers's barricade was again probed, it was the Germans' turn to receive the Chinese main effort. At dawn on 1 July, the Germans discovered that the Chinese had placed three field guns in embrasures on the barricade immediately facing them. Shortly after, under heavy shell fire, the German detachment, which had only a corporal in command, took hasty flight. What was worse, they signalled to the Marines in their rear, lacing the other way, that they had been overrun. Uy prearrangement, the Americans retired, abandoning the Wall for a lower barricade covering the ramp.
Jack Myers was not the man to submit, however, and, after obtaining some reinforcements from the British Marines, counterattacked. The rush succeeded, and with three casualties, the
By now, Myers was completely bushed. He had taken to himself the responsibility of commanding the Wall barricades, leaving Hall the less arduous posts guarding the American Compound below. For more than five days he had literally gone without sleep. After reoccupying the Wall, he was given a direct order by Sir Claude MacDonald to turn over his post to Hall, and go below for sleep. This he did, and Capt Hall thereupon assumed command of the upper barricade, with a curious written order from Minister Conger. In writing, the
Just 24 hours later, at dusk on 2 July, Capt Myers returned to his barricades and resumed command. In his absence, the Chinese had been permitted to score an ominous gain -by advancing their wall 40 yards across the open front of the NoMan's bastion which flanked both Chinese and American barricades, they were now within a few feet of the left (south) end of the US position, and had just erected a 15-foot tower overlooking it.
Here was a turning point. If foreign troops expected to retain control of the Tartar Wall, the Chinese would have to be ejected. At 0130, in a heavy rainstorm, Capt Myers collected 30 of his own people, 26 British Marines, and 15 Russians. At the simple command "Go!", the force jumped off, Myers leading the Anglo-American main effort against the bastion and tower, the Russians making a secondary attack on the right.
"The noise made by us aroused the Chinese," reported a British participant, "and almost at once a hot fusillade started from the big barricade in front of us."
But luck was with the Marines. The Chinese had failed to man their new tower, and by following the Chinese barricade across the bastion, Myers was able to lead his party into the rear of the main Boxer position, where Chinamen were still blazing away into the darkness to their front. Though Myers was wounded by a Chinese spear, the attack succeeded completely.
Within a half hour, the Boxer barricade, reversed, was the new front line. Thirty-six Chinese lay dead, and two flags were taken. Allied casualties: two US Marines killed, one (Myers) wounded; one British Marine and one Russian, wounded.
Small as this little action may have seemed, it proved indeed to be a turning point.
"The bravest and most successful event of the whole siege was an attack led by Capt Myers," reported Minister Conger.
"This has been the only effectual offensive measure accomplished during the siege," wrote one diarist;" . . . it eventually proved to be one of the most important factors in the successful conduct of the siege and turned our precarious foothold on the wall into a sound defensible position," noted another; "The pivot of our destiny," said still a third.
"Perhaps the most critical situation during the siege," stated LtGen Halliday in retrospect. Other Royal Marines thought so, too, and the bronze bas-relief commemorating the British Marines' role in the defense depicts this combined assault, with the figure of Myers conspicuously to the front-a very pretty tribute.
His victory very nearly finished Myers, however, for his wound infected badly, and, worse still (like Surgeon Lippitt, also wounded in the leg, on 29 June), he came down with typhoid. This left the US Marines under the command of Capt Hall.
And here we are confronted by one of the unsolved mysteries in the history of the Marine Corps. Was Capt Newt H. Hall guilty of cowardice at
Civilians in Peking pointed out after the siege, that Hall had served below during the first crucial week while Myers wore himself out on the Wall; that the Chinese had been permitted to advance their barricade across the bastion in a single day while Hall relieved Myers; that Minister Conger had admonished Hall against leaving the wall until (these were the very words) ". . . absolutely driven out." Typical of the talk against Hall within the besieged legations (where Myers was liked and admired, and Hall was not), was this diary entry:
"10 July-Today on the Wall there were 13 men under Captain Hall. He is never (sic) put on the Wall, his men having no confidence in his judgment. He has no control over his men. . . ."
Still other charges circulated that he had hesitated to lead his men forward over the barricade on the final day when the relieving column was in sight.
Ugly talk it was. And when the relief did take place, this talk came quickly to the ears of MajGen Adna R. Chaffee,
Heywood, winner of two Civil War brevets for "distinguished gallantry in the presence of the enemy," was one of the bravest men ever to wear the globe and anchor. His immediate comment was that Hall (his own nephew by marriage) should have been court-martialed on the spot, if only for his own protection, and Hall himself was already seeking redress. First he asked for a court-martial. This request Gen Chaffee refused. Then Hall asked the (Navy) Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Station, to convene a court of inquiry on his conduct. This time the answer was yes.
Meanwhile, Capt McCalla, Hall's commanding officer aboard the
On 1 March 1901, the Hall court of inquiry convened at Cavite Navy Yard. After a searching investigation, which disclosed "great caution" on his part, the court cleared the unhappy captain, but in terms of which no officer could be very proud-"for the reasons that he has already suffered sufficiently for the world-wide publication and criticism of his conduct in
Then, as if to compound the enigma, the Secretary of the Navy approved brevets to major for both Myers and Hall (but advanced Myers four numbers in grade for "eminent and conspicuous conduct," giving no such accolade to Hall).
