Attacking the Hermit Kingdom: The American Expedition to Korea in 1871
Already, at just past 4 in the morning, the sun is beginning to peek over the horizon. It silhouettes the high conical hills of the Korean island of Ganghwa against a pink pre-dawn background. Outside of a row of white tents a United States Marine Corps drummer stands and beats reveille. A brigade of 500+ American sailors and soldiers rubs the sleep from their eyes and starts to leave their tents to stand at attention. It is Sunday, June 11, 1871 and this bedraggled, blue-coated, mud-spattered group of marines and sailors is the first ever American force to be deployed to the Asian mainland to engage a foreign enemy in order to implement the will of the government of the United States of America by force. Yesterday June 10, led by the modern and formidable ironclad gunboats Palos and Monocacy the American’s had landed on this muddy forlorn island, part of the land Korean’s then called Joseon, after the family dynasty which has ruled their peninsu...