This is a short story of the long hike to Peking, China, by members of the International Relief Force made up of Seven Nations, including the United States, more specifically, the United States Marines. At the end of the nineteenth century anti-foreign feeling in China was strong and stemmed from two main causes. One was the conduct of the foreigners, which was often deplorable and always open to misconstruction; the other was the policy of the Manchu Dynasty, which was deluded and out of date. The Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi, encouraged anti-foreign sentiment which was fully shared by her subjects; hatred for the West was widespread throughout China. To direct attention away from her declining power, the Empress, having crushed the reforms and the reformers of 1898, threw her weight behind the parties of reaction at court that were bent on the suicidal policy of directing the rising tide of foreign hatred against all foreigners and their works; their railroads, their churches, their religion and their converts.

Trouble in China

Thus as 1900 dawned, China was swept by a movement known as "Yao rebels" who believed that they had been made invulnerable by sorcery and incantation. Screaming mobs, determined to kill every Westerner, were egged on by the Yao society whose title, "The Fist of Righteous Amity" was translated by Americans and English into 'Boxers."

On 28 May 1900, Boxers burned several railroad stations on the Belgian-built line between Peking and Paotingfu. The next day they hit Fengtai, principal junction below Peking, and destroyed the Imperial Railway shops there. Consequently, the foreign legations in Peking telegraphed for help, and the Asiatic squadrons of the great powers raise steam and set course for North China. In putting down the Boxer Rebellion, the United States Marines played a vital role.

The first United States ship to reach Taku Bar, the Yellow Sea roadstead 40 miles down-river from Tientsin, was the USS Newark, a cruiser which anchored on 27 May. The Newark carried a double strength complement of Marines. At 0400, 29 May, Captain McCalla of the Newark sent off 48 Marines under Marine Captain John (Handsome Jack) Myers, a 3-inch landing gun with bluejacket crew, a Colt machine gun, and Assistant Surgeon T.M. Lippett, USN, the Newark's junior medical officer. Following, three long hours later, as soon as the sailors could wrestle themselves into white leggings and heavy marching order, were four naval officers, 60 seamen, and another machine gun.

Having joined forces at Tangky, inside the river bar, under personal command of Captain McCalla, the American column, traveling in junks towed by a commandeered steam tug, finally reached Tientsin at 2300 that night where the foreign colony had been waiting for them with a brass band. Among the welcomers was a 25 year old American mining engineer, Mr. Herbert Hoover, who later recalled, "I do not remember a more satisfying musical performance than the bugles of the American Marines [sic] entering the settlement playing "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." (footnote 1)

The first foreign troops to arrive, the Marines and sailors were billeted in Temperance Hall, dedicated to a cause the futility of which has never been more often underscored than on the China station. At Tientsin it was obvious that troops must push on to Peking despite stalling by the Chinese railroad authorities . Meanwhile, British, Austrian, German, French, Italian, Japanese and Russian landing forces followed the Americans into Tientsin. On 31 May, after considerable pressure, including a British threat to hang the Tientsin stationmaster, a train for Peking was outfitted. On this train were Captain Myers and his 48 Marines, five sailors and weapons. In addition to the Marines, this train and another which followed, were other Western nation military forces, including 79 British Marines. All told, the troops bound for Peking numbered 22 officers and 423 enlisted men; a force about the size of that on Wake Island in 1941. As they debarked, they were met not only by relieved representatives of the legations, but also by thousands of silent Chinese.

The Seymour Expedition

It was clear, by l0 June 1900, that the legations in Peking would need much more help. Boxers had severed the railroad to Tientsin; the last train had passed through on 5 June. Peking was cut off. Meanwhile, Captain McCalla's bluejacket contingent at Tientsin had been reinforced by 50 sailors and a couple squads of Marines under a first sergeant. The whole eight nation force in Tientsin now numbered 2,500. The senior officer present was Vice Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, Royal Navy. On 9 June, Captain McCalla faced the assembled senior officers and council at Tientsin and announced, "I don't care what the rest of you do. I have 112 men here, and I'm going tomorrow morning to the rescue of my own flesh and blood in Peking. I'll be damned if I sit here 90 miles away and just wait." (footnote 3) Next day, leaving behind a detachment to protect Tientsin, Admiral Seymour, with McCalla second in command, set out for Peking trying to repair the railroad as the column plodded forward. The most essential man in the force soon proved to be a U.S. Navy coal passer who had once been a section hand. He was the only man out of 2,129 who could set out a fishplate and spike down a rail. Within a week the column, five trains in all, had made 65 miles and was only 25 miles from the besieged capital but was in trouble. Harried by Boxers and by Imperial soldiers who had now joined in, the would-be rescuers had the choice of retreat or annihilation. The column turned back, abandoning its trains at a wrecked bridge.

From 18 to 22 June, Seymour and McCalla marched back toward Tientsin while the red-scarved Boxers slashed at them from behind village walls and burial mounds. Finally, with more than 200 wounded, the force could neither retreat nor advance. In a last effort, the U.S. Marines, Royal Marines, supported by the Germans fought their way to the strongly fortified Hsi-ku arsenal six miles north of Tientsin. Safe for the moment, they stayed with ample food, modern weapons, and sorely needed medical supplies, all inadvertently provided by the Chinese government. Of McCalla's 112, thirty-two were killed or wounded, including McCalla himself who had been wounded three times. By percentage the small American contingent sustained almost twice as many casualties as any other in the force.