Battle of Taku Forts (1859)

For other uses, see Battle of Taku Forts.
Second Battle of Taku Forts
Part of the Second Opium War

The Taku Forts
Date24-26 June 1859
Location
Taku Forts, Hai River, China
Result Chinese victory
Belligerents
 British Empire
 French Empire
 United States		 Qing China
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom James Hope (WIA)
United States Josiah Tattnall III		 Sengge Rinchen
Strength
Britain:
1,160 (on land)[1]
11 gunboats
4 steam ships[1]		 4,000[2]
60 guns[2]
6 forts[2]
Casualties and losses
Britain:
3 gunboats sunk
3 gunboats grounded[1]
81 killed[3]
345 wounded[3]
France:
12 killed
23 wounded
United States:
1 killed
1 wounded
1 launch damaged		 32 killed or wounded[2]

The Second Battle of Taku Forts (Chinese: 第二次大沽口之戰) was a failed Anglo-French attempt to seize the Taku Forts along the Hai River in Tianjin, China, in June 1859 during the Second Opium War. A chartered American steamship arrived on scene and assisted the French and British in their attempted suppression of the forts.

  1. ^ a b c Janin, Hunt (1999). The India-China Opium Trade in the Nineteenth Century. McFarland. p. 126–127. ISBN 0-7864-0715-8.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Second Battle of the Taku Forts". unitedcn.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2010-09-15.
  3. ^ a b Raugh, Harold E. (2004). The Victorians at War, 1815-1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History. ABC-CLIO. p. 100. ISBN 1-57607-925-2.