Battles of the Second Opium War
1856–1860 · 5 battles covered, in date order. Click a battle on the map for its summary.
Battle (size: ships engaged)
British movement
American movement
Routes are approximate.
1856
16–24 November 1856 · The Barrier Forts, Pearl River below Canton
Battle of the Barrier FortsAmerican victory; the forts destroyed
The United States stayed out of the war, but when the Barrier Forts below Canton fired on an American boat, Commodore James Armstrong decided to punish them. Portsmouth and Levant were towed up to the forts and bombarded them, and Commander Andrew Foote led a landing party of sailors and marines that stormed all four forts in turn and beat off counter-attacks. The forts' guns were spiked and the walls blown up. The Americans lost seven killed; Chinese losses ran to several hundred. China apologised, and the United States went back to neutrality.
1857
1 June 1857 · Fatshan Creek, between Canton and Foshan
Battle of Fatshan CreekDecisive British victory
A large fleet of war junks had gathered in the creek leading to Foshan, behind a fort and a barrier of junks moored across the channel. Seymour attacked with steam gunboats towing the ships' boats. The fort was stormed, and Commodore Henry Keppel led the boats in against the junks; his own boat was sunk under him, and he went on in another. The junks were driven up the creek, burned or captured. Some 70 junks were destroyed for the loss of about a dozen British killed.
2
vs
70
1858
20 May 1858 · Taku Forts, mouth of the Peiho
First Battle of the Taku FortsAnglo-French victory; Treaty of Tientsin
To bring pressure on Peking, the allies took their gunboats north to the mouth of the Peiho, guarded by the Taku Forts. When the Qing would not negotiate, British and French gunboats steamed over the bar and bombarded the forts at close range, and landing parties took them in about two hours. The gunboats went on up the river to Tientsin, where the Qing signed treaties opening more ports and allowing foreign envoys to live in Peking.
1859
25 June 1859 · Taku Forts, mouth of the Peiho
Second Battle of the Taku FortsChinese victory; allied attack repulsed
The British and French envoys came back to ratify the treaty, found the river blocked and the forts rebuilt, and tried to force their way in. Admiral James Hope's gunboats went in at high tide and got stuck among the obstructions under accurate fire from guns they had not seen. Plover, Lee, Cormorant and Kestrel were sunk and Hope himself was badly wounded. A landing party sent across the mud flats at dusk was shot down. The American commodore Josiah Tattnall, saying 'blood is thicker than water', used his chartered steamer to bring up British reserves and take off wounded. The British lost nearly 90 killed and more than 300 wounded, the worst defeat of the Royal Navy in the nineteenth century.
9 (4 lost)
1860
21 August 1860 · Taku Forts, mouth of the Peiho
Third Battle of the Taku FortsAnglo-French victory; the forts taken
This time the allies came with an army of some 17,000 British and French troops. Landing unopposed at Pehtang, north of the forts, they marched down the coast and attacked the northern forts from the land side while the gunboats bombarded them from the river. After the main northern fort was stormed, the rest surrendered. The allies advanced on Peking, burned the Old Summer Palace in October, and forced the Qing to sign the Convention of Peking, which also gave Britain Kowloon.