Frederick Townsend Ward organizes a new army…

Frederick Townsend Ward organizes a new army in 1862, which uses Chinese troops with Western officers and arms.

The arrogance of Ward's troops arouses tremendous resentment among the regular Chinese forces, but his tactics result in numerous victories, and he is therefore subsidized at great expense by the Ch'ing government.

When Ward is mortally wounded in battle on September 21, 1862, a thirty-year-old British major, Charles George (”Chinese”) Gordon, takes his place as commander of the “Ever Victorious Army.” (Although most modern Western historians believe that this army had no more than marginal effect on suppression of the rebellion, the traditional Western interpretation and the modern Communist interpretation is that these Western troops were crucial in the defeat of the Taipings.)