September 5, 1861 · Anhui Province Theater
September 5, 1861
The fall of Anqing — a major Taiping garrison city on the Yangtze River west of Nanjing — marked the turning point of the war. Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army had invested the city for over a year, constructing a double ring of earthwork fortifications isolating it from both river resupply and land relief. Multiple Taiping relief attempts under the brilliant general Chen Yucheng failed to break through. When the city finally fell on September 5, 1861, Zeng's forces massacred virtually the entire garrison and civilian population — approximately 16,000 people. The fall cut the Taiping capital off from the upper Yangtze and gave the Hunan Army control of the strategic approaches to Nanjing itself.
Commanders