Battles of the First Opium War

4 September 1839 · Off Kowloon, opposite Hong Kong Island

Inconclusive

The first shots of the war. Chinese officials had stopped food reaching the British merchant ships sheltering off Hong Kong, and Captain Charles Elliot, the British superintendent of trade, went to Kowloon with a cutter, a schooner and a frigate's pinnace to demand supplies. When the junks there would not let them through he opened fire. The British boats ran short of ammunition and drew off, and both sides claimed the day.

3 November 1839 · Off Chuenpi, at the mouth of the Pearl River

British victory

Admiral Guan Tianpei brought a fleet of war junks and fire ships down to Chuenpi to stop British merchant ships trading, and Captain Henry Smith took the frigate Volage and the sloop Hyacinth in against it. Sailing along the Chinese line and firing broadsides, the two ships blew up one junk and sank three more, and the rest withdrew. Guan's own junk fought on until it was badly damaged. Only one British sailor was wounded.

5 July 1840 · Dinghai, Chusan island

British victory; Chusan occupied

The British expeditionary force sailed north from the Pearl River and anchored off Dinghai, the chief town of Chusan, to seize a base at the mouth of the Yangtze. When the garrison refused to surrender, Commodore Bremer's ships opened fire: the bombardment silenced the war junks and the shore defences in about nine minutes, and the troops landed and took the town the next morning. Disease went on to kill far more of the British garrison than the fighting had.

7 January 1841 · Chuenpi and Tycocktow forts, mouth of the Pearl River

British victory; Convention of Chuenpi

When talks broke down, Bremer attacked the outer forts of the Bogue. Calliope, Hyacinth and Larne bombarded Chuenpi while troops stormed it from the landward side, and Samarang, Druid, Modeste and Columbine silenced the fort at Tycocktow across the channel. Nemesis then steamed into Anson's Bay and attacked the junk fleet there; one of her Congreve rockets blew up a large junk with all its crew, and eleven junks were destroyed. Several hundred Chinese were killed. Qishan, the new Qing negotiator, agreed to cede Hong Kong, though Beijing never accepted the terms.

23–26 February 1841 · The Bogue (Humen) forts, Pearl River

British victory; the Bogue forts taken

After Beijing rejected the Convention of Chuenpi, the British attacked the main forts of the Bogue, the narrows that guarded the river to Canton. Three 74s anchored off Anunghoy and the Wangtong islands and battered the forts at close range while the steamers towed in the landing parties. The Chinese garrisons fought hard; Admiral Guan Tianpei was killed defending Anunghoy, hundreds of his men died, and more than a thousand were taken prisoner. British losses were a handful of wounded.

27 February 1841 · The First Bar, Pearl River below Whampoa

British victory

The day after the Bogue fell, Captain Thomas Herbert of Calliope led the light ships and steamers on up the river. At the First Bar the Chinese had built a battery and a barrier of sunken junks and rafts, with the armed former merchant ship Cambridge moored behind it. The British silenced the battery and stormed the position, and a boarding party from Nemesis set Cambridge on fire. She blew up that afternoon. The way to Whampoa and Canton was open.

26 August 1841 · Amoy (Xiamen) and Kulangsu island

British victory; Amoy taken

Rear Admiral Sir William Parker and General Sir Hugh Gough took the war north. At Amoy the Chinese had built a long granite sea wall mounted with guns, which the 74s Wellesley and Blenheim bombarded for hours at close range with little effect on the stonework. The battery fell only when the troops landed and took it from behind; the forts on Kulangsu were stormed at the same time, and the war junks in the harbour were captured or destroyed.

10 October 1841 · Chinhai (Zhenhai), mouth of the Yong River

British victory; Chinhai and Ningpo taken

Having retaken Chusan on 1 October, Parker and Gough attacked Chinhai, the fortified town guarding the river to Ningpo. The ships of the line bombarded the citadel while the steamers landed troops on both banks, and the town fell in a few hours. The Qing commissioner Yu Qian, who had sworn to hold it, drowned himself. The steamers carried the troops on up the river, and Ningpo was occupied without a fight three days later.

16 June 1842 · Woosung (Wusong), mouth of the Huangpu and the Yangtze

British victory; Shanghai taken

The opening of the Yangtze campaign. The batteries at Woosung, where the Huangpu river to Shanghai meets the Yangtze, were attacked by sailing warships towed into position by steamers. After two hours of bombardment the Chinese gunners broke; their commander, the veteran general Chen Huacheng, was killed at his post. Among the Chinese ships taken were war junks driven by paddle wheels turned by men inside the hull. Shanghai fell three days later, and the fleet went on up the Yangtze.