ANNAM. 



of Chinese was sent by the other route to flank 

 the French, but was met at Chu, fifty -three 

 miles east of Kep, and defeated in a hard fight, 

 leaving that place also in the possession of the 

 French. The Chinese retired to a position in 

 the hills about twenty miles back of Kep. 



The policy of the French Government, sanc- 

 tioned by the vote of the Chamber of Nov. 27, 

 1834, was to confine the operations chiefly to 

 Toaquin and effect a complete occupation as 

 the surest way of overcoming the Chinese 

 resistance and enforcing the execution of the 

 Treaty of Tientsin. The direction of operations 

 was transferred, after the resignation of Gen. 

 Campenon, who as Minister of War disapproved 

 of denuding France of soldiers for enlarging 

 the operations in Tonquin, from the marine to 

 the war office, now in charge of Gen. Lewal. 

 In pursuance of this policy large re-enforce- 

 ments were sent out from France and Algeria. 

 By the end of January a French force of about 

 6,000 men was concentrated at Kep and Chu, 

 preparatory to an advance upon Langson. To 

 make up this small army the garrisons in the 

 delta and in the northwest were dangerously 

 weakened. The forward movement began Feb. 

 2. The French marched in two columns, the 

 two brigades of Gen. Briere de Flsle and Gen. 

 de Negrier. Gan. de Negrier, commander of the 

 advance column, by an ingenious ruse deceived 

 the Chinese as to the time of the advance and 

 the line of march, and so succeeded in flanking 

 their main body. On Jan. 30 he ascended from 

 Kep in a balloon and reconnoitred the strength 

 and position of the enemy in the direction of Bac- 

 Le. Leaving his balloon to float for a day longer, 

 he descended early in the morning of the 31st 

 to Phu-Lang-Thung, embarked with his troops, 

 and was carried do \vn the Thuong and up the 

 Loch- Nam river to Chu, uniting with Gen. Bri- 

 &re de 1'Isle's force. On the 2d of February 

 both generals set out with their brigades from 

 Chu. Though the bulk of the Chinese army 

 guarded the Bac-Le route, the French soldiers 

 had to carry intrenched positions that were 

 stoutly defended by superior numbers. The 

 road led through a defile five miles long lined 

 with fortifications to the fortified Chinese camp 

 at the village of Dong-Son. On every hill at 

 each side of the narrow valley was a fort. On 

 a ridge intersecting the valley were several 

 forts, and numerous others at Dong-Son. The 

 forts were attacked in succession by mountain 

 guns conducted along the ridge of hills on ei- 

 ther side, and then carried at the point of the 

 bayonet. One fort held out the greater part 

 of a day ; one was casemated, and was only en- 

 tered by laying a mine of dynamite at night. 

 The Chinese fought stubbornly. Many of them 

 were large and powerful men. The French 

 troops were burdened with five days' rations 

 and showed a sustained energy and endurance 

 not so readily expected of them as the military 

 skill and high courage they also displayed. 

 The forts were not provided with cannons as 

 a general thing, and those that were had guns 



of an inferior kind. The forts at Dong-Son 

 were not as strong as those in the defile, and 

 the Chinese, disheartened by the results of the 

 previous two days' fighting, defended them less 

 vigorously. The battle began on the 3d of 

 February. By noon on the 6th the French 

 were in possession of Dong-Son after thirty-six 

 forts in all were carried by assault. Their loss- 

 es were very heavy. Large stores of provis- 

 ions and gunpowder were found in the evacu- 

 ated forts. They halted four days at Dong- 

 Son to enable the train of coolies to come up 

 with provisions. On the 8th a body of picked 

 Chinese troops, detached from the army at 

 Bac-Le, attacked the vanguard, composed of 

 soldiers of the Foreign Legion, and nearly suc- 

 ceeded in turning their position by a well-exe- 

 cuted diversion in their rear. The column 

 moved forward on the 10th. The Chinese re- 

 treated before them, falling back to a position 

 in the hills in front of Langson, where they 

 concentrated a large force for their main stand. 

 The French were confronted with a better class 

 of men than those encountered in their previ- 

 ous campaigns. Not only had the raw levies 

 of southern China learned to fight from their 

 antagonists, but they were now re-enforced by 

 a certain number of the picked imperial troops 

 of the Mantchoo guard. Their quick and accu- 

 rate rifle-fire gave the French troops a great 

 advantage, and on this they had to depend 

 chiefly for success. They were deficient in 

 cavalry, and their artillery was useless, owing 

 to the almost impassable state of the roads, 

 which prevented them from bringing their guns 

 into action until the infantry had sustained the 

 brunt of the battle. With 500 more cavalry 

 they might have turned the retreat at Dong- 

 Son into a rout. As it was, the Chinese re- 

 treated in good order, and the necessarily slow 

 movements of the French over the poor and 

 narrow roads left them time to rally and con- 

 centrate for fresh action at a good position far- 

 ther back. The regular road from Dong-Son 

 was so broken down by the retreating Chinese 

 as to be impassable to artillery. Gen. de N6- 

 grier was therefore obliged to take another 

 road that started from the place of their first 

 bivouac. About noon they came upon the 

 rear of a Chinese column in retreat from 

 Dong-Son, and quickened their movements by 

 sending Krupp shells among them. The Chi- 

 nese placed sharpshooters on the nearer hills 

 to cover their retreat, while the main body 

 crossed a plain and took position on the heights 

 beyond. The French ceased firing for the 

 night, after dislodging the rear-guard and oc- 

 cupying the abandoned positions and a desert- 

 ed village in the plain. In the darkness the 

 Chinese retired to a more defensible position 

 among the hills. When the French came up 

 at noon on the 12th they gave battle. The 

 French worked their way, under cover of a 

 constant artillery - discharge, along a ridge in 

 front of the enemy, who raked their ranks 

 with a hot fire of musketry. After two hours 



