FIGHTING SIXTY FEET ABOVE GROUND
Although the heavily walled compound of the British Legation, which
during the siege sheltered four hundred foreigners and as many more
Chinese Christians, or nearly one thousand persons in all, was the
stronghold of the defence, the lines occupied and held embraced a wide
outside area, both to the eastward and on the south. Beyond the imperial
canal, just east of the legation, stood an extensive collection of
buildings enclosed by a wall, forming the yamen, or palace, of Prince
Su. On the first day of the siege this was seized and occupied as
quarters for the hundreds of school-girls and native Christians whom the
missionaries had refused to abandon. It was defended by the Japanese,
assisted by the Italian and Austrian marines, and though it was subject
to many fierce attacks and an almost continuous bombardment that set its
buildings on fire a dozen times, it never was given up.
Besides this outpost, the American, Russian, German, Japanese, and
French legations also were held, as was the Hôtel de Pékin of M. Charnot
and his brave American wife. It was strongly fortified with sand-bags,
and sent out to its guests, who had taken refuge in the British
Legation, three meals a day with unbroken regularity during the siege.
A large portion of Legation Street also was included within the foreign
lines. On it stood a grain-shop, in which were found eight thousand
bushels of wheat and several tons of rice, together with eleven one-mule
mills, ready for grinding. As there were in all some three thousand
persons to be fed, this food supply proved invaluable.
At first an Austrian captain, named Thomann, by virtue of seniority,
assumed command of the defending force; but on the second day of the
siege, he having proved himself incapable, the supreme command was, by
unanimous consent, given to Sir Claude Macdonald, the British minister.
Captain Thomann was killed a few weeks later during an attack on the Su
Yamen, and now one of the streets of Pekin bears his name.
Under Sir Claude's intelligent supervision all the details of housing
and feeding three thousand people, of preparing and placing fifty
thousand sand-bags, of hospital and sanitary arrangements, and a
thousand other things, were quickly systematized and placed in the hands
of carefully selected committees. The work of fortifying the legations
was given over to a young American missionary engineer, while the actual
duty of defence was distributed according to nationality.
The British Legation compound, including the northwest angle of the
whole line, was left to the resident inmates--ministers, attachés,
missionaries, etc. The Su Yamen and northeast angle were intrusted to
the Japanese, aided by Italians and Austrians. At the southeast angle
were French and Germans, the latter occupying a section of the great
city wall, from which, however, they ultimately were driven. On the
southwest were the Americans and Russians, in their own legations, with
the former holding their own section of city wall. This position, in
spite of continuous shelling and repeated assaults, was held by American
marines to the end; and, commanding, as it did, the entire legation
area, it proved the key to the situation.
On the 1st of July, or after ten days of siege, during which time the
Chinese fire of rifle-bullets, solid shot, and shell had been maintained
almost without intermission from one quarter or another, thirty-five of
the defenders had been killed and nearly twice that number were in the
hospital. The Germans had been driven from their section of the wall,
the French Legation had been destroyed, and several sorties, made for
the purpose of capturing or at least silencing certain particularly
annoying Chinese guns, had proved unsuccessful. In all this time no news
had been received, nor had it proved possible to send any out; and it
was not probable that the desperate plight of the Pekin legations was
even known to the outside world.
The bright spots in this gloom were that there still was plenty to
eat and to drink within the lines, the defences were constantly being
strengthened by additional sand-bags, which the ladies and Chinese
women were turning out by the thousand, the plucky Japanese still held
the Su Yamen, and American marines still maintained their position on
the wall. Also, very early in the siege the latter, dragging their
Colt's automatic gun up to their elevated post, had made a raid along
the top of the wall for a quarter of a mile, driving the Kwang-su troops
in wild confusion before them, and mowing them down by hundreds.
Now, however, the Chinese, profiting by this sad experience, had
advanced a series of brick and sandbag approaches, against which the
Colt proved ineffective. At the end of the last one the Chinese had
erected a small tower, only a few feet from the American barricade, and
commanding it. From this, while protected against a return fire, they
hurled down huge bricks upon the defenders, who were unable to reply.
At the same time the American position, isolated since the Germans on
the east had been driven from their wall, was exposed to a galling fire
from both directions. The situation thus had become critical in the
extreme; for, if the Chinese could succeed in forcing this position, the
legations would lie at their mercy.
The top of the wall at this point was reached from the inside by two
ramps, or sloping walks, that led upward like the two legs of a letter
A. One of these was controlled by the Americans, whose barricades were
at its upper end, while the other was in possession of the Chinese.
From the outset Rob Hinckley had cast his lot with the American
marines, largely on account of his liking for Turner, the sharp-shooter,
whose acquaintance he had made on that first memorable day of the siege.
On the morning of July 3d these two had come down from the danger post
for a much-needed rest after a forty-eight-hour tour of duty on the
wall. At sunset they were to return to the almost untenable barricades.
In the mean time, they slept like logs until late in the afternoon, when
they were awakened to partake of a meal of cold boiled mule "beef,"
rice, hard bread, and tea.
"Look here, young man," said Turner, pausing for a moment in his hearty
eating, "I don't see why you should go up on that old rockery again
to-night. You ain't 'listed, and don't have to."
"I have to just as much now as I did at first," replied Rob, quietly,
"and you didn't say anything against it then."
