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51-762: Following the defeat and death of the French naval captain Henri Rivière at the Battle of Paper Bridge on 19 May 1883 at the hands of Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag Army , the French government sent substantial reinforcements to Tonkin. General Alexandre-Eugène Bouët (1833–87), Rivière's successor, attempted to destroy the Black Flag Army in the summer and autumn of 1883, but although the Black Flags suffered substantial losses in

102-416: A battalion of fusiliers-marins ( capitaine de frégate Laguerre), three marine artillery batteries and a 65-millimetre naval battery. Both French columns set off from Hanoi at dawn on 11 December 1883. Courbet had told nobody the objective of the expedition, and many of the combatants had been expecting to march against Bắc Ninh, which had been occupied by around 20,000 troops of China's Guangxi Army in

153-535: A central redoubt, and subsidiary defences hampered the approach to the main position. From the Phu Sa strongpoint, the Black Flags had an excellent field of fire both out to the east, from where the initial French attack was likely to come, and north to the Red River. To deploy to the north and west of Sơn Tây, the French would first have to capture Phu Sa. This would not be an easy task, as Liu Yongfu had strongly garrisoned

204-542: A funeral service was said over them by Paul-François Puginier, the French apostolic vicar of Western Tonkin. Ten years earlier Puginier had performed a similar office over the body of Francis Garnier , who had died in remarkably similar circumstances. The remains were subsequently returned to France at the request of Rivière's family. They were finally buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre , in Paris . Outwork An outwork

255-463: A passage for Belin's slower-moving column. Meanwhile, Belin's column marched over Paper Bridge and through the villages of Phủ Hoài, Kien Mai and Phong, recrossing the battlefields of 19 May and 15 August, and reached the Day River without incident. On 13 December both columns met five kilometres from the forward defences of Sơn Tây. Belin's men needed rest, and Courbet postponed the battle for Sơn Tây to

306-540: A quick victory in Tonkin would force the Chinese to accept a fait accompli. Sơn Tây lay a few kilometres to the south of the Red River. The town was protected by a kite-shaped pentagonal curtain wall just over eleven feet high, with three short sides facing roughly east and two long sides converging to a sharp point to the west of the town. The curtain wall was enclosed on all five sides by a wide, deep moat filled with water and by

357-516: A strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lang Son, Bac Ninh, Hung Hoa and other towns. The French minister to China, Frédéric Bourée, was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December 1882 he negotiated a deal with

408-404: A tall bamboo palisade. Even if an attacker crossed these obstacles and breached the curtain wall, he still had to capture the central citadel of Sơn Tây. The citadel, built by Vietnamese engineers on the model of the French citadels of Cochinchina, lay at the heart of the town. It was square-shaped, and its walls were 300 metres long. It was dominated by a watchtower 18 metres high. According to

459-490: A terrible toll of the Black Flags, and in the opinion of the British observer William Mesny broke them once and for all as a serious fighting force. The disproportionate sacrifices made by the Black Flag Army at Sơn Tây had important consequences. Liu Yongfu felt that he had been deliberately left to bear the brunt of the fighting by his Chinese and Vietnamese allies, and determined never again to expose his troops so openly. After

510-490: Is a minor fortification built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks such as ravelins , lunettes (demilunes), flèches and caponiers to shield bastions and fortification curtains from direct battery were developed in the 16th century. Later, the increasing scale of warfare and the greater resources available to the besieger accelerated this development, and systems of outworks grew increasingly elaborate and sprawling as

561-520: The Académie française . Although Rivière spent most of his adult life as a naval officer, he was also ambitious for literary distinction. He was a journalist for La Liberté , and also had articles published in the Revue des deux mondes . At the end of 1881 Rivière was sent with a small French military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints against the activities of French merchants. In defiance of

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612-483: The Battle of Phủ Hoài (15 August) and the Battle of Palan (1 September), the French failed to defeat them decisively. In October 1883 command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was given to Admiral Amédée Courbet . The French now prepared for a major offensive at the end of the year to annihilate the Black Flags, and tried to persuade China to withdraw its support for Liu Yongfu, while attempting to win

663-693: The Franco-Austrian War (1859). In 1866 he took part in the Mexican campaign aboard Rhône and Brandon . He was promoted to the rank of capitaine de frégate in June 1870 and served as second officer on the ironclad corvette Thétis with the French Baltic Squadron during the Franco-Prussian War . He saw no active service in any of these campaigns. Rivière's role in the suppression of a revolt in

