The Taiping Tide: A Storm Gathering Over Jiangnan

In the spring of 1860, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom launched its eastern campaign like a tsunami crashing toward Shanghai. A Chinese observer near Shanghai wrote despairingly: “The sky glowed with flames, the earth trembled with wailing.” Shedding their disguises as imperial troops, the rebels marched eastward from their capital Tianjing (Nanjing), meeting little resistance from demoralized Qing forces. Under the brilliant command of Loyal King Li Xiucheng, Taiping armies swept through Jiangsu province like a scythe through wheat. Local militia defenses crumbled as city after city fell to the advancing rebels.

The Taiping strategy focused on capturing key urban centers along the Grand Canal. After taking Danyang on May 19, they seized Changzhou a week later, then Wuxi after another three weeks. But their ultimate prize was Suzhou – the famed garden city of two million inhabitants that could provide both fresh recruits and the merchants’ hidden treasures. When Li Xiucheng’s forces arrived outside Suzhou’s walls on June 2, 1860, sympathizers within simply opened the gates, allowing the Taiping to capture this jewel of Jiangnan without bloodshed.

The Impossible Choice: Resistance, Compliance, or Flight

For civilians in the Taiping path, the advancing armies presented agonizing dilemmas. The options were stark: join local militia to defend villages (a near-suicidal choice against Taiping hordes), adopt rebel customs by growing out hair (the Taiping rejected Qing-mandated queues, wearing their hair long with colored ribbons), or attempt flight. Many peasants compromised – growing hair to conceal their queues when Taiping forces arrived, then quickly reverting to Qing hairstyles if imperial troops returned.

For the elite – landowners, officials, and wealthy merchants – the stakes were existential. The fall of each city brought waves of suicides among those who saw no future under Taiping rule. Those with means fled, though bound-footed elderly mothers made escape difficult. As Taiping control spread across Jiangsu and into Zhejiang, safe havens dwindled. The foreign concessions in Shanghai became the last refuge for many, though even there, terrifying rumors spread of Li Xiucheng’s million-strong army approaching, with rebel boats reportedly taking three days to pass a single point on the river.

Shanghai in 1860: A Tapestry of Chaos and Commerce

By 1860, Shanghai’s International Settlement housed over 500,000 Chinese residents, with refugee numbers swelling daily, creating severe sanitation and housing crises. The city comprised four distinct zones along the Huangpu River:

1. The old Chinese city (still governed by Qing authorities)
2. The French Concession
3. The larger British Settlement with its orderly grid, racecourse, and Customs House
4. The ill-defined American Settlement across Suzhou Creek

Despite its reputation among newly arrived Westerners as “one of the filthiest cities in the world,” Shanghai thrived as China’s premier trading port. Its strategic location facilitated the exchange of inland tea and silk for imported cotton and opium. But the Taiping advance now threatened this lucrative trade, prompting British authorities to prohibit commerce with the rebels.

The Neutrality Dilemma: Britain’s Precarious Position

Britain’s top representative in China, Frederick Bruce (brother of Lord Elgin), faced impossible choices after the Qing victory at Taku in 1859. Determined to maintain neutrality, Bruce prohibited trade with the Taiping while resisting Qing attempts to draw Britain into their defense. Shanghai’s desperate daotai (mayor), Wu Xu, warned that Taiping control would end all foreign trade – an argument that gained traction as lawless imperial troops (defeated by the Taiping) began pillaging the countryside.

Bruce reluctantly requested permission from London to defend Shanghai’s Chinese city against potential Taiping attack, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe if disorder spread to the foreign settlements. His dilemma encapsulated Western powers’ contradictory position – how to protect commercial interests without openly supporting the Qing regime that had recently humiliated them at Taku.

The Filibusters Arrive: Ward’s Ever-Victorious Army

Amid this turmoil emerged one of history’s most colorful mercenary forces – the “Ever-Victorious Army” led by American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Ward had previously fought with infamous filibuster William Walker in Nicaragua before arriving in China in 1859. Initially hoping to join the Taiping, Ward instead found employment with Shanghai merchants seeking protection for their river trade.

In early 1860, Ward began recruiting an international force of about 200 Europeans, Americans, and Filipinos. Bankrolled by Shanghai financier Yang Fang at the astronomical wage of $100 per month, these mercenaries aimed to capture strategic towns near Shanghai. Their first target was Songjiang, fifteen miles southwest of Shanghai.

Ward’s initial April 1860 attack failed disastrously when drunken troops alerted Taiping sentries. After regrouping with reinforcements and acquiring two Napoleon field guns, Ward launched a second assault in July. This time they breached Songjiang’s outer walls but became trapped between gates, suffering horrific casualties before imperial reinforcements arrived. Of 500 attackers, over half died, with only 27 escaping unwounded.

The Missionary Perspective: Christian Hopes for the Taiping

While most foreigners feared the Taiping advance, Protestant missionaries viewed the rebellion through a different lens. In July 1860, a group including Joseph Edkins and Griffith John traveled to Suzhou to meet Taiping leaders. They were astonished to learn their former colleague Hong Rengan (who had worked with London Missionary Society in Hong Kong) now served as the Taiping’s Prime Minister.

The missionaries’ journey revealed war’s horrors – including navigating canals choked with corpses – but they remained impressed by Taiping opposition to “idolatry.” Meeting Li Xiucheng, they found him “intelligent-looking” and disciplined, wearing yellow silk robes and spectacles. Subsequent meetings with Hong Rengan in August reinforced their belief that the Taiping might establish a Christian China friendly to the West.

Edkins published enthusiastic accounts in the North China Herald, arguing that Taiping excesses had been exaggerated and that their victory would bring religious and commercial benefits. His wife Jane wrote home: “Am I not a rebel at heart? I confess that I should like to welcome them.” This missionary perspective significantly influenced Western views of the Taiping movement at a critical juncture.

The Legacy of 1860: Turning Point in China’s Civil War

The events of 1860 marked a pivotal moment in the Taiping Rebellion’s fourteen-year history. Li Xiucheng’s eastern campaign demonstrated Taiping military prowess while exposing their administrative challenges. The rise of foreign mercenary forces like Ward’s – though initially ineffective – foreshadowed increasing Western military involvement against the Taiping. Meanwhile, missionary interactions with Taiping leaders created unrealistic hopes about the rebellion’s Christian character.

Shanghai’s survival as a Qing-held enclave amidst Taiping-controlled territory became crucial for the dynasty’s eventual victory. The city served both as a base for Western-backed forces like Ward’s and as a conduit for foreign weapons reaching imperial troops. The tensions between neutrality and self-interest that plagued British policymakers in 1860 would continue until the rebellion’s final suppression in 1864.

The human cost was staggering. Millions faced impossible choices between resistance, adaptation, or flight. The waves of refugees flooding into Shanghai transformed the city permanently, accelerating its growth into China’s premier international port. For Western observers, 1860 became the year when the Taiping transitioned from distant rumor to immediate reality – forcing difficult decisions that would shape China’s relationship with the outside world for decades to come.