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The Gaselee Expedition was a successful relief by a multi-national military force to march to Beijing and protect the diplomatic legations and foreign nationals in the city from attacks in 1900. The expedition was part of the war of the Boxer Rebellion.
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The Boxers were an anti-Christian, anti-foreign rural mass movement. Their objective was to rid China of foreign (Western) influence. In May and early June 1900 they advanced on Beijing. The Qing government of China was equivocal about the Boxers, fearing that they might become anti-Qing. The Boxers were a serious threat to Western and Japanese citizens and Chinese Christians living in Beijing, Tianjin, and other areas of northern China.
The diplomatic Legations (Embassies) in Beijing requested that marines be sent to protect them; more than 400 from eight countries arrived in Beijing on May 31. However, as the threat from the Boxers increased, it become apparent that additional soldiers were needed. On June 9, Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald the British Minister cabled Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, commander of the British Navy's China fleet, that the situation in Beijing "was hourly becoming more serious" and that "troops should be landed and all arrangements made for an advance to Peking [Beijing] at once."[1]
On receipt of MacDonald's message, Seymour assembled within 24 hours a force of more than 2,000 sailors and marines from from Western and Japanese warships and prepared to embark for Beijing from Tianjin, 75 miles away, by train.[2] His force consisted of 916 British, 455 Germans, 326 Russians, 158 French, 112 Americans, 54 Japanese, 41 Italians, and 26 Austrians.[3] Seymour's Chief of Staff was Captain John Jellicoe. The Commander of the Americans in the expedition was Captain Bowman H. McCalla.
The diplomats in Beijing anticipated that Seymour would arrive there on June 11, but he didn't. Shortly thereafter, all communications were cut and the Seymour Expedition disappeared in the interior of China. Acting without the Chinese Imperial court's permission, they had, in effect, launched an invasion. The Chinese response was decisive. Seymour was defeated during the disastrous Seymour Expedition.
Allied troops suffered from severe illnesses, unsanitary conditions, diarrhea, flies, and other pests. General Dorwood cautioned advance, urging 60,000 men to be ready before going forward, since he witnessed the Chinese pound the Allied forces with their weaponry at Tianjin. The Chinese destroyed the railroads and junk ships to prevent the allied advance. German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee was selected as supreme commander, but he was in Germany with his soldiers. Lieutenant General Sir Alfred Gaselee was chosen as temporary commander of the expedition.[4]
The Expedition consisted of an unknown amount of Germans, Austrians, Italians, 900 British troops, 1,300 Indians, 200 Chinese collaboraters under direct British command, 2,000 American troops, 1,200 French, 3,000 Russians, 9,000 Japanese. 25,000 Russian and Japanese garrisoned Taku and Tianjin, and so did not participate in the expedition. Most French Infantry were from Indochina.
120 degrees Fahrenheit temperature and insects plagued the Allies. Soldiers dehydrated, and horses died. Chinese villagers killed Allied troops who searched for wells, and gouged out the eyes and sliced the tongues off Japanese troops, nailing them to village doors.[5]
The Allies argued and fought each other, severely criticizing each other's fighting ability. Some British Royal Welch Fusiliers killed four Germans in a fight. Their commander allegedly imprisoned his men for not murdering more Germans.[6]