Wallace Rice, a Chicago critic and poet, was born in Hamilton,
Ontario, November 10, 1859, of American parents temporarily
resident there.
“The treaty obtained from China by the English in 1858 was to be
returned, by its terms, to the Chinese capital for final ratification by
June 26, 1859. The British forces assembled at the mouth of Pei-Ho
River, on the direct road to Pekin, for that purpose, June 25, 1859.
Their heavier vessels were kept in the gulf by a bar, but the lighter
gunboats went on up the stream until their progress was stopped by the
obstructions placed at the fort. The U. S. S. _Powhatan_, Flag Officer
Tattnall, bore John E. Wade and his suite, who were to represent the
United States at similar negotiations then pending. The size of the
_Powhatan_ did not permit her entry upon the river, so Tattnall secured
the small unarmed merchant steamer _Toey-Wan_ to take the representative
of our government to Pekin. The rest of the story is told substantially
as it occurred, the British loss being 89 killed and 345 wounded,
out of 1,100 engaged. But for the _Toey-Wan_ and Tattnall’s
interference--wholly unwarranted by all considerations save those which
he himself brought forward--there can be no doubt that England’s entire
force would have been killed or captured.” W. R.
Josiah Tattnall, the hero of the “Blood is Thicker than Water” episode,
was the son of a Georgia soldier and statesman, and was born in
Bonaventure, Georgia, November 9, 1795. He entered the navy at
seventeen, and served in the War of 1812, in the war with Algiers, and
in the Mexican War. Soon after the outbreak of the Rebellion he offered
his services to the Confederates. It was he who, in March, 1862,
succeeded Franklin Buchanan in command of the _Merrimac_, and it was he
who destroyed that noted vessel to prevent her capture. He died in
Savannah, Georgia, June 14, 1871.
Stephen Decatur Trenchard, who was wounded at the Pei-Ho engagement,
entered the navy in 1834, and served until 1880, when he was retired,
being at the time a rear-admiral. He was a lieutenant when he fought
with Tattnall.
The Gulf of Pechi-Li is a land-locked extension of the Yellow Sea
between the base of the Corean peninsula and the Chinese province of
Shan-Tung.
The Pei-Ho is a Chinese river that rises near the borders of Mongolia,
and flows northeast and southeast past Pekin and Tientsin into the Gulf
of Pechi-Li.
=Stanza 3.= =Hope= (Admiral Sir James, 1808-1881). He was twice severely
wounded in the Pei-Ho action, but remained personally in command
throughout the fight. The year following, he led an expedition which
successfully attacked the forts, and opened the river for navigation.
=Stanza 4.= =Rason= and =McKenna=, officers in Hope’s fleet, the one a
lieutenant-commander, the other a captain.