Our Brief Clash With Korea

Almost forgotten now in the hurry and press of our modem life and the rapidly changing events of our times is our brief conflict with Korea. The causes which lay behind this clash are simple of analysis.

For many years prior to the sixties, Korea had been a kingdom closed to the world. Despite all edicts to the contrary, however, French priests had for years been proselyting among the Koreans, and they had made many converts despite the opposition of the government. No active effort was made on the part of the ruling authorities to combat this spread of Christianity until 1866.

In January of that year Russia sent a gunboat to the kingdom demanding freedom of trade, and there was consequently considerable uneasiness in the court. Urged on by violently anti-Christian advisers, the regent allowed his hostility to Christianity to assume active form, and he arrested every priest he could discover in the country. During February and March of that year he tortured and decapitated the entire French clergy except three priests who remained in hiding. One of these ultimately reached the coast and put to sea in a boat with eleven native Christians. He landed at Chefoo and reported the murder of the priests. The French authorities delayed any action because of their Cochin-China troubles.

In June of 1866 the American sailing vessel Surprise was wrecked off the coast of Korea. The crew were kindly treated by the authorities and were taken across the Yalu River and turned over to the Chinese for transportation to Tientsin.

The next American ship to approach the country was the sailing vessel General Sherman. Three months after the wreck of the Surprise she entered the Salee River. The local officials objected to the foreigners entering the river and ordered them to proceed no farther. But these Korean rivers are readily navigable at certain levels for considerable distances inland from their mouths. High spring tides with heavy freshets put plenty of water in the river, and the adventurous Americans sailed the ship as far up as they could go. The water level fell and left the ship stranded and helpless.

Realizing that there would be no opportunity for the General Sherman to extricate herself for some months, the Korean officials ordered her destruction. Fire rafts sent against her burned the vessel, and as the crew came ashore they were all horribly massacred. The persecution of the Christians, which had been severe in the spring but had somewhat abated, now broke out again with renewed vigor.

Matters in Cochin-China being easier, the French were now ready to take up the matter of the massacre of their nationals. They sent three boats to the Korean coast to make a preliminary survey of the situation. Their appearance caused a panic in Seoul, and many fled into the country from the capital. The boats returned to China, and in this way the fate of the General Sherman and her crew became known.

Upon hearing of the tragedy Rear Admiral Bell, commanding the Asiatic Squadron, dispatched the Wachusctt to investigate the matter and to demand from the Korean authorities the delivery of the survivors, if any. No satisfactory results were obtained from the government.

The punitive expedition of the French was now ready. Admiral Roze with a fleet of seven vessels sailed in October for Korea and attacked Kang-Wha, a fortified island past which the river led up to Seoul. The town on the island was soon captured, and an amount of war material was seized. The Koreans, undismayed, sank junks in the river to block the approach to Seoul, and they sent to the island 5,000 men who had been tiger hunters and other hardy fighters. This Army took its stand in a strongly fortified Buddhist monastery near the south side of Kang-Wha about 12 miles from where the French were stationed. Admiral Roze sent a detachment of 160 men to attack this position.

It was a bad error in judgment, for all the sailors from the seven ships would not have been able to dislodge the Koreans from their stronghold. In the face of a double flanking fire the French approached up a steep hill. At the end of their first rush half of them were down. The Koreans kept up a fire of musketry and of crude cannon made from models taken from the wrecks of foreign ships. In a few minutes the survivors of the French were struggling back toward their main position, carrying their wounded and dead. The Koreans pursued them, and they would all have been killed had not the remaining French force come to the rescue of their defeated compatriots. Recognizing the fact that his force was unable to defeat the Korean army, Admiral Roze set fire to the town on Kang-Wha and sailed away to China.

The effect upon the morale of the regent and his people was great, for they had vanquished the men who had stormed Peking and humbled the Emperor of China, to whom Korea paid tribute. Satisfied that the dreaded foreigners were not invincible, the regent felt that the last argument against the stamping out of Christianity was no longer of importance. The order went forth that the hated religion was to be exterminated. During the succeeding four years 20,000 Koreans lost their lives as a result of this persecution.

In view of the affair of the General Sherman the United States government felt that some arrangement should be made with the Koreans to protect other American seamen who might in the future be cast away upon the shores of that inhospitable country, particularly in view of the religious persecution which continued to rage and which evoked nothing but intense hatred of any and all foreigners. In the early summer of 1871, Admiral Rodgers assembled at Chefoo his Asiatic Squadron, which consisted of the flagship Colorado, the Alaska, the Benicia, the Monocacy, and the Palos. A passenger in the flagship was Frederick Low, our Minister to China, who went along to carry on the diplomatic part of the undertaking- The objects of the expedition were to conclude a treaty with the closed kingdom relative to the treatment of American seamen wrecked on the shores of the country and to attempt to open trade relations with the Koreans. Both Admiral Rodgers and Mr. Low felt that the latter task was hopeless of accomplishment, but they considered it essential to conclude some sort of an agreement with the regent so that a repetition of the massacre of the General Sherman's crew might be avoided.

At the end of May the squadron sailed from Chefoo and made the short distance over to Korea without incident. The ship5 anchored near the present port of Chemulpo in the mouth of the winding river which leads up to Seoul. Attempts were promptly made to communicate with the highest governmental authorities, but the regent suspected that this visit was to execute a reprisal for the massacre of the General Sherman's men, and he determined to treat the Americans as he had the French.