714-582: The Mediterranean squadron aboard Iéna (1850), Labrador (1851) and Jupiter (1852–54). Significantly, his confidential reports from this period mentioned that he seemed to be unduly interested in poetry and literature. Rivière took part in the Crimean campaign (1854–56), serving on the vessels Uranie , Suffren , Bourrasque and Montebello . Promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau in November 1856, he served aboard Reine Hortense during

765-664: The École Navale in October 1842. He passed out as a midshipman (second class) in August 1845, and saw his first naval service in the Pacific Ocean on Brillante . In February 1847 he was posted to the South Seas naval division , to Virginie . He was promoted to midshipman (first class) in September 1847 and to enseigne de vaisseau in September 1849. During the next five years he served in

816-507: The Black Flag fire. At 5 p.m. Donnier's Foreign Legion battalion and Laguerre's fusiliers-marins captured the western gate of Sơn Tây and fought their way into the town. Liu Yongfu's garrison withdrew to the citadel, and evacuated Sơn Tây under cover of darkness several hours later. On the morning of 17 December the French stitched together an enormous tricolour flag from strips of cloth torn from captured Black Flag banners and hoisted it over

867-414: The Black Flag stronghold of Phu Hoai. On 18 September 1883, acting on information received from Vietnamese informants, the French scouted the area with two battalions of marine infantry. Rivière's severed head and hands, buried in a lacquered box, were discovered in the village of Kien Mai, and three weeks later the mutilated body of a European, dressed in naval uniform, was found close to Paper Bridge, near

918-461: The Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence. The Vietnamese were not consulted by either party to these negotiations. Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, and in early 1883 decided to force the issue. He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France, giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to

969-551: The French colony of New Caledonia in the late 1870s won him promotion to the coveted rank of capitaine de vaisseau in January 1880. In November 1881 Rivière was posted to Saigon , as commander of the Cochin China naval division. The posting was generally regarded as a backwater that offered few opportunities for distinction. Rivière himself saw it as an opportunity to write a literary masterpiece that would procure him membership of

1020-450: The French rearguard. Several French officers were wounded at this critical moment, and in the confusion of the retreat Rivière's body was abandoned on the battlefield. He was immediately presumed dead by his fellow officers. If he had not already died from the effects of his wound, he would have been killed as soon as the Black Flags discovered who he was. Although the Battle of Paper Bridge

1071-515: The French to battle in a taunting message on placards that were widely distributed on the walls of Hanoi. On 19 May Rivière marched out of Hanoi to attack the Black Flags. His small force (around 450 men) advanced without proper precautions, and blundered into a well-prepared Black Flag ambush at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a few miles to the west of Hanoi. In the Battle of Paper Bridge the French were enveloped on both wings, and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Towards

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1122-535: The Vietnamese government, and ended a remarkable series of French victories against the Vietnamese by defeating Garnier's small French force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in this battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a tributary of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent

1173-580: The afternoon Roux and Chevallier's battalions captured the forward Black Flag positions at Phu Sa, but attempts to exploit this success failed. Godinet's company of Jouneau's Turco battalion and Cuny's company of Roux's marine infantry battalion assaulted the central redoubt, but were thrown back with heavy casualties. By nightfall the French were still stalled in front of Phu Sa. French casualties on 14 December were 68 killed (including 3 officers) and 249 wounded (including 17 officers). Nearly half these casualties were sustained by Jouneau's Turco battalion, which

1224-463: The autumn of 1882. Belin's column marched overland to the Day River from Hanoi, while Bichot's column was transported up the Red River by six French gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla ( Pluvier , Trombe , Éclair , Hache , Mousqueton and Yatagan ) and several steam launches, junks and tugs. On the afternoon of 11 December Bichot's column went ashore on the western bank of the Day River and secured

1275-449: The battlefield of Paper Bridge. Liu Yongfu had offered a substantial bounty for the heads of French officers, graded according to their rank, and it seems likely that a Black Flag soldier had killed the wounded French commander and then decapitated him in order to claim the bounty, cutting off his hands so that his rank could be verified by the number of bands ( galons ) on his tunic cuffs. Rivière's remains were brought back to Hanoi, where

1326-670: The campaign, organised into two columns under the respective command of Colonel Belin and Colonel Bichot. Belin's column, 3,300 men strong, consisted of two Turco battalions ( chefs de bataillon Jouneau and Letellier), one marine infantry battalion ( chef de bataillon Roux) with an attached company of Cochinchinese riflemen, the 1st Foreign Legion Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Donnier), 800 Tonkinese riflemen ( chef de bataillon Bertaux-Levillain) and three marine artillery batteries. Bichot's column consisted of three marine infantry battalions ( chefs de bataillon Chevallier, Dulieu and Reygasse), each with an attached company of Cochinchinese riflemen,

