[PUGACHEV]

There is a great eye witness account of the Boxer siege of the Peking Legations available from Amazon for free as a Kindle download under the title Indiscreet Letters From Peking, Being the Notes of an Eyewitness ....

Whether it's true or not, is another matter, but it's certainly a good read.

[Timber Rattler]

Yeah, I did a research paper on the Boxer Rebellion while in grad school, and it's a fascinating story. The U.S. Marine contingent, led my Handsome Jack Myers, on whom Heston's character was based, was relatively small but performed heroically during the siege. Most people don't know this, but Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou were caught in Tientsen. There, Lous worked in the hospitals, while mining engineer Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once even risked his life rescuing Chinese children.

This is one of my favorite pieces of military artwork.

The caption reads:

During the fiercely opposed relief expedition to Peking in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, when two companies of the U.S. Army's 14th Infantry Regiment were pinned by heavy fire from the east wall of the Tartar City and the Fox Tower between abutments of the Chinese City Wall near Tung Pien Gate, volunteers were called for to attempt the first perilous ascent of the wall. Trumpeter Calvin P. Titus of E Company immediately stepped forward saying, "I'll try, sir!" Using jagged holes in the stone wall, he succeeded in reaching the top. He was followed by the rest of his company, who climbed unarmed, and hauled up their rifles and ammunition belts by a rope made of rifle slings. As the troops ascended the wall artillery fire from Reilly's battery set fire to the Fox Tower. In the face of continued heavy Chinese fire, the colors broke out in the August breeze as the sign that U.S. Army troops had achieved a major step in the relief of the besieged Legations. For his courageous and daring deed in being the first to climb the wall, Trumpeter Titus was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.