Frederick Townsend Ward was born and reared in Salem, Massachussets, the son of Elizabeth Colburn (Spencer) and Frederick Gamaliel Ward, a ship's master and later a ship-broker and merchant. He was the descendant of Miles Ward who emigrated from England to Salem about 1639. In boyish games at school his capacity for leadership emerged, and he showed coolness and daring in sailing small boats in the bay.
He went to school at home and from 1846 to 1848 at Norwich University in Norwich, Vt. , where he acquired the foundations of a good military training.
He roamed far and wide on sea voyages or commercial ventures, interspersed with military service in Tehuantepec, with William Walker in Nicaragua, and with the French in the Crimea. In 1859 he appeared in Shanghai, China, where he took service on a Yangtze River steamer. No remarkable exterior appearance suggested the pent-up energies, the forceful leadership, or the daring that characterized his actions. In the thickest battle he went unarmed, but invariably carried a riding-whip or cane - a custom followed later by Gordon. The year 1860 marked a crisis in the Taiping Rebellion, when the rebels, barred from Central China, were trying to obtain the rich coast provinces about Shanghai. Anglo-French resistance protected that international port, but officials and merchants outside were frantic. Just at this time he was introduced to Takee, a Chinese merchant, who became a broker between him and the officials and later his paymaster. For a cash payment Ward agreed to recapture Sungkiang. His first following of foreign adventurers failed, but a second expedition of Filipinos with white officers proved successful. Encouraged by this victory, he tried in the same manner to capture Tsingpu; but, unfortunately for him, it was defended by a strong body of Taipings reinforced by a company of adventurers under Savage, an Englishman. In one of the attacks on this city he was wounded, and his force thereupon rested for several months at Sungkiang. Meanwhile he sought for a larger army. Since an adequate foreign legion would be both politically objectionable and costly, he thought that a sufficient army of well-drilled Chinese under foreign officers would be effective and comparatively inexpensive. Official support was gained; but the foreign consuls, particularly the British, opposed his whole project, and he was arrested in May 1861. Asserting Chinese naturalization, he avoided a trial, and he escaped from a British warship on which he was detained. Early in 1862 his new army was ready. Meanwhile a change had taken place in the Franco-British policy: they were combining with the Chinese to clear a thirty mile radius about Shanghai. His command, now called the "Ever Victorious Army, " was enthusiastically acclaimed and cooperated effectively in several campaigns with the Anglo-French forces near Shanghai and Ningpo. During the summer more than 4, 000 men served under his banner, and Ward himself, with brevet rank as brigadier-general, was cited for bravery in the capture of Tsingpu early in August. His enterprise had justified itself in the teeth of foreign opposition in its beginnings, and of Chinese jealousy of its present successes. Other Chinese armies resented the superior airs of Ward's men; officials worried over the cost of the force; and widespread gossip credited Ward with untoward ambitions, though none of his actions ever revealed such. His loyalty to the United States was shown in his offer, just before his death, of 10, 000 taels to the Federal government for carrying on its Civil War. While directing the attack on Tzeki, he received a mortal wound and died the following day. A magnificent state funeral was accorded him at Sungkiang, his headquarters, and a memorial temple was there erected in his honor in which regular sacrifices were offered to his spirit. Henry Andrea Burgevine, who succeeded to the command, soon lost his position. Charles George Gordon ("Chinese" Gordon), after an interval, succeeded; and his success was achieved with the instrument forged by Ward, a fact sometimes - unjustly - forgotten.
Ward married Chang Mei, Takee's daughter. They had no children.
