Chinese Gordon

Major-General Charles George Gordon was formed from the Pantheon of the Gods and has come to be recognized as a hero, whether this was good or not is another matter considering his idiosyncracies, arrogance and evangelical self-righteousness.
He was born, 28th January 1833, in Woolwich, London to a military family, his father was Major-General Henry Gordon. He went to school in Somerset and then attended the Royal Woolwich Military Academy, graduating with a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Engineers in 1852, achieving the rank of full Lieutenant in 1854 after further training at Chatham.
His first assignment was to improve the defenses of Milford Haven in West Wales, you may wonder where the threat of attack was from but this was at a the peak of the the fear that the Irish may rise up or that a European power might try to sneak in the 'back door'. It was around tis time that he became an evangelical, much of his later actions seem to be predicated on the belief that he had divine guidance. Indeed his ideas became increasingly strange, the world was encapsulated in an orb with the Throne of God directly above the Temple of Jerusalem, I'm surprised Buzz Aldrin never saw it. The Devil apparently lived on the other side (quite near Pitcairn Island in fact, the geographical Antipode of Jerusalem). A short man, 5 feet 5 inches, he is probably a prime example of the 'Napoleon Complex'.
His Homeland Security work was soon pit on hold as the Crimean War broke out. Gordon was sent to Balaklava in January 1855 and soon became involved in the Siege of Sevastopol. The Crimean was noted for the terrible conditions, soldiers froze to death in winter and died like flies with dysentery, cholera and gangrene through the short steamy summer, but Gordon was a hardy sort and survived unscathed. He was, in fact, appointed to the boundary commission, surveying and demarking both the European and Asian boundaries of the Ottoman Empire with Russia; finally returning to Chatham in 1858 where he was promoted to Captain.
Charles was not really a stay-at-home type, within two years, sensing an opportunity for glory and dispelling the forces of darkness he volunteered to help open the doors to 'free-trade' and enlightenment by joining the British army in China during the second Opium War. The war was the result of Britain reaching the apex of sanctimonious hypocritical Imperial posturing; having achieved a monopoly of poppy growing at the beginning of the century in Bengal, they then pressed the indigenous population into servitude as they created an assembly line of opium production. China had had the nerve to decline British trade advances, insisting that silk and tea was to be paid for with silver, a commodity that Britain was singularly short of. To counter this recalcitrance the British, quite literally, foisted their opium onto the Chinese, more efficiently than any drug cartel as they had state backing; when the Chinese kicked up a fuss about the increasing addiction of it's population Britain went to war. As always, the British salved their conscience, and became incredibly wealthy, by claiming they were civilizing the ungrateful Chinese. A perfect scenario for Gordon. China, of course, was none to happy about this state of affairs, leading to the First Opium War. Unfortunately (for the Chinese), they had adopted an insular policy some 400 years before, initially manifesting itself by getting rid of what had been the world's supreme navy, a sort of 'if I close my eyes then you're not there' approach. In addition there was considerable unrest amongst the Chinese, the current dynasty was Manchu who ruled the majority Han population inflexibly and oppressively.
The Second Opium War had started after the Qing government had boarded a pirate ship which turned out to be under the British flag. Seizing the opportunity the British, with Gordon sacked the Summer Palace, occupied Beijing and only withdrew to Shanghai when the Taiping Rebellion crept further east 1862. Shanghai had raised a militia, at least the foreign residents had, but the rebel advance was so slow that they took the fight to the rebels. Under the very able command of Fredrick Ward, an American this initially ragtag army was drilled and organized into a well-oiled machine. The object was to clear out pockets of rebels from the hinterland, the army proved so successful that the were termed the 'Ever Victorious Army. Unfortunately Ward was killed at the Battle of Cixi. The Chinese governor did not like the chosen replacement and requested that an Englishman be appointed instead. Gordon was proposed and quickly approved by the British government and took over command in March 1863.
Ever victorious, the army, straightway, rode to the relief of Chansu, a nearby town. The liberation was successful and probably due to Ward's innovative military strategies that he had implemented. Gordon now had a chance to relax and reorganize his troops to the way he was more accustomed. The army then advanced on Quinsan, another rebel-held town, which they finally relieved with considerable casualties. One is left to ponder whether the toll would have been as high if he had not tinkered with the command structure and organization of his troops. On a roll now, the army liberated town after town until, in November, they joined up with the Imperial army and took back the city of Suzhou. There now followed a hiatus in the prosecution of the rebellion showing another facet of Gordon's character; his inability to follow orders through a self-righteous belief in his autonomy. It was his way or no way. Specifically there was dissension over the treatment of the captured rebels between the provincial governor, Li Hongzhang, who was at least his nominal superior. Gordon went off to Quinsan with his army and sulked for over three months until he and the governor made up. They then joined forces and overran the rebel headquarters at Changzhou. Here another Gordon trait becomes apparent, self-promotion. The Emperor promoted him to the position of Provincial Military Commander, appointed him a Viscount second class and awarded him the Yellow Jacket, honorary regalia which distinguished him as a Chinese hero. Why Gordon should have been chosen for this plethora of accolades rather than the British commander , Stavely, the provincial governor or any of of the othe passed-over participants shows as much of Gordon's view of the benighted natives as much as their view of him. Not to be outdone, the British promptly promoted him to Lieutenant-Colonel and made him a Companion of the Bath. All this earned him the sobriquet 'Chinese Gordon'.
Back in dear 'Old Blighty', flush with success, Gordon was placed in charge of the fortification of the River Thames near Gravesend, on the southern bank near the mouth. During this period he found time to do good works, visiting the sick and elderly and founding a boys club, this latter was to call into question some of his proclivities. This charitable streak was peculiarly Victorian, Gladstone hobnobbing with fallen women, Dickens slumming with his friend the heiress Baroness and so forth but Gordon did raise questions with his predilection for young boys, Stanley Weintraub, in his epic biography of Victoria says “Gordon was not the marrying kind and preferred street urchins.” In any case, his next appointment, in 1871, was to the international commission charged with ensuring the navigability of the mouth of the Danube. The following year he was sent to inspect the cemeteries at the Crimea. On his way there, at Istanbul, he dropped by the Sublime Port and again displayed his talent for self-aggrandizement by bringing himself to the notice of the Prime Minister of Egypt who, presumably at Gordon's behest, began negotiations to install himself in the service of the Khedive Ishmael Pasha. Receiving a definite offer for what today would be considered his mercenary services, in 1873, Gordon went to Egypt the following January and was appointed colonel in the Egyptian army. We now have the strange situation whereby Gordon outranked himself in two national armies other than the one he had joined and still, purportedly, served in.