American soldier of fortune, born in Salem, MA, on the 29th of November 1831; educated at Salem high school. He served as lieutenant in the French army in the Crimean War, and was with Walker in Nicaragua. In 1860 he entered the service of the Chinese emperor in the war against the Taiping rebels, and offered to capture cities from the rebels at a fixed price each. He organized bands of various nationalities, trained and armed them like European soldiers, and captured the city of Sungkiang, held by ten thousand rebels. In recognition of his services he was made a mandarin of the fourth degree, and admiral-general. He won many victories over the rebels, cleared the country for thirty miles around Shanghai, and saved the city from capture. In 1861 he captured Ningpo, a strongly fortified place. He adopted the Chinese nationality and married the daughter of an influential native. His brilliant career was cut short at the age of thirty-one, in an assault on Tse-ki near Ningpo, where he was killed on the 21st of September 1862. He was succeeded in his command by Charles G. Gordon. The Chinese buried him in the Confucian cemetery at Ningpo and erected a great mausoleum in his honor. A large amount of money and negotiable securities which he had on his person disappeared at the time of his death.