1377-551: The citadel of Sơn Tây while Courbet made a triumphal entry on horseback. On 17 December 1883 Courbet issued the following order of the day to the soldiers and sailors of the expeditionary corps: Les forts de Phu-Xa et la citadelle de Son-Tay dont désormais illustrés par votre vaillance. Vous avez combattu, vous avez vaincu un ennemi redoutable. Vous avez montré une fois de plus au monde entier que la France peut toujours compter sur ses enfants. Soyez fiers de vos succès. Ils assurent la pacification du Tonkin. (The forts of Phu Sa and

1428-643: The citadel of Sơn Tây will henceforth be famed for your valour. You have fought and conquered a formidable enemy. You have once again shown the whole world that France can always count upon her children. Be proud of your successes. They have ensured the pacification of Tonkin.) Courbet had achieved his objective, but at considerable cost. Total French casualties during the two days of fighting amounted to 83 dead and 320 wounded. The dead or mortally wounded officers included Captain Godinet of Jouneau's Algerian Rifle battalion, Captains Doucet and Cuny and Lieutenant Clavet of

1479-449: The citadel, and the Chinese were deployed inside Sontay. The curtain wall and the outwork of Phu Sa were held by Liu Yongfu's Black Flags. Neither the Vietnamese nor the Chinese contingents would play any significant role in the battle, which was essentially a straight fight between the French and the Black Flags. Admiral Amédée Courbet led the bulk of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps to Sơn Tây. The French deployed around 9,000 men for

1530-462: The coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Dinh with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Dinh the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, but they were repulsed by chef de bataillon Berthe de Villers in the Battle of Gia Cuc on 28 March. Rivière was jubilant: 'This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question!' Rivière's timing

1581-403: The despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin. Rivière's adventure in Tonkin set in train a course of events that, within a few years, saw French rule extended beyond Cochinchina to the whole of Indochina. The French had been forced to leave Rivière's body on the battlefield of Paper Bridge, and for several months were unsure of the precise circumstances of his death. After being shot in

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1632-423: The end of the battle a French cannon overturned with the shock of its recoil, and Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it. The Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men, killing one French officer and seriously wounding Rivière in the shoulder. Several seconds later, Rivière collapsed. Seeing the French line in confusion, the Black Flags surged forward and drove back

1683-531: The fall of Sơn Tây, Liu retreated with the Black Flag Army to Bắc Ninh, but made little attempt to coordinate the movements of the Black Flag Army with those of the Chinese forces at Bắc Ninh. The absence of the Black Flags from the battlefield was an important factor in the defeat of China's Guangxi Army in the Bắc Ninh campaign in March 1884. Henri Rivi%C3%A8re (naval officer) Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–1883)

1734-461: The following day. The battle to take Sơn Tây was the fiercest engagement the French had yet fought against the Black Flags. The Black Flags fought ferociously to defend the city. Early in the afternoon of 14 December the French advanced from the east on the Phu Sa positions, beating off a Black Flag sortie against their right flank. Artillery was brought up, and in a two-hour bombardment the Black Flag guns at Phu Sa were gradually silenced. Later in

1785-419: The fortified perimeter of Sơn Tây. After resting his troops on 15 December, Courbet assaulted the defences of Sơn Tây from the northwest on the afternoon of 16 December. This time the attack was thoroughly prepared by artillery, and delivered only after the defenders had been worn down. To hearten his troops, Courbet set an example of the utmost personal courage, riding forward to a position well within range of

1836-473: The hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection. In April 1883, realising that the Vietnamese were incapable of resisting the French effectively, the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Jingsong ( Tang Jingsong , 唐景崧) persuaded Liu Yongfu to take the field against Rivière with the Black Flag Army . On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged

1887-422: The help of Liu Yongfu , whose well-trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers were to prove a thorn in the side of the French. The Black Flags had already inflicted one humiliating defeat on a French force commanded by lieutenant de vaisseau Francis Garnier in 1873. Like Rivière in 1882, Garnier had exceeded his instructions and attempted to intervene militarily in northern Vietnam. Liu Yongfu had been called in by

1938-436: The instructions of his superiors, he stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882 in a few hours, with the governor Hoàng Diệu committing suicide having sent a note of apology to the emperor. Although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese government, unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army, enlisted

