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| Korean dead in the ruins of the Gwangeong Citadel. |
A
fat book could be made out of forgotten and neglected foreign wars or
interventions by the United States.
Take the war in Korea, for
instance. No, not the one when Harry Truman sent American forces to try to repel and invasion of the South by the Communist North in 1950, although I know veterans of that conflict
have taken to calling it a forgotten war.
No, I have in mind an action nearly 80 years earlier. Never heard of it? Well pull up a stool and I will tell you all
about it.
In
American military and naval annals it is listed, mostly as a footnote, as the United States expedition to Korea of
1871. It is best remembered as the
first foreign conflict in which Medals
of Honor were awarded. The Koreans,
who have a keener memory of such things, call it the Shinmiyangyo.
Korea
in the late 19th Century was one of
the most isolated nations on earth. The
history of this peninsular nation in
northern Asia was a tragic one of repeated invasions or attempted invasions by
neighboring China, Japan, and Manchuria. The response of
the ruling Joseon Dynasty which came
to power in 1392 and had ruled and shaped the nation as a Confucian culture and state, was extreme isolationism—a virtual exclusion of all contact and trade with the
rest of the world. That policy was being
tested again by pressure from Japan, the introduction of Catholicism by missionaries in the late 18th Century, and demands
of European powers for concessions
and trade privileges.
In
1866 the French launched a punitive expedition against Korea in retaliation for a massacre of
Catholics that included French Priests
and to demand trade concessions. A
sizable French force landed on the fortress island of Ganghwa which guarded the approach to the capital of Seoul.
After six weeks of fighting, the French ignominiously were forced to
withdraw. The ruling Joseon Dynasty, weakened
by internal descent was strengthened and probably deluded about its military
capacity. It re-affirmed its isolation
and in the West became known as the Hermit Kingdom.
As
for the United States, having spanned its own continent and emerged united from
the Civil War, the country continued
to look westward to the Pacific all
the way to the shores of Asia to
expand its influence and to secure free and equal access to the trade of all
Asian ports. Spurred on by the Navy, a force in search of a mission to
keep it afloat in peace time, the government followed a policy to open trade
relations with all nations and to check the growing power of its greatest rival
the British Empire with its strong
presence in China and naval superiority.
The
first catalyst of the U.S action against Korea was the fate of the SS General
Sherman, an American side wheel commercial
steamer that had been hired by an English firm in China to try to open
trade with Korea in 1866, the same year as the French adventure. The belligerent American Captain of the ship
would not take a refusal to allow it to dock and captured Korean officials sent
to inform him of the government policy.
He then tried to move up river firing cannon as he went. The Koreans rallied and after several days of
fighting and the loss of several Junks, the
General
Sherman was destroyed and her surviving crew taken captive—and were
likely executed.
Also
of official concern was the possible fate of Americans who were shipwrecked in
Korean waters, although in the one confirmed case, the survivors were well
treated and sent to China from where they could be repatriated. Finally, the
U.S. sought to open Korean ports and sign a trade agreement.
Early
April 1871 what might be called a heavily muscular diplomatic mission set sail for Korea. In Command was Rear Admiral John Rogers on board the USS Colorado the flagship of
the Navy’s Asiatic Squadron, an
iron-hulled three-masted steam screw
frigate which had seen service in the Civil War. On board to handle negotiations was Frederick F. Low, the United States Ambassador to China. Also in the squadron were four other
warships, the sloop of war USS Alaska, the armed tug USS Palos, the side-wheel gunboat USS Monocacy, and the screw
sloop USS Benicia.
Admiral
Rogers might be forgiven if he envisioned having the success and glory the Commodore Mathew Perry found in opening
trade with Japan in 1854.
On
June 1 Rogers arrived in Korean waters and successfully put men ashore to
attempt to contact authorities. He crew
reported encountering “men in white” who were reluctant to talk to him or take
any message to the Emperor in his capital
of Hanyang, modern day Seoul. Rogers’s men ashore reportedly politely told
the Koreans that they would be exploring the area and “meant no harm.”
