_WORK DONE BY AUSTRO-HUNGARIANS—MR. AND MRS. CHAMOT_
[Illustration: August F. Chamot]
THE Austro-Hungarian detachment consisted of thirty bluejackets from
the cruiser Zenta. They arrived in Peking on June 3 by the last train,
together with the German detachment. Lieutenant T. Kollar was in
command, with Midshipman Baron R. Boyneburg von Lengsfeld and T. Mayer.
With the detachment arrived also Captain Thomann von Montalmar and
Lieutenant Ritter von Winterhalter, so that there were five officers
and thirty men at Peking. When communication was cut Captain Montalmar
took command himself.
In the legation there were only Dr. A. von Rosthorn and Mrs. von
Rosthorn, the minister having left on leave in April and Vice-consul
Natiesta being sick at Shanghai. His successor, Mr. Gottwald, tried to
come up in the relief expedition under Admiral Seymour. The detachment
guarded also the Belgian legation until the Belgian minister left
there, and came to the Austrian legation on June 16.
On June 13, a Boxer attack on the new mint and the Imperial Bank of
China was checked by rifle-fire from the east corner of the legation.
A second attack was made at night and was also repulsed. During the
search following the unsuccessful attack, several Boxers were killed a
few hundred yards to the north on Customs street.
The next day the traffic on the Chang An street crossing Customs street
was stopped by an outpost, and later on by a wire fence, in order to
prevent the smuggling of disguised Boxers into the legation quarter.
During the night the guard at the Belgian legation was attacked, but
beat off the Chinese. A patrol caught some suspicious people, who were
handed over to the Chinese authorities. A part of the French detachment
assisted them in their night watches at the barracks.
On June 20, the detachment was ready for marching, to escort Dr. and
Mrs. von Rosthorn, as no notice had been given to Dr. von Rosthorn of
the ministers’ new decision not to leave. On arriving, about 3 P.M., at
the French legation, Dr. von Rosthorn was shown by Mr. Pichon a letter
from the tsung-li-yamen to the ministers, promising them protection.
Upon this, Dr. von Rosthorn returned with the detachment to the
Austrian legation.
While all the posts were being reoccupied, and the bluejackets began to
re-erect the fortifications, which had been pulled down before leaving
to prevent the Chinese from using them, Tung Fu Hsiang’s soldiers, who
were well hidden in the neighboring houses, opened a fierce firing from
two sides at about 3.30 P.M.
The Austrian legation being entirely exposed, and untenable against any
serious attack, it had been understood that the _chargé d’affaires_ and
the detachment were to retreat to the French legation. This was done
under a galling fire, but there was only one man wounded.
The Austrians immediately hastened to a position in the barrier erected
by the French some one hundred yards south of the customs compound.
From that day they defended with the French the French legation.
The Austrian legation, after having been looted, was burned by the
Chinese on June 21. On June 22, the fire extended to the houses on both
sides of the barricade, and the latter had to be left. Another one
was built near the corner of Customs and Legation streets commanding
Customs street.
On June 22, owing to a false alarm, the Italian, French, and German
legations were left, but were almost immediately reinhabited, with the
exception of the Italian legation, which was already burning, as was
also their wall of defense commanding the east end of Legation street.
From that date Captain von Montalman directed the fighting of both the
French and the German legations, Sir Claude MacDonald having at that
time been elected by the ministers as their commander-in-chief.
The attacks on the French legation were, from the beginning, extremely
vehement, as the Chinese fully recognized the high importance of its
position. Had it been lost, the German legation, the Hotel de Peking,
and the Su Wang Fu would have been no longer tenable. The Austrians
shared in all the various services which the garrison of the French
legation had to perform. A strong barricade was built to command East
Legation street, and a sort of block-house was erected at the main gate.
Together with the French and Germans several successful dashes were
made in the neighborhood, killing and wounding a number of Chinese each
time.
On June 24 a detachment under Midshipman William Boyneburg took part
with the Germans in storming the city wall, which enabled the Americans
to reoccupy their former position on the top. The Austrians constantly
reinforced the Germans on the wall-front to the east, and after the
26th of June constantly had five men assisting Colonel Shiba at the
Su Wang Fu. Their machine-gun did excellent service as long as the
position behind the barricades could be maintained, and after this was
given up it was sent from time to time to Russian, German, and English
legations as needed.
When the French legation was under the hottest fires from north,
east, and south, only the western side being protected by the other
legations, the French took the northern and the Austrians the southern
line of defense, and were each under constant rifle-shot at only
twenty-five yards’ range. This they endured for weeks. On June 29 the
Chinese succeeded in making a break in the eastern wall on Customs
street, and set fire to the French legation stables; but they had not
sufficient courage to follow up the advantage gained with a rush. But
this necessitated relinquishing the barrier in the southern end of
Customs street and easternmost line of cover in Legation street, the
garrisons being under rear and flank fire.
The Chinese were gaining daily, or rather nightly, in making the
breaches in the eastern wall larger and more numerous, until they had
nearly razed the entire structure. Yet they gained no great advantage,
owing to the breaches being so well covered from the windows of
buildings and temporary defenses in the western part of the compound.
The fatigue endured by our people was most extraordinary. From July
1 daily shelling was endured, which riddled the roofs and walls of
every building in the compound, until the principal building and main
gateway, an imposing structure, were utterly demolished and became a
pile of ruins.
