This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Major-General Charles George Gordon CB was an officer of the British Army during the Crimean War and Second Opium War, and served as Governor Geneeral of the Sudan 1873–1880. He died in the Siege of Khartoum during the Mahdist War.
He became known as Chinese Gordon for his service in command of the "Ever Victorious Army," a mercenary force of the Qing Dynasty commanded by European and American officers, which was instrumental in quelling the Taiping Rebellion. The Tongzhi Emperor awarded him the imperial yellow jacket (黃馬褂; pinyin: Huáng mǎguà), the highest military honor of the Qing Dynasty at the time, and he was subsequently appointed a Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry.