Description: Two handwritten letters sent to members of the Markham family in Wisconsin, the first by Albert Hastings Markham while patrolling the Canton River in April, 1858, and the second by his elder brother, John Markham, sent from Shanghai in May, 1862, both vividly describing the extreme brutality of the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion. Both letters with slight separation at folds. Single mailing envelope addressed to Mrs. John Markham included. The first letter, sent by Albert Hastings Markham while serving aboard the H.M.S. Camilla while patrolling the Canton River, reads in part: You see we are now in the Canton River & laying off Canton just where the factories are, or rather where for they are now a mass of ruins. The "Sans Pareil" (line of Battle ships) towd us up halfway, off the Bogue Forts, and then a Gun Boat the "Algerine" took us the rest of the way. I went ashore the other day & I went to a place which we call the Chamber of Horros, where you see all the different Chinese Punishments & Tortures, there is one fellow lashed between two planks and being sawn down through the head, and another being in Lead and another one being ground to pieces and a number of other tortures which I forget now. I also went to see old Yeh's Yamen (which means Palace) which is almost level with the ground. I should think all the fleet must have been firing at it, from the state the houses are in that are close to it. The Breach which we made have been built up again by the Chinamen. I expect we shall remain up this River for a long time... The second letter, sent by John Markham from the British Consulate in Shanghai, describes a visit to the city of Kahding in the wake of its siege and almost complete destruction, and goes on to describe Albert Hastings Markham's continued military participation in the conflict. The letter reads in part: We are gradually driving the Rebels away from this already have retaken two of their strong holds, the Cities Kalding + Tsinpo, both 25 miles from this. Mingho has also fallen into our hands so I hope ere long the Rascally rebels will have cleared out entirely. I rode out to Kahding last Sunday + back the same day... The city of Kahding is larger round the walls than Shanghai, but it is in such a state of desolation. Before the Rebels took it, the population was about 200,000. Now including 200 English + 150 French troops left to garrison it, there are not more than 600 souls in the place. It is a beautiful city, the houses are good + the gardens really superb - at least were so... I got some pretty & very useful loot in the shape of furniture such as chests of drawers, marble top tables, &c, which are coming down in boats. The Wall of the city is breach in three places, & the interior has the appearance of a battle field, bodies lying about, half exploded shell + roundshot here & there. We passed thro several ruined towns & villages en route, the ride all along was very pretty + picturesque but every now + then we came across a scene of terrible desolation, farms in ruins, the corpses of the men lying about, agricultural implements broken, altogether the country bore the aspect of War... Albert was just too late for Ningpo at which he is very much disgusted, he returned here the day before yesterday in command of a prize taken at Ningpo, the British ship "Paragon" caught selling arms to the Rebels. The commanders in chief talk of taking Soochow the 2d Capital of the Rebels. I hope will do so as the fall of it would do more to crush the Rebellion than anything short of taking Nanking which we must do eventually... Albert Hastings Markham would go on to achieve fame as an Arctic explorer, most memorably as part of the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76. These two letters, sent to the mother and another brother of the two, who had just recently emigrated to Wisconsin, provide substantial documentation of Markham's early naval career, with his 1858 letter having been written at age sixteen.
Price: 1500 USD
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts
End Time: 2024-12-26T22:09:13.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.95 USD
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