Charles William or Guillaum Joseph Émile Le Gendre (August 26, 1830– September 1, 1899) was a French-born American officer and diplomat who served as advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan from 1872 to 1875 and as advisor to Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire from 1890 to 1899.
Biography
Early life
Le Gendre was born in Oullins, France. He was the son of Jean-François Legendre-Héral, a noteworthy painter, sculptor and professor at the École de Beaux-Arts. Le Gendre was educated at the Royal College of Reims, but he eventually graduated from the University of Paris. At the age of 24, he married Clara Victoria Mulock in Brussels. She was the daughter of a well-known New York lawyer and soon after their marriage Le Gendre moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen.
Civil War military career
With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Le Gendre helped recruit the 51st New York Volunteer Infantry; he was commissioned a major of that regiment on October 29, 1861. Le Gendre participated in combat in North Carolina and was present at the capture of Roanoke Island in 1862. However, he was badly wounded at the Battle of New Bern, North Carolina, on March 14, 1862. He later received a citation for his courage.
Despite his injuries, Le Gendre continued with the Army and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on September 20, 1862. In 1863, he was attached to the IX Corps, with which he fought in numerous campaigns. He was promoted to colonel on March 14, 1863, and assumed command of the 51st Regiment under IX Corps and participated in the siege and capture of Vicksburg. At the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia on May 6, 1864, while serving under General Ulysses S. Grant, Le Gendre was again severely injured, this time shot in the face with the bullet taking off his nose and left eye. Although still hospitalized in Annapolis, Maryland, he helped organize the city's defenses against the last Confederate raid on the city. He was later transferred to New York, where he helped recruit for the IX Corps. He was honorably discharged on October 4, 1864, and was further given the brevet rank of brigadier general on March 13, 1865.
Diplomatic career in China and Taiwan
On July 13, 1866, Le Gendre was appointed to be American consul at Xiamen (then known by its Hokkien pronunciation "Amoy") in the Fujian Province of the Qing Empire. He left New York for Liverpool in July 1866 and traveled overland through Europe and Asia, eventually arriving in Xiamen in December 1866. As consul, Le Gendre was in control of five of the Treaty Ports open to foreign commerce in China: Xiamen, Keelung, Taiwan (modern-day Tainan), Tamsui, and Kaohsiung (then known as "Takao"). He worked to suppress the illegal trade in coolies, indentured laborers.
Following the wreck of an American ship Rover on Taiwan Island on March 12, 1867, and the subsequent massacre of the surviving crew by Taiwanese aborigines, Le Gendre traveled to Fuzhou to persuade the Governor General of Fujian and Zhejiang to put pressure on the Chinese authorities in Taiwan to resolve the issue. Instead of taking action, the governor general of Fujian gave Le Gendre permission to go to Taiwan himself, writing a letter of introduction that asked the prefect of Taiwan cooperate. Le Gendre commissioned the United States steamer Ashuelot in order to visit the scene of the wreck and to try to get officials in Taiwan to act. Both this and the subsequent American punitive expedition under Rear Adm. Henry Bell were failures; Le Gendre then returned to Taiwan without any reference to his superiors to gather more information.
Upon return to south China, Le Gendre managed to persuade the governor general in Fuzhou to send a military force to southern Taiwan. The force, significantly smaller than the 400 to 500 soldiers Le Gendre recommended, was dispatched on July 25, 1867. Le Gendre had requested a gunboat from Rear Adm. Bell, which was denied but eventually managed to commission a private warship, the Volunteer. He embarked for Taiwan on September 4, 1867, telling his superiors that he was going purely as a spectator.
Le Gendre quickly assumed de facto command of the mission, which entailed a long and difficult march deep into the mountainous interior of southern Taiwan. Le Gendre negotiated an oral agreement guaranteeing the safety of shipwrecked American and European sailors with the chief of the aboriginal tribes in the area.