Cochinchina Campaign - Ky Hoa and My Tho

Ky Hoa and My Tho

Main articles: Battle of Ky Hoa and Capture of My Tho See also: Truong Dinh and Nguyen Trung Truc

Although the French had evacuated Tourane, they successfully held out in Saigon for the remainder of 1860. But they were not strong enough to break the Vietnamese siege of Saigon. The military stalemate was only broken in early 1861, as a result of the ending of the war with China. Admirals Charner and Page were now free to return to Cochinchina and resume the campaign around Saigon. A naval armada of 70 ships under Charner's command and 3,500 soldiers under the command of General de Vassoigne were transferred from northern China to Saigon. Charner's squadron, the most powerful French naval force seen in Vietnamese waters before the creation of the French Far East Squadron on the eve of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885), included the steam frigates Impératrice Eugénie and Renommée (Charner and Page's respective flagships), the corvettes Primauguet, Laplace and Du Chayla, eleven screw-driven despatch vessels, five first-class gunboats, seventeen transports and a hospital ship. The squadron was accompanied by half a dozen armed lorchas purchased in Macao.

With this powerful reinforcement, the allies eventually began to gain the upper hand. On 24 and 25 February 1861, the French and Spanish in Saigon successfully assaulted the Vietnamese siege lines, defeating marshal Nguyễn Tri Phương's besieging Vietnamese army in the battle of Ky Hoa. The Vietnamese fought bitterly to defend their positions, and allied casualties were considerable.

The victory at Ky Hoa allowed the French and Spanish to move to the offensive. In April 1861, My Tho fell to the French. An assault force under the command of capitaine de vaisseau Le Couriault du Quilio, supported by a small flotilla of gunboats, advanced on Mỹ Tho from the north along the Bao Dinh Ha creek, and between 1 and 11 April destroyed several Vietnamese forts and fought its way along the creek to the environs of Mỹ Tho. Le Couriault de Quilio gave orders for an assault on the town on 12 April, but in the event the assault was not necessary. A flotilla of warships under the command of Admiral Page, who had been sent by Charner to sail up the Mekong River to attack My Tho by sea, appeared off the town on the same day. My Tho was occupied by the French on 12 April 1861 without a shot being fired.

In March 1861, shortly before the capture of My Tho, the French again offered terms to Tu Duc. This time the terms were considerably harsher than those offered by Page in November 1859. The French demanded the free exercise of Christianity in Vietnam, the cession of Saigon province, an indemnity of 4 million piastres, freedom of commerce and movement inside Vietnam and the establishment of French consulates. Tu Duc was only prepared to concede on the free exercise of religion, and rejected the other French terms. The war went on, and after the fall of Mỹ Tho the French raised their territorial claims to include Mỹ Tho province as well as Saigon province.

Unable to confront the French and Spanish forces in battle, Tu Duc resorted to guerilla warfare, sending his agents into the conquered Vietnamese provinces to organise resistance to the invaders. Charner responded on 19 May by declaring Saigon and Mỹ Tho provinces to be in a state of siege. French columns roved through the Cochinchinese countryside, fanning popular resistance by the brutality with which they treated suspected insurgents. Charner had ordered them not to offer violence to peaceful villagers, but these orders were not always obeyed. The Vietnamese guerillas on occasion posed a serious threat to the French. On 22 June 1861 the French post at Go Cong was attacked, unsuccessfully, by 600 Vietnamese insurgents.