"Chinese Army of 100,000 Women" Topic

Hello
Chinese Taiping organised in 1852-1853 an army of 40 regiments with 2500 women each, on the paper this means 100 000 women soldiers, but I don't find a lot of pictures about them and real number seems unclear

Women also served in the field, mostly in menial work such as digging trenches ans constructing earthworks but during the early Rebellion they fought on the battlefield organized in all-female units under their own officers (men and women were always rigidly segregated on active service).
Even as late as 1858 10 000 'picked' women were drilled and garrisoned in the citadel of Nankin but there is no evidence of women fighting after 1853

The Taiping Rebellion 1851-1866
Ian Heath
Osprey MAA 275

The Taiping army included women who formed their own battalions apart from the men. In 1852, the Women's army numbered 3000 and reached 10 000 in January 1853. The female soldiers bared their unbound feet and wore trousers.

Women took part in the initial battles, such as at Jintian, but there is pretty much no evidence of Taiping women fighting battles after 1853, it seems it was a necessity in the beginning but later on it was not employed. Later on in 1858 there would be an official women garrison under the Taiping, but they seem to be a ceremonial group.

we have more about the amazons of the small slave-trader and slave african State of Dahomey, until a woke movie, than this massive female conscription right in the middle of the 19th century…

A few more pieces in The Taiping Rebellion ; history and documents by Michael, Franz H – where he lightly covers – he has sources from the time – but there dont appear to be a lot of hard facts

-from women who came in as part of the allied "bandit" groups
-the army marched picking up whole villages as they went – both with male and female units – but also family units (administrative.
-Covers some of the different tasks from weaving to fighting (being a smaller proportion)
-the amount of rice a woman got who was guarding the city walls
-Cultural difference of foot binding and how that impacted perspectives – particularly with the Hakkas

The book The Taiping revolutionary movement by Jian, Youwen
deals with some more specifics

-States the Female camps were also composed of dependents, and other family focused on support activities
-States the first time women (Hakkas) and men fought together in force was at the Seige of Kweilin – though few numbers
-Mentions next use was at Chilan-Chou where they helped guard the walls
-Mentions involvement of Hakkas fighting even toward the end and women being emergency reserves
-Provides some estimates of overall strengths in areas
-Supporting tasks included embroidery, weaving, the Institute for Women (also ones for aged, disabled and boys), Burial, Fire, Documentation etc…

I'm happy to see the small fort of San Juan de la Cruz represented. It is also known as "El Canuelo." It lies across San Juan Bay from the much bigger San Felipe del Morro and provides cross fires to any vessel trying to enter the bay. Nice to see a small fort from my home island represented.