Excerpt from General Gordon's Private Diary of His Exploits in China About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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.