Siege of Saigon - End of The Siege

End of The Siege

Finally, in the wake of the Anglo-French victory at the Battle of Palikao on 21 September 1860, which ended the war in China, reinforcements of 70 ships under Admiral Charner and 3,500 soldiers under General de Vassoigne were dispatched 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 Duchayla, 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.

After the arrival of these massive reinforcements, the French were able to defeat the besieging Vietnamese at the Battle of Kỳ Hòa on 25 February 1861 and raise the siege.