Joseph Taussig - China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion)

China Relief Expedition (Boxer Rebellion)

In April 1900, Newark was ordered to sail to Japan and then to Taku, China as part of the multinational China Relief Expedition being mobilized to rescue the foreign legations in Peking that were then besieged by the Boxers, a movement that opposed the growing influence of European business interests and Christian missionaries in China. The joint naval force was under the command of Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, Royal Navy with Captain Bowman H. McCalla, USN of the Newark, second in command. As a naval cadet member of the multinational landing force that came to be known as the Seymour Relief Expedition Taussig served alongside and began a long and fraternal professional association with Royal Navy officers Captain John Jellicoe and Lieutenant David Beatty who later advanced to First Sea Lords of the Royal Navy.

On June 7, 1900, the 2,100 strong Seymour Relief Expedition set out from Tientsin by train with the destination Peking and the objective the release of the besieged foreign legations. However, progress was repeatedly halted due to stretches of track that had been torn up by the Boxers and intermittent attacks. The imperial forces of the Dowager Empress were allied with the Boxers and joined in the attacks. Just seven days into its rescue mission, the expedition was forced to retreat to Tientsin due to the rail-bed both north and south of Yang Tsun being destroyed by the Boxers, cutting off the force's supply replenishment. During the retreat, Taussig was seriously wounded in the leg during a Boxer attack. He recovered in Japan and was advanced four numbers in grade because of his injury. Forty-three years later was awarded the Purple Heart for his combat wounds.

As he had done during the Spanish-American War, Taussig maintained a quotidian journal of the time he was in the Philippines and subsequently China while attached to Newark as a naval cadet. These include detailed descriptions of his shipmates and officers including Captain McCalla of the Newark, Vice Admiral Seymour, the progress and setback of the Seymour Expedition, the political dynamics, social customs and recreation in China, and drawings of engineering details of Newark and urban scenes in Vigan and Pamplona. Of tactical significance, the journal includes a list of the ports of call for Newark and an intelligence report on the fortifications of Sydney, Australia and the government of New South Wales. Taussig submitted his journal to Captain John Fremont of the Culgoa who attested to it and pronounced it an excellent piece of work. The 120 page journal that Taussig wrote during his time attached to Newark was the basis for his April 1927 article on the Seymour Relief Expedition, one of forty-four articles that he eventually authored for the U.S. Naval Institute magazine Proceedings.