3-000-271 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French attack on the Bridge Pa-Li-Chian, eight miles from Pekin - from a sketch by our special artist in China, 1860. European forces in China. Sir J. Hope Grant: 'At daybreak on the 21st I marched from Chang-Tsia-Wan, and...was there joined by the French...the Tartar cavalry showed in large masses, and advanced rapidly until within 200 yards of our guns...the enemy's cavalry, driven away from the right by our fire, hung in large masses on our left front...the 1st Sikh Cavalry, under Major Probyn...effectually turned the right of the Chinese army. The enemy, though defeated on the spot, yet still remained in front...I had with me the cavalry, the 4th Infantry Brigade, and three Armstrong guns...[with these guns] under Captain Rowley, we fired occasional single shots on their thickest masses. These shots, fired singly, at slow intervals, served admirably to illustrate the good qualities of the Armstrong gun: not one failed to strike the thick masses of the enemy, at once dispersing them from the spot...Forty-three guns were taken during the action, and the loss of the Chinese was very severe...groups of dead showed the effect of the artillery fire, which had followed their movements till they finally retreated. Our loss is two killed...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.