The Romance of Old New England RooftreesCrawford, Mary Caroline
History
The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees
Crawford, Mary Caroline
Historic buildings -- New England; New England -- Biography
In the Confucian cemetery at Ningpo his body was laid at rest with all
possible honours and with military ceremony becoming his rank. Over his
grave, and that of his young wife, who survived him only a few months, a
mausoleum was erected, and monuments were placed on the scenes of his
victories. The mausoleum soon became a shrine invested with miraculous
power, and a number of years after his death General Ward was solemnly
declared to be a joss or god. The manuscript of the imperial edict to
this effect is now preserved in the Essex Institute.
The command of the Ever-Victorious army reverted to Burgevine, but
later, through British intrigue, to General Gordon. It was Ward,
however, the Salem lad, who organised the army by which Chinese Gordon
gained his fame. The British made a saint and martyr of Gordon, and
called Ward an adventurer and a common sailor, but the Chinese rated him
more nearly as he deserved.
In a little red-bound volume printed in Shanghai in 1863, and translated
from the Chinese for the benefit of a few of General Ward's relatives in
this country--a work which I have been permitted to examine--the native
chronicler says of our hero:
"What General Ward has done to and for China is as yet but imperfectly
known, for those whose duty it is to transfer to posterity a record of
this great man are either so wrapped in speculation as to how to build
themselves up on his deeds of the past time, or are so fearful that any
comment on any subject regarding him may detract from their ability,
that with his last breath they allow all that appertains to him to be
buried in the tomb. Not one in ten thousand of them could at all
approach him in military genius, in courage, and in resource, or do
anything like what he did."
In his native land Ward has never been honoured as he deserves to be. On
the contrary, severe criticism has been accorded him because he was
fighting in China for money during our civil war, "when," said his
detractors, "he might have been using his talents for the protection of
the flag under which he was born."
But this was the fault of circumstances rather than of intention. Ward
wished, above everything, to be a soldier, and when he found fighting
waiting for him in China, it was the most natural thing in the world
for him to accept the opportunity the gods provided. But he did what he
could under the circumstances for his country. He offered ten thousand
dollars to the national cause--and was killed in the Chinese war before
the answer to his proffer of financial aid came from Minister Anson
Burlingame.
It is rather odd that just the amount that he wished to be used by the
North for the advancement of the Union cause has recently (1901) been
bequeathed to the Essex Institute at Salem by Miss Elizabeth C. Ward,
his lately deceased sister, to found a Chinese library in memory of
Salem's soldier of fortune. Thus is rounded out this very romantic
chapter of modern American history.
THE WELL-SWEEP OF A SONG
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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