Frederick Townsend Ward

Born: November 29, 1831, Salem, MA.

Died: September 22, 1862, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

Memorial Plot: Cenotaph, Cypress Avenue

Parents: Frederick Gamaliel Ward

Ward was a rebellious teenager, so his father removed him from school and found him a position as second mate on the Hamilton, a clipper ship which was commanded by a friend of the family. Apparently, life at sea was no easier for the young man than it had been on land. There were complaints that he gave too many orders for a youth and there is a story that he was thrown overboard by members of the crew.

If this story is true, Ward somehow got back onboard ship. The captain, William Allen, said that he possessed traits of reckless daring but was a valuable officer. The voyage went from New York to Hong Kong, but the city was closed to foreigners at this time.

By 1849, Frederick Ward was back in the United States. He enrolled in the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy in Northfield Vermont, now Norwich University. The curriculum included military tactics, strategy, drill and ceremonies. He attended for only a few months and, in 1850, he was shipped out as first mate on the clipper ship Hamilton with his father as captain. During the rest of the 1850’s, Ward served on several vessels sailing to Central America, San Francisco, Shanghai, and possibly Peru. In 1854, he was in Mexico, running a scrap metal business which failed. He then found work as a “Filibuster”, which meant that he raised private mercenary armies and led them to other countries. Ward worked for William Walker in Mexico where he learned how to recruit, train and command mercenary troops. He served as a lieutenant in the French Army during the Crimean War. However, he was “allowed” to resign after being insubordinate to a superior office. In 1859, he worked as a shipping agent alongside his brother Henry.

In 1860, the brothers arrived in Shanghai, China, perhaps with the intention of doing business for their father. Henry Ward set up a trading business in Shanghai. Frederick found work as the executive officer on the Confucius, which was an armed riverboat commanded by an American for the Shanghai Pirate Suppression Bureau, organized by two Chinese government officials, who did not want their association with Americans known, and funded by a prominent banker and merchant. A large rebellion, known as the Taiping Rebellion had broken out. Frederick Ward was enlisted to recruit every Westerner there who could handle firearms. They became the Shanghai Foreign Army Corps, whose goal was to protect the foreign community in Shanghai. Then Frederick Ward was recruited to train native troops. This group would become known as the Ever Victorious Army. Their adversaries regarded them as “devil soldiers.” Ward’s troops had nearly defeated the rebellion when he was mortally wounded in battle in 1862. He had married a Chinese woman and had become a Chinese citizen. A tomb was built over his grave at Sung-Chiang. A memorial stands in his honor at Harmony Grove Cemetery.

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Photo: Artists in Shanghai, China, Frederick Townsend Ward, 1859-62. Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.

Sources Consulted:

• Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Military Wiki, Fandom Lifestyle Community.
• Find a Grave.
• Wikipedia.