The great Taiping rebellion, which was commenced soon after 1842 by a
sort of Chinese Mahdi--a fanatical village schoolmaster--had attained
such dimensions that it had overrun and desolated a great portion of
Southern China, and threatened to drive the foreigners into the sea.
Nanking, with its porcelain tower, had been taken, and was made the
capital of the Heavenly King, as the rebel chieftain, Hung, now called
himself. His army numbered some hundreds of thousands, divided under
five Wangs, or kings, and the Imperialists were driven closer and closer
to the cities of the seacoast.
In 1863 the British Government was applied to for assistance, and
Captain Gordon was selected to take command of the Imperial forces in
the place of an American adventurer named Burgevine, who had been
cashiered for corrupt practices. The _Ever-victorious Army_, as it was
called, numbered 4,000 men, when the young engineer took the command.
Carefully and gradually he organized and increased it, and as he always
led his men himself, and ever sought the post of danger, he soon
obtained their fullest confidence, and never failed to rally them to his
support.
He wore no arms, but always carried a small cane, with which he waved on
his men, and as stockade after stockade fell before him, and city after
city was taken, that little cane was looked upon as Gordon's magic wand
of victory. He seemed to have a charmed life, and was never disconcerted
by a hailstorm of bullets.
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