Combat· China Operations
Battle of Muddy Flat
The first significant American Marine combat action in China, fought in defense of the foreign settlement at Shanghai.
As the disorders of the Taiping era spread, an Imperial Chinese army encamped close to the foreign quarter and began harassing residents, and the British and American naval commanders resolved to drive it off. On 4 April 1854 a combined force, the larger British contingent joined by about sixty sailors and Marines from the sloop USS Plymouth and a party of armed merchant residents, advanced on the Imperial camp at the muddy ground outside the settlement. American and British guns scattered the Chinese, who fled in disorder leaving many dead and wounded. The American share of the loss was small: by the fullest account, two men killed and four wounded, the casualties falling on the mixed party of sailors and Marines. The action cleared the threat and affirmed the joint Anglo-American defense of the treaty port.
Record no. 68