Henry Burgevine

Henry Andres Burgevine ( 1836 - 1865 ) was an American mercenary leader and adventurers. He was an officer in the Always Victorious Army and took command of the unit after the death of its founder Frederick Townsend Ward . He finally mutinied against his employers and went over to the Taiping rebels . He died in the custody of his former commander Li Hongzhang after trying unsuccessfully to regain command in China.

origin

Henry Burgevine was the son of a French officer who worked as a language teacher in Chapel Hill , North Carolina . His father left the family. His mother moved with him to Washington, DC. He was employed as a Senate page in the United States Senate between the ages of nine and seventeen . At the age of nineteen he joined the French army as a private and served in the Crimean War . He returned to Washington in 1856. Burgevine tried his hand at various professions, including as an agent for postal affairs and as a newspaper editor.

Military activity in China

In 1859 he went to China with Frederick Townsend Ward . Together with Ward, he built the military unit known as the Always Victorious Army made up of foreign commanders and Chinese soldiers. This fought against the Taiping on the side of the Qing Dynasty . After Ward's death, Li Hongzhang put him in charge of the force after another officer refused. He was indifferent to the civil war in his home country.

Burgevine initially proved himself as a troop leader. However, he refused to order Li Hongzhang and his troops to join the siege of the rebel capital , Nanjing . As a result, the Chinese stopped making payments to Burgevine. On January 4, 1863, he broke into the property of Yang Fang , a Shanghai banker, struck him and stole around 40,000 Chinese silver dollars. As a result, Li Hongzhang offered a bounty of 40,000 silver taels . Burgevine then went into hiding.

Burgevine, however, made it to Beijing . There he contacted the US Ambassador Anson Burlingame . He stood up for him and persuaded Prince Gong Li Hongzhang to order the reinstatement of Burgevine. Li Hongzhang ignored the order and Burgevine and around 70 foreign officers stole the Taiping in Suzhou (Jiangsu) . He left it again soon. The new commander of the Always Victorious Army, Charles George Gordon , obtained immunity from Li Hongzhang for Burgevine on condition that they leave the country. In 1865 he was arrested by the Qing authorities while trying to set up a mercenary unit again.

He drowned while being transported by the river from Suzhou to Fujian . Li Hongzhang announced it was an accident. Numerous contemporary witnesses assumed a murder. There are also reports of signs of torture .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Larry M. Wortzel, Robin Higham: Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Military History. Westport, 1999, p. 36
2. ↑ ^{a b} Stephen R. Platt: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom - China the West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. New York, 2012, p. 266
3. ↑ ^{a b} Stephen R. Platt: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom - China the West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. New York, 2012, pp. 315-318
4. ↑ ^{a b} Stephen R. Platt: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom - China the West and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. New York, 2012, pp. 325-329