Battle of Amoy


The Battle of Amoy was fought between British and Qing forces at Amoy on Xiamen Island, Fujian, in the Qing Empire on 26August 1841 during the First Opium War. The British captured the forts at Xiamen and on nearby Gulangyu Island.

Battle

Before the engagement, Qing forces prepared defenses along the shores of Xiamen and built batteries on Gulangyu Island. The British began the battle by bombarding the island's batteries for two to four hours, with little effect. Land forces then disembarked their transports and took the batteries with little resistance. The day was noted as being very hot and fatiguing to the men. Qing forces withdrew and the city fell the next day. A garrison force of 550 men, mostly from the 18th, and three ships — the Druid, Pylades, and the Algerine— were left moored at Gulangyu to defend Xiamen.
Rosa Luxemburg provides a brief account of the battle in her book The Accumulation of Capital.
Commander John Elliot Bingham wrote a detailed first-hand account of the battle from a British perspective.

British order of battle

Ships: Wellesley, 74 ; Blenheim, 74 ; Blonde, 44;
Druid, 44 ; Modeste, 18 ; Cruizer, 18 ; Pylades, 18 ; Columhine, 16 ;
Bintinch, 10 ; Algerine, 10 ; Sesostris, 4 ; Phlegethon, 4 ; Nemesis, 4 ; Queen, 4

Gallery

Citations