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This Remembrance Profile was originally created by Richard Lee Hopka - Deceased
Contact Info
Last Address VINTON
Date of Passing May 27, 1966
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
The President of the United States
in the name of
The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
TITUS, CALVIN PEARL
Rank and Organization:
Citation:
Gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment; was first to scale the wall of the city.
Musician, U.S. Army, Company E, 14th U.S. Infantry. Place and Date: At Peking, China, 14 August 1900. Entered Service at: lowa. Birth: Vinton, lowa. Date of i55ue: 11 March 1902.
Other Comments:
Early at the turn of the century a rebel force in China that called itself the Society of "Righteous and Harmonious Fists", subsequently called the "Boxers", initiated a rebellion in China that threatened the legations of several nations in Peking and Tientsen. The 1st Regiment (Marines) under Major Littleton Waller arrived in China on June 19 and tried to seize Tientsin, but was driven back. On June 23 Waller's Marines finally entered the Tientsin, where they held tenuously until reinforced by U.S. Army troops on July 12, and thereafter fought their way to Peking. Beneath the 30-foot wall that surrounded the city, the American commander called for volunteers to scale the wall. "I'll try sir," replied Musician Calvin Titus. Without ropes the trumpeter and Chaplain's musician used hand-holds to slowly scale the wall, and even when fired on as he neared the top, he fearlessly continued on. Musician Titus courage inspired his watching comrades, who then followed, and it was the American and British forces of the multi-national relief force that were first to enter the city to rescue the civilian legation that had been surrounded for 55 days in Peking.
Boxer Rebellion (China Relief Service)
From Month/Year
August / 1899
To Month/Year
September / 1901
Description The Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising or Yihequan Movement was an anti-imperialist uprising that took place in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty. It was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness (Yihetuan), known in English as the "Boxers", and was motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and opposition to imperialist expansion and associated Christian missionary activity.
The uprising took place against a background of severe disruption caused by the encroachment of America and European nations. After several months of growing frustration against both the unrelenting wave of European and Christian presence in Shandong and the North China plain in June 1900, Boxer fighters, convinced they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on Beijing with the slogan "Support Qing government and exterminate the foreigners." Foreigners and Chinese Christians sought refuge in the Legation Quarter. In response to reports of an armed invasion to lift the siege, the initially hesitant Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Boxers and on June 21 issued an Imperial Decree declaring war on the foreign powers. Diplomats, foreign civilians and soldiers as well as Chinese Christians in the Legation Quarter were placed under siege by the Imperial Army of China and the Boxers for 55 days.
Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favoring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, the Manchu General Ronglu (Junglu), later claimed that he acted to protect the besieged foreigners. The Eight-Nation Alliance, after being initially turned back, brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army, and captured Beijing on August 14, lifting the siege of the Legations. Uncontrolled plunder of the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued, along with the summary execution of those suspected of being Boxers.
The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—approximately $10 billion at 2017 silver prices and more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next thirty-nine years to the eight nations involved. The Empress Dowager then sponsored a set of institutional and fiscal changes in an attempt to save the dynasty by reforming it.