Finally, in a public letter on 28 August 1901, Minister Conger denied that he had ever preferred any charges whatsoever against Hall (which was literally true), said he had personally defended Hall's conduct to Crozier and Chaffee, and referred with emotion to ". . . great injustice."
And there the matter lies. Hall, officially cleared and stoutly defended by many friends in the Marine Corps, got his brevet, stayed on, and ultimately retired after WWI, a colonel.
Back now to the final days of the siege. . .
After the Myers attack, the defense settled down into a sniper's war between the barricades. As the Chinese made more and better use of their artillery, the need for some kind of counter-battery weapon became acute. On 7 July, the first secretary of the US Legation, foraging in the ruins of an iron-monger's shop, came upon an ancient cannon. Navy Gunner's Mate Mitchell, with true bluejacket ingenuity, concluded that this muzzle-loading relic might, in an approximate way, be adapted to shoot the Russian detachment's gunless stock of ammunition. In two days of tinkering, Mitchell mounted his find on a pair of ricksha wheels, and gingerly testfired it (whereupon the first round dismounted barrel from carriage).
Besides the Russian shells, which worked quite well, Mitchell tested it with a bag of nails: the lethal shrapnel exceeded all hopes. The gun was at first christened "The International," but finally the appreciative troops just called it "Betsy" or "The Old Crock." "Betsy" shared honors, however, with the Marines' Colt machine gun, of which one Englishman noted, "They say it has killed more men than all the rest put together."
On 15 July activity flared briefly on the Wall, where Capt Hall was building a new barricade to cover the rear (Hata Men) face of his position. Here, under heavy fire, Pvt Daniel Daly won his first Medal of Honor by cooly holding an advance position alone, until Hall went back for reinforcements.
After 16 July, a kind of truce, punctuated by pot shots, prevailed until
The Relief of Peking
After five weeks on the way from the States, MajGen Adna R. Chaffee,
Accompanying Gen Chafee were substantial reinforcements: one more battalion of Marines (from
To protect
On 3 August, the 18,600-man international column sallied forth toward
"There was no shade, not a drop of rain, nor a breath of air. The cavalry and the artillery kicked up clouds of dust, which beat back in our faces. The blistering heat burned our lungs. Nearly 50 percent of our men fell behind during the day, overcome by the sun. In the cool of the night they would catch up with us and start on again next morning. Our throats were parched, our tongues thick. We were cautioned not to drink the water, but no orders could keep us from anything that was liquid."
On 13 August the relief column reached the eastern outskirts of
For political reasons, Gen Chaffee halted the
"It was the usual Chinese succession of quadrangular courtyards with buildings on all four sides. The men were alloted sleeping quarters in some of the buildings. Officers took others. Yet another was converted into a galley where the men's food was cooked, and they ate. The courtyard, paved with flagstone, was drill ground and recreation hall.... By noon we were all established, sentries posted, Officer of the Day appointed, the Marine Corps routine in full swing."
To underscore, for Chinese benefits, the moral of the campaign, it was decided that on 28 August a representative column of foreign troops should march across the Forbidden City, from south to north, thus erasing its legendary invulnerability to foreign violation. The Marine Corps contingent was one company each from the 1st and 2d Battalions, 1st Regiment; the company commanders, respectively, were Capt W. C. Neville and 1stLt Smedley J).
After a month of oddly mixed looting and patrolling to restore order, in a distinctly edgy international atmosphere, affairs in North China quieted enough to permit return of the Marines to the
Considering the heavy Chinese fire, casualties in the
As the Marines marched out of Peking, Gen Chaffee shiped the Marine defenders' home-made cannon to the Army museum at West Point, and, on express orders from Secretary of War Elihu Root, established Company B, 9th Infantry, as the US Legation Guard, Peking-an act of inter-service trespass which evoked an outcry to the Secretary of the Navy from the Commandant of the Marine Corps:
"It has always been the custom to furnish guards for the legations in a foreign country from Marines, and this custom has not been departed from until the present guard at the legation in China was established, which was furnished by the Army. Army troops are never supposed to be sent to a foreign country except in time of war, and for this reason, legation guards and other guards required in foreign countries, have always been furnished by the Marine Corps. It is respectfully submitted that it is eminently proper that the guard to be kept at the legation in
Regardless of Gen Heywood's reclama, clama, however, Marines had to wait until 12 September 1905-five years almost to the day after the relief of Peking-before a Marine detachment was finally allowed to take over from the Army, thus restoring the safety of the US Legation in Peking to the Corps which had preserved it in time of trouble.
Discussing the performance of the US Marines in
"Our Marines lead in their intelligent work as soldiers. The accuracy of their shooting is extraordinary. Their ability to step forward, one after the other, on the death or retirement of an officer or noncommissioned officer, and take his place, is remarkable. They show the greatest aptitude to command, and are in no way disconcerted by the sudden increase in responsibility."
Writing perhaps more warmly from very personal observation and interest, Minister Conger spoke of ". . . all they so nobly did and so bravely endured on our account. . .. The United States Marines acquitted themselves nobly. . . . Their conduct won the admiration and gratitude of all."
Marine Corps Gazette
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This Month In History
The Battle
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Marines in the Recapture of Guam
By Cyril J. O'Brien
With the instantaneous opening
of a two-hour, ever-increasing bombardment by six battleships, nine cruisers, a
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hills, rice paddies, cliffs, and caves that faced the attacking fleet on the
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