On the 8th of July the Chinese brought into position at about eighty
yards’ distance a three-inch Krupp gun, from which they commenced to
pour in a destructive fire on the eastern wall. Captain Von Thornburg,
with Captain Labrousse and Lieutenants Darcy and Kollar, all anxious
to locate this gun exactly, left their main barricade and proceeded to
a spot behind a low loopholed wall in their front, but had scarcely
arrived when a shell burst in their midst, a fragment of which pierced
Von Thornburg through the heart, causing him to fall dead into the arms
of his friends. He was sorrowfully carried to the rear, and at 2 P.M.
was buried with military honors, although the bullets were falling
thick around those who were thus honoring their comrade and leader. The
tears of sympathy on this occasion evidenced the sorrow of the men,
and the general esteem in which the fallen had been held.
After the death of Captain Von Thornburg, the command of the Austrians
devolved upon Lieutenant Von Winterhalter.
On July 13, at 6:45 P.M., the Chinese made a furious attack, commencing
with rifle-fire and shouts of “Kill! Kill!” This was intended to draw
all the defenders into their positions, and nearly succeeded, for after
a few moments the rifle-fire suddenly ceased and two mines exploded
with a great report, blowing up Mr. Morisse’s house, where Dr. Von
Rosthorn, Lieutenant Darcy, and Mr. Destelan, with four French sailors,
were stationed. Two of the sailors were never recovered, but all the
others were able to extricate themselves from the ruins with but slight
injuries.
Earth, stones, and dust were thrown high into the air, clouds of
heavy, sulphurous smoke rose from the hole in the ground, poisoning
the dust-laden air, and, at the same moment, to add to the horror of
the situation, two three-inch guns opened up on the main gate house,
sending in their contingent of iron hail from a distance of only eighty
yards.
This explosion compelled both the Austrians and French to retire about
thirty yards eastward behind a cover they had already partly erected
in preparation for a stubbornly contested retreat; but upon the
shell-fire ceasing, the combined forces made a rush later on, drove the
Chinese out of the main gateway, and reoccupied it.
Never in history has there been a more stubbornly contested few
acres than those occupied by the Austrians and French in the French
legation compound. The buildings, however, taking fire, the French were
compelled to retire again behind their intrenchment in the western part
of the garden, the Austrians retreating to the chapel and earthworks
connecting with the _Pavilion des Etrangers_, a small building with
very thin walls. One small house was burned by the Austrians to prevent
the Chinese from using it against them.
At first this entire new line of defense was very weak, but it was
rapidly strengthened by adding bricks and sand-bags. Yet even to the
end all visitors considered it a very precarious defense. One American
marine remarked, “Our place is bad enough, but this is worse.”
As the Chinese barricaded themselves in the western part of the
legation captured by them, they also made use of the shrubbery and
trees to shield their force, and these the Austrians had to clear away
under hot fire. Until July 17, day and night, the enemy in the opposite
barriers poured in a steady fire, which the Austrians only returned by
an occasional shot, as their ammunition had to be husbanded.
The so-called truce did not last very long, for on the 23d the firing
was nearly as bad as before, and at night often worse. To cut off any
further mines, a trench sixty yards long and ten feet deep was dug
in front of the _Pavilion des Etrangers_. As was afterward seen, the
Chinese had really attempted two further mines, but for some unknown
reason had given up before they were completed.
On the last night of the siege the firing in the French legation, as
everywhere else, was exceedingly hot, and, although two shells burst in
the chapel, no one was injured.
The Austrians lost: killed, one officer, three bluejackets; wounded,
three officers, eight bluejackets. Of the 10,000 rounds of ammunition
brought to Peking 2,000 were used by the men, and 2,000 by the
machine-gun. The shield of the machine-gun shows the marks of having
been struck by rifle-balls some fifty-odd times.
* * * * *
No story of the siege in Peking would be complete without mention of
the work of August Chamot and his heroic wife. He is a Swiss, and in
Peking has charge of the Hotel de Peking for Messrs. Tallieu & Co. His
wife is a San Francisco girl.
When every other woman in Peking left her home and repaired to the
British legation, Mrs. Chamot remained by her husband, with a rifle
in her hand, and took her regular hours of watching at the loopholes
of the barricade erected across Legation street, between the Hotel
de Peking and the German legation. Mr. Chamot started a bakery in
his hotel, and daily had the Chinese bake hundreds of loaves of good
brown bread, with which he supplied many hungry mouths at the English,
French, and German legations.
There is no building left standing in Peking that has as many
shell-holes in it as the northern two-story building of this hotel. Any
one visiting the structure immediately after the relief, and before the
débris had been at all cleared, would scarcely believe that a brave
American woman had lived there for sixty days unharmed. Her hairbreadth
escapes were every-day occurrences. When the Belgian party were
surrounded in Chang Hsin Tien, before the close siege commenced, Mr.
and Mrs. Chamot, with a small party armed with rifles, went out from
Peking and rescued them.
They were in several sorties to the north cathedral before the close
siege, and in many more after the close siege had begun. Every day they
were under fire in crossing the bridge between their hotel and the
British legation, as they brought over the bread that was so eagerly
looked for.
[Illustration: Madame Chamot, the heroine of the siege]
After some shells had burst in the baking-room, and killed one and
severely wounded others of the Chinese bakers, Mrs. Chamot, rifle in
hand, held the coolies to their work while her husband served with the
guards.
Mr. Chamot was wounded in the hand by a Boxer spear, but never lost ten
minutes’ work on that account, going around with his hand tied up, and
yet using it whenever occasion required. His bravery was to the point
of recklessness, and the wonder is he was not killed. That his country
and other nations, especially the French, will substantially recognize
his services is surely to be expected.