Battle of the Barrier

The Battle of the Barrier was fought between British and Chinese forces at the boundary between Macau and mainland China on 19 August 1840. The barrier ran across an isthmus separating Macau from mainland China.

Battle
At about noon on 19 August 1840, British corvettes, accompanied by the Louisa cutter and Enterprise steamer, having seamen and marines of the Druid with Bengal volunteers on board, attacked the barrier. The vessels opened fire on a battery about 600 yd away which promptly returned fire. A British officer wrote, "The [Chinese] junks, which were aground in the inner harbour, were utterly useless, for none of their guns could be brought to bear, though several of the thirty-two pound shots of the ships found their way over the bank, much to the consternation of the occupants of the junks." In less than an hour, the batteries were silenced and the British forces were landed. They consisted of a brigade of 380 men comprising 110 royal marines, 90 seamen from the Druid, and 180 troops from the Bengal volunteers.