his
regret for having struck Takee.

Captain Holland was thus the third commander of the Ever Victorious
Army, and a set of regulations was drawn up between Li Hung Chang and
General Staveley as to the conduct and control of the force. It was
understood that Captain Holland's appointment was only temporary until
the decision of the Government as to Gordon's nomination arrived, but
this arrangement allowed of the corps again taking the field, for
although it cost the Chinese L30,000 a month, it had done nothing
during the last three months of the year 1862. Early in February 1863,
therefore, Captain Holland, at the head of 2,300 men, including a
strong force of artillery--600 men and twenty-two guns and
mortars--was directed to attack Taitsan, an important place about
fifty miles north-east of Shanghai. An Imperialist army of nearly
10,000 men acted in conjunction with it. The affair was badly managed
and proved most disastrous.

After a short bombardment a breach was declared to be practicable, and
the ladder and storming parties were ordered to the assault.
Unfortunately, the reconnoitring of the Taeping position had been very
carelessly done, and the attacking parties were checked by a wet
ditch, twenty feet wide and six feet deep, of which nothing had been
seen. Situated only forty yards from the wall of the town, and without
any means of crossing it, although some few did by throwing across a
ladder, the storming party stood exposed to a terrific fire. Captain
Holland ordered a retreat, but it was not managed any better than the
attack. The light guns were removed too quickly, and the heavy ones
were stuck so fast in the mud that they could not be removed at all.
The Taepings attacked in their turn, and the greatest confusion
prevailed, during which the survivors of the larger half of the Ever
Victorious Army escaped in small detachments back to Sungkiang. Twenty
European officers were killed or wounded, besides 300 Chinese
privates. Captain Holland exposed himself freely, but this, his only
action in independent command, resulted in complete and unqualified
failure. Gordon himself summed up the causes of this serious and
discouraging reverse:--

"The causes of the failure were the too cheap rate at which the
rebels were held. The force had hitherto fought with the allies
with them (except at Tsingpu). They now had to bear the brunt of
the fighting themselves, the mistake of not having provi