"Things have changed. We seemed to have some show then, with the Germans
to look out for one side; but we haven't any now, and I don't see how we
can hold the place through another night. You've noticed that the Chinks
always get busier at night than in the daytime, and now they are right
on top of us."
"The only wonder to me is that they haven't cleaned us out long since,"
said Rob. "They certainly have fired shots enough to destroy an army,
let alone a couple of dozen men, which is as many as we ever have had up
there at one time."
"It is a funny business," admitted Turner, "and I have puzzled over
it a good deal myself. Do you know what I think? I believe that heavy
firing from the Ha-ta tower is all a bluff and is mostly done with blank
cartridges. If it isn't, we ought, by rights, to have been swept off
the wall like puff-balls in a gale, long ago. There's another thing. It
looks to me as if about nine out of every ten of the Chinks' rifle-shots
must be fired straight up in the air, same as we kids used to do on
Fourth of July. At night, when they fire most, I believe they all shoot
into the air, 'cause you never hear of anybody getting hit at night, and
they sure shoot to beat the band. Looks like they were only trying to
scare us or kill us by keeping us from sleeping--I don't know which."
"Speaking of the Fourth of July," said Rob, "do you remember that
to-morrow is the Fourth?"
"Sure, and I'm wondering if I'll live to see it. Somehow I don't feel as
if I would."
"Oh, pshaw! Don't talk that way!" exclaimed the young volunteer. "You'll
live to see it, and plenty more like it, only a heap happier. I felt
blue myself this morning, but now, after a day's sleep and a good
stuffing of mule, I feel all right."
At this point the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of
Lieutenant Hibbard, who said:
"Well, boys, we are in for it! Word has gone out that we've got to
capture those barricades to-night and sweep the wall clean as far as the
Chien Men gate. There's a squad of Tommies going up to help us, and if
we don't do the trick this time I am afraid it will be all up with the
whole shooting-match. Of course, Hinckley, you don't have to go unless
you choose."
"Of course I do have to go, Mr. Hibbard!" cried Rob, hotly. "I should be
too ashamed ever to call myself an American again if I didn't; and if we
don't carry those barricades I hope I'll never come down again alive.
What time do we start?"
"Orders are to assemble on the wall as soon as it gets dark enough to go
up the ramp unnoticed."
"All right, sir, we'll be there," said Turner, "and I _know_ I'll never
come down again alive if we don't get the Chinks on a run. We have got
it to do, that's all."
An hour later, in the dusk of evening, a little group of twenty
Americans and as many British marines, all of them picked men, crouched
on the lofty wall listening to the earnest but low-voiced words of
Captain John Meyers, U.S.M.C., the gallant officer who was to lead the
charge that would mean life or death to every foreigner then in the city
of Pekin. He did not speak more than a minute, but what he said filled
every man who heard him with the spirit of a hero. When he had finished
he leaped the barricade and started down the wall, with every man of his
little party striving to gain his side.
The Chinese tower, from which they had been so harassed, went down like
a card-house before their on-rush. A scattering volley of rifle-shots
came from the barricade, but the Chinese were too completely taken
by surprise to make a stand; even the Kwang-su savages, who never
before had known defeat, fled in dismay before that charge of yelling
Americans, whose rifles seemed to pour forth a continuous and
inexhaustible stream of deadly fire. The Chinese fired a few shots,
hurled a few spears, and then ran for their lives, darting from one
barricade to another, but never allowed to pause, until such of them
as were left alive gained the safe shelter of the Chien Men tower, a
quarter of a mile away.
[Illustration: "THE SAVAGES FLED IN DISMAY BEFORE THAT CHARGE OF YELLING
AMERICANS"]
As the jubilant Americans streamed back towards their own barricades,
where ten of their number had been left on guard, Rob Hinckley, proudly
bearing a Chinese banner that he had captured, gave utterance to his
joyful excitement in the old academy yell with which Hatton boys
announced their victorious return from hard-fought ball-games. "Hi-ho!
Hi-ho! Hat-ton Hi-ho!" he shouted, and to his amazement the same call
came back like an echo from far beneath him in the underlying southern
city. "I wonder if it can be Jo!" he thought, and shouted again; but
this time there was no reply.
There were no dead Chinese, nor any wounded, for a detachment of Russian
marines, who had charged up the Chinese ramp after the Americans and
British had swept by its upper end, had followed them, pitching every
dead or wounded Chinese whom they discovered over the parapet and down
into the southern city. When these Russians met the returning victors
they reported that they had found two dead Americans and carried them
back to the barricades.
This news suddenly quieted Rob Hinckley's jubilant shoutings, for
instantly he recalled Turner's foreboding, and realized that he had
not seen nor heard him since that first mad scramble over their own
barricade. Now he shouted: "Turner! O Turner!" but there was no answer,
and when they reached the American post his worst fears were confirmed.
Turner and another marine, named Thomas, had been shot and instantly
killed in the brief space between the two barricades. Here, too, had
Captain Meyers received a spear wound that he disregarded until the
affair was ended. Then it sent him to the hospital, where he remained
for weeks. One of the British marines was found to be slightly wounded,
as was one of the Russians; but these were the only casualties that the
legation defenders were compelled to pay for the most important victory
of the entire siege. By it they had gained a clear quarter of a mile of
wall that they never afterwards gave up, and which remains to this day
American Legation territory.