Frederick Townsend Ward

Frederick Townsend Ward (November 29, 1831 – September 22, 1862) was an American sailor, adventurer, and soldier of fortune who became a general in the service of Imperial China. He is the original namesake of American Legion China Post 1.

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, to a seafaring family, Ward went to sea young, briefly attended Norwich University, and gained combat experience as a filibuster in Mexico under William Walker and as a lieutenant in the French army during the Crimean War. In 1860 he arrived in Shanghai amid the Taiping Rebellion. Hired by local Chinese officials and merchants to help defend the city, he organized a force of Western mercenaries that evolved into a larger, Western-trained Chinese army known as the Ever Victorious Army (Chang Sheng Jun). Ward adopted Chinese nationality, married into a prominent Chinese family, and rose to the rank of imperial general. Leading from the front, he won a series of victories that helped protect Shanghai and reverse Taiping gains in the region.

He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cixi (Tzeki) near Ningbo in September 1862 and died the next day at age 30. The Qing government honored him with burial and a shrine at Songjiang.

When American World War I veterans formed an American Legion post in Shanghai in 1919 (chartered April 20, 1920), they named it the General Frederick Townsend Ward Post No. 1, China—the first and only Legion post founded in China. The post later became known as Generals Ward & Chennault and Lt. Helseth Post No. 1 (China Post 1). In 1921 (or 1923, according to some accounts) the post placed a large headstone at Ward’s burial site and for years made annual Memorial Day pilgrimages to the shrine. That headstone has since been preserved and displayed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum in Nanjing.

Ward’s memory as an American who fought and died in China remains central to China Post 1’s identity, even after the post went into exile from Shanghai in 1948.