A Korean official visited the Colorado shortly after the arrival of the squadron to learn the purpose of the visit. This was explained to him, and he was informed that during the forthcoming negotiations the outer anchorage for vessels and the river leading up to Seoul would be surveyed in the interests of commerce. He was further informed that this survey would not be begun for several days in order that the people who lived in the vicinity might be notified as to the reason for armed boats appearing in their vicinity.

Apparently this plan was satisfactory to the Koreans, for the discussions continued amicably, and no objection was voiced in regard to the proposed survey. The crews of the officials’ junks fraternized with the bluejackets and went away on friendly terms laden with jam bottles, butter tins, pickle crocks, hard tack, and salt pork.

The Admiral and the Minister waited patiently for a reply from Seoul. On June first the Palos, the Monocacy, and four launches ascended the river, the island of Kang-Wha on the left, the mainland on the right. They began their survey and worked their way above some of the lower forts on Kang-Wha without incident. But when the surveying party got into a narrow channel full of unknown rocks and was struggling with strong tidal currents, natives concealed on the shore opened a heavy fire upon the Americans. The ships returned this fire and turned to go down river, the Monocacy fouling a rock as she came around and springing a leak. As the expedition passed the forts the Koreans opened up with their batteries, and an engagement ensued. The fire of the forts was persistent and fierce, but it was badly directed, for but two of the Americans were wounded and none were killed. The Monocacy and the Palos briskly returned this fire as they passed, and they inflicted considerable damage on the forts.

Though highly indignant over this attack, Admiral Rodgers and Mr. Low were Unwilling to retaliate at once. A demand for an explanation was sent to the Korean authorities. For eight days they waited in vain for an answer. Then Admiral Rodgers, diplomacy having failed with these people, ordered an attack upon the Kang-Wha forts.

On the morning of June 9, the Admiral issued the order to land. The final preparations were made, and then all hands had dinner. The Palos and the Benicia got up steam and prepared to bombard the nearer forts and so cover the landing. The combined landing force of the expedition consisted of 575 sailors with 7 pieces of artillery and a battalion of 105 marines.

The Palos and the Benicia weighed anchor and stood in to cover the landing. The boats moved slowly to the shore of the island, rowing clumsily due to their crowded condition. After a period of silence, the fort nearest the point toward which they were heading opened fire on the boats, and the Palos and the Benicia promptly replied with their guns.

The boats were run ashore, and the men tumbled out to sink to their thighs in thick mud. They got through this, formed on the solid ground, and attacked the fort, capturing it with ease and without casualties, for the Orientals abandoned it upon their approach.

The Americans destroyed this fort and then marched up the shore of the island without opposition. The force encamped for the night on two commanding knolls, the sailors on one, the marines on the other. The hours of darkness passed without incident.

Shortly after daybreak the following morning the force advanced, the Benicia and the Palos steaming very slowly up the river and shelling the earthworks in advance of the landing party’s attacks. Position after position was occupied without material opposition, for the Koreans retired steadily before the advancing Americans. The force halted for a brief dinner and then went on. They had two brisk fights during the afternoon, but the Koreans each time abandoned their posts and fled.

As on the preceding night the landing force encamped on heights sufficiently elevated to ensure protection against a surprise attack. Again the night passed without incident.

After breakfast the next morning they went on, spiking the guns of the abandoned earthworks they encountered. Toward noon they arrived before the citadel, the principal fort of the Koreans and their stronghold.

The citadel was built upon the apex of a conical hill about 150 feet above the bottom of a ravine through which the attacking troops were compelled to pass. The hillside was very steep, and the walls of the fort were built upon the edge of the summit. The stronghold was crowded with over a thousand Korean soldiers, and it was apparent that here they would stand.

While the sailors and marines formed below the citadel the Palos and the Benicia shelled it. A scattering fire came down upon the landing force, though the shells from the ships disconcerted the Koreans and somewhat diverted their attention from the landing force for the time being.

The ships ceased firing. The charge was sounded, and the sailors and marines began scrambling up the hillside. Firing wildly and failing to stop the charge, the Koreans began rolling rocks down the slope and hurling great stones.

Lieutenant Hugh McKee, commanding Company D, was the first man to scramble into the citadel through a breach in the walls. He fell mortally wounded, but others were on his heels. A furious fight took place, for the Koreans neither sought nor gave quarter. The Orientals, howling and shrieking, fought until their ammunition gave out. When they finally broke and fled they left behind them 243 dead. The American loss was 3 killed and 7 wounded, for the primitive equipment of the Koreans obviously could not accomplish much damage against the modern arms of the Americans.

The remainder of the day was utilized to spike the cannon and destroy their carriages. Such prisoners as had been taken had their wounds treated and were then released. That night the sailors and marines encamped within the citadel, returning the next day in their boats to their ships. In all the landing force captured and spiked 481 cannon, and hundreds of matchlocks and some 50 flags fell into the hands of the Americans.

The General Sherman's crew were thus avenged, and the Koreans had been taught a sharp lesson as to their treatment of Americans. Since it was now manifestly impossible to effect a friendly settlement of the matter or to conclude a treaty the ships sailed away.

The regent immediately had a monument erected in the center of Seoul. On it were carved anathemata against anyone who should ever propose peace with a Western power.