Frederick Townsend Ward was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1831, and after working as a sailor in his teenage years, he trained in Mexico under the filibuster William Walker. Filibustering was basically being an unauthorized mercenary. Ward later served in the French Army during the Crimean War before turning up in Shanghai in 1860.
At that moment, China was in the middle of the Taiping Rebellion, one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. It had been sparked by a radical Christian sect led by Hong Xiuquan, a man who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ after a series of visions. Tens of millions would die, entire provinces were depopulated, and the Qing state was barely holding together.
In Shanghai, local Qing officials and foreign residents trusted Western mercenaries more than local militias, and Ward stepped neatly into that gap.
With Qing backing, Ward raised, trained, and equipped a mixed force of Chinese soldiers and Western adventurers, paying them well and drilling them hard. He was repeatedly wounded, including a brutal shot through the jaw that left him scarred and partially speech-impaired, but his reputation only grew. His unit became known as the Ever Victorious Army, and unlike most things with that name, it largely lived up to it.
Ward’s force played a decisive role in defending Shanghai and pushing back massive Taiping armies despite being vastly outnumbered. In 1862, after a series of victories, the Qing formally recognized him, granting him the rank of mandarin, an extraordinary honor for a foreigner. Western governments, which had initially been wary of him, quietly decided he was useful.
Ward wouldn’t live to see the end of the war. He was mortally wounded in September 1862 and died at just 31. His command was later taken over by another Westerner, Charles “Chinese” Gordon, who would become far more famous. Ward was largely forgotten. If interested, I cover the Taiping Rebellion in detail here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-volume-54-holiday?r=4mmzre&utm\\\_medium=ios
by aid2000iscool