1989-472: The likelihood that they would be shortly engaged in battle against the French. In turn, the French consolidated their hold on the Delta by establishing posts at Quảng Yên, Hưng Yên and Ninh Bình . In December 1883 Admiral Courbet was authorised by Ferry's government to attack Sơn Tây. The French cabinet accepted that an attack on Liu Yongfu would probably result in an undeclared war with China, but calculated that

2040-533: The marine infantry, and Captain Mehl of Donnier's Legion battalion. Twenty-two other officers were wounded. One jaundiced French officer commented, 'Admiral Courbet took Sơn Tây as you would expect a sailor to do: by boarding.' According to reports later received by the French, Chinese and Vietnamese casualties at Sơn Tây had been heavy: 900 dead and around 1,000 wounded. Nearly all these casualties were suffered by Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army. The fighting at Sơn Tây took

2091-404: The reports that the French had received, there were at least a hundred cannon in battery behind the defences. To remain in contact with the flotilla, the French were bound to approach Sơn Tây from the east, with their right flank lying on the Red River. In theory, they could march past Sơn Tây on its northern side, squeezing their columns between the town and the river, and deploy for an attack on

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2142-448: The shoulder Rivière had fallen, then risen to his feet, then collapsed again. His recumbent body had been last seen surrounded by a knot of Black Flag soldiers. Most of Rivière's fellow officers naturally assumed that he had been either shot or stabbed to death on the battlefield there and then, but many Vietnamese believed that he had been taken alive by the Black Flags. According to a Vietnamese soldier who claimed to have been present at

2193-408: The spot where Rivière had fallen on 19 May. The body had been gashed with sword slashes, the head and the hands were missing, and the sleeves of the naval tunic had been cut away to remove the marks of rank. Several French naval officers who knew Rivière well were able to confirm that the body was indeed his. These circumstances strongly suggested that Rivière had been killed in the heat of battle, on

2244-496: The support of the other European powers for the projected offensive. Jules Ferry and the French foreign minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour met a number of times in the summer and autumn of 1883 with the Chinese minister Marquis Zeng Jize in Paris, but these diplomatic discussions proved abortive. The Chinese stood firm, and refused to withdraw substantial garrisons of Chinese regular troops from Sơn Tây, Bắc Ninh and Lạng Sơn, despite

2295-402: The time, Rivière had been brought into Liu Yongfu's presence shortly after the battle ended and had been beheaded on the orders of the Black Flag leader, one of whose close friends had been killed by the French during the battle. Neither version of his death could be confirmed. Several weeks after the battle the French heard rumours that Rivière's body had been savagely mutilated and buried near

2346-451: The village and packed it with cannon. The cannon were dug in beneath casemates, making them a difficult target to knock out. Sơn Tây was defended by 3,000 veteran soldiers of the Black Flag Army under the command of Liu Yongfu , around 7,000 Vietnamese troops of indifferent quality under the command of Prince Hoàng Kế Viêm , and a contingent of 1,000 Chinese troops under the command of Tang Zhiong (唐炯). Hoàng Kế Viêm's Vietnamese garrisoned

2397-453: The vulnerable acute angle where the two long walls met to the west of the town. However, the defenders had done their best to ensure that they would never get there. The dyke paths leading to Sơn Tây from the Day River converged at the village of Phu Sa, just to the northeast of the town. The Black Flags had hired European engineers to convert Phu Sa into an impregnable strongpoint. Water-filled ditches, bamboo palisades and trenches surrounded

2448-534: Was a French naval officer and a writer who is chiefly remembered today for advancing the French conquest of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam ) in the 1880s. Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and Dai Nam (as Vietnam was known then) that culminated one year later in the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886). Born in Paris on 12 July 1827, Rivière entered

2499-405: Was a serious defeat for the French, it strengthened the resolve of Jules Ferry 's administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. The news of Rivière's defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May, and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared 'France will avenge her glorious children!' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance

2550-486: Was perfect. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Dinh , but instead he found himself the hero of the hour. There had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry was strongly in favour of colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière up. Ferry and his foreign minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourée's agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled

2601-436: Was unable to play any further role in the battle. In one day Courbet had lost more men than his predecessors Rivière and Bouët had done in all their battles put together. Hoping to exploit Courbet's defeat, Liu Yongfu attacked the French lines the same night, but the Black Flag attack also failed disastrously. Liu Yongfu lost so many men in this counterattack that he was obliged to abandon the Phu Sa positions and withdraw into

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