The Royal Navy is fired on from…
August 1863 CE
The British are trying to extract a payment from the daimyō of Satsuma following the Namamugi Incident of 1862, in which British people had been attacked (one killed, two wounded) by Satsuma samurai for not showing the proper respect for the daimyō's regent, Shimazu Hisamitsu.
The naval bombardment claims five lives among the people of Satsuma (the city had been evacuated in anticipation of the conflict), and thirteen lives among the British (including Captain Josling of the British flagship Euryalus, and his second-in-command Commander Wilmot, both decapitated by the same cannonball).
Material losses are considerable, with around five hundred wood-and-paper houses burnt in Kagoshima (about five percent of Kagoshima's urban area), the Ryukyuan embassy destroyed, and the three Satsuma steamships and five Ryukyuan junks destroyed.
The Satsuma forces are slowly pushed back; however the fact that the British are not expecting such armed resistance means that their ships run low on food and ammunition, forcing a premature retreat of the British navy.
The encounter is face-saving for Satsuma, and is even claimed as a victory by the Japanese side, considering the relative number of casualties.
The British ships do not land troops or seize cannons (which would have signaled the absolute defeat of Satsuma), Kuper having decided that enough is enough.
Locations
Groups
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
East Asia
View →Subregions
