Combat· Korean Expedition (Shinmiyangyo)
Korean Expedition 1871
The American attempt to open the "Hermit Kingdom" by force, on the model of Perry's Japan expedition.
Rear Admiral John Rodgers brought the Asiatic Fleet's squadron to the Korean coast in 1871, partly in answer to the killing of the crew of the American merchantman General Sherman a few years before, and partly to press Korea into a treaty. When Korean shore batteries fired on a surveying party in the Salee River, the expedition turned punitive. In June a landing force of about a hundred Marines and several hundred sailors stormed the river fortifications, culminating in the bloody assault on the citadel, at a cost of three Americans killed and ten wounded against some two hundred and forty Korean dead. Six Marines received the Medal of Honor, two of them, Corporal Brown and Private Purvis, for seizing the Korean commander's great flag. The expedition won its battle but failed its purpose: Korea stayed closed until 1882.
Engagements in this conflict (3)
Record no. 462