Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/177

 Gordon some non-commissioned officers of the British force quartered at Shanghai. At the end of May he attacked Quinsan, the Taiping arsenal, and, by a bold strategic movement, cut the line of its communication with the great city of Soo-chow, and captured it, taking eight hundred prisoners. A large number of rebels were killed, and many fugitives were slain by the exasperated country people. Gordon then established his headquarters at Quinsan, as being further away from the demoralising influences of Shanghai. The maintenance of discipline was a perpetual struggle, and the change of headquarters caused a mutiny which was only quelled by shooting the ringleader on the spot. Before the summer of 1863 was over, Gordon captured Kahpoo, Wokong, and Patachiaow, on the south of Soo-chow, and, sweeping round to the north, secured Leeku, Wanti, and Fusaiqwan, so that by October Soo-chow was completely invested. On 29 Nov. the outworks were captured by assault, and the city surrendered on 6 Dec. Gordon was always in front in all these storming parties, carrying no other weapon than a little cane. His men called it his ‘magic wand,’ regarding it as a charm that protected his life and led them on to victory.

When Soo-chow fell Gordon had stipulated with the Governor-general Li for the lives of the Wangs (rebel leaders). They were treacherously murdered by Li's orders. Indignant at this perfidy, Gordon refused to serve any longer with Governor Li, and when on 1 Jan. 1864 money and rewards were heaped upon him by the emperor declined them all, saying that he received the approbation of the emperor with every gratification, but regretted most sincerely that, ‘owing to the circumstances which occurred since the capture of Soo-chow, he was unable to receive any mark of his majesty the emperor's recognition.’ The imperial decree conferring on Gordon an order of the first rank and a gift of 10,000 taels of silver in consideration of his services at Soo-chow was presented to the British Museum in 1886 by Gordon's brother, Sir Henry William Gordon, and is now on exhibition in the manuscript department, together with a map of the districts round Soo-chow, drawn by Gordon, and marked with the dates of his successful engagements.

After some months of inaction it became evident that if Gordon did not again take the field the Taipings would regain the rescued country. On the urgent representations of the British envoy at Pekin, Governor Li was compelled to issue a proclamation exonerating Gordon from all complicity in the murder of the Wangs. Gordon then reluctantly consented to continue his services, on the distinct understanding that in any future capitulation he should not be interfered with. In December 1863 a fresh campaign was commenced, and during the following months no fewer than seven towns were captured or surrendered. In February 1864 Yesing and Liyang were taken, but at Kintang Gordon met with a reverse and was himself wounded for the first time. He nevertheless continued to give his orders until he had to be carried to his boat. After some other mishaps he carried Chan-chu-fu by assault on 27 April. The garrison consisted of twenty thousand men, of whom fifteen hundred were killed. This victory not only ended the campaign but completely destroyed the rebellion, and the Chinese regular forces were enabled to occupy Nankin in the July following. The large money present offered to Gordon by the emperor was again declined, although he had spent his pay in promoting the efficiency of his force, so that he wrote home: ‘I shall leave China as poor as when I entered it.’ The emperor, however, bestowed upon him the yellow jacket and peacock's feather of a mandarin of the first class, with the title of Ti-Tu, the highest military rank in China, and a gold medal of distinction of the first class. The merchants of Shanghai presented him with an address expressing their admiration of his conduct of the war.

On his return home in the beginning of 1865 he was made a C.B., having previously received his brevet as lieutenant-colonel in February 1864. In September 1865 he was appointed commanding royal engineer at Gravesend, and for the next six years carried out the ordinary duties of the corps, superintending the construction of the forts for the defence of the Thames. During this quiet and uneventful period of routine work he devoted his spare time to the poor and sick of the neighbourhood, stinting himself that he might have larger means wherewith to relieve others. He took special interest in the infirmary and the ragged schools. He took many of the boys from the schools into his own house, starting them in life by sending them to sea, and he continued to watch the future progress of his ‘kings,’ as he called them, with never-failing sympathy.

In October 1871 Gordon was appointed British member of the international commission at Galatz for the improvement of the navigation of the Sulina mouth of the Danube in accordance with the treaty of Paris. During his tenure of this office he accompanied General Sir John Adye to the Crimea to report on the British cemeteries there. On his way back to Galatz in November 1872 he met Nubar Pasha at Constantinople, who sounded