The
Admiral then led his ships to the entry of the Han River leading to the capital—where foreign ships were
explicitly forbidden to go. The flotilla
came under ineffective cannon fire from fortresses on Ganghwa. The ships were not badly damaged, due “to the
bad gunnery of the Coreans, whose fire, although very hot for the fifteen
minutes in which they maintained it, was ill-directed, and consequently without
effect.”
Rogers
hotly demanded an official apology for the “unprovoked attack” and gave the
Koreans a ten day deadline to reply.
When those days lapsed, he quickly swung into action with a punitive
raid on Ganghwa Island.
On
June 10 hostilities began with an attack on the lightly defended Choji Garrison on the Salee River. The Koreans, members of the Tiger Hunters led by General Eo Jae-yeon were crudely armed
with matchlock muskets which had
been obsolete for nearly a hundred years in the West.
A
force of 546 sailors and 105 Marines were put ashore to move on
other objectives supported by 12-pound
howitzers and guns from the flotilla.
They quickly moved on and captured Deokjin
Garrison, and Deokjin Fort,
which they found abandoned. The Koreans
fell back and regrouped at the well-fortified citadel of the Gwangseong
Garrison. As the Americans advanced
on the fort an attempt to flank them was repulsed,
American
forces established strong artillery batteries on two hills overlooking the fort
which was pounded by extensive shelling abetted by fire from the USS Monocacy operating close to shore in
shallow Han River waters.
Navy
Lt. Hugh McKee led a charge on the damaged
fort. The Korean defenders with their
slow loading matchlocks were hardly able to get off a single volley of fire
before McKee reached the top of the wall leading his troops. He was felled by a
ball immediately. Right behind him Commander Winfield Scott Schley
personally shot the Korean who had wounded McKee. Several seamen rushed to the aid of McKee,
fatally wounded in the groin. Meanwhile
two Marines, Corporal Charles Brown
of the USS Colorado’s guard and Private
Hugh Purvis of the USS Alaska’s
guard captured the personal flag of Eo Jae-yŏn and Private James Dougherty shot and killed the General. Carpenter
Cyrus Hayden, a sailor from the USS
Colorado planted the American Flag on the ramparts under heavy fire.
The
whole battle for the fortress lasted 15 minutes from the breach of the walls. The surviving garrison, including the deputy
commander, was taken prisoner. In all of
the action that day the Koreans lost 243 dead and 20 captured, most of them
wounded. American losses were three
dead, including McKee, and ten wounded.
It
was a brilliant military victory, especially considering that the Americans
accomplished in a single day what the French had failed to do in six.
Despite
the military glory, the diplomatic mission ended in abject failure. Rogers tried to use his prisoners as a bargaining
chip to demand negotiations with the Koreans.
The Koreans, for their part, flatly refused to negotiate, or even to
take back the prisoners, who they considered traitors for surrendering. The squadron stood off Korean waters until
July 1 fruitlessly waiting to begin talks.
Frustrated and with fuel for his ships running low, Rogers had to break
off contact and return with his primary objectives un-met. In the end Rogers left as empty handed as the
French
The
U.S. was unable to establish relations with Korea until 1886, after the
Japanese forcibly opened trade there and the British had extracted concessions.
Nine
sailors and six Marines including McKee, Brown, Purvis, Dougherty, Hayden, and
three sailors who came to the aid of McKee were awarded the Medal of
Honor. Admiral Rogers never claimed the
fame and glory of Commodore Perry and faded into historical obscurity.
For
the Koreans, especially, in the Communist North, which now so closely resembles
the Hermit Kingdom, the whole experience of 19th Century contact with the
Americans is celebrated. A story was
invented making an ancestor of Kim Il
Sung, the founder of the People’s
Republic of Korea and of the dynasty that has ruled ever since, the local
commander who sank the General Sherman. The American spy ship then USS
Pueblo which was captured by the North Koreans in 1968 is now anchored
at the site of the destruction of the General
Sherman. And the fallen garrison of Gwangseong
are celebrated as martyr/heroes like the Texicans
at the Alamo.
Which
is why you probably never heard of America’s first Korean War.
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