Frederick Townsend Ward was born in Salem, Massachusetts on November 29, 1831. Aside from working as a sailor during the 1850s, Ward found employment, as a 'filibuster'. 'Filibustering' is 'raising private mercenary armies and leading them into other countries to advance either [one's own] schemes or those of wealthy sponsors'. According to a contemporary account written in early 1862, Ward and his brother arrived in Shanghai, China in 1860 for the purpose of trading, perhaps as an extension of their father's New York office. Through their contacts with the Western business community, and Ward's own relentless self promotion, in the spring of 1860 Xu and Fang reached out to Ward and became his employers. Ward then began scouring the wharves of Shanghai for every Westerner, sober or otherwise, capable of firing a weapon. With this, the 'Shanghai Foreign Arms Corps' was born, which in defeat, would form the nucleus for the 'Ever Victorious Army'. By March 1862, Ward's force would be officially named by the Qing government, and to history, as ¨The Ever Victorious Army', and Ward himself would be made first a 4th-rank, and then a 3rd-rank mandarin, high honors from the Manchu court for a Westerner. By March 1862, Ward's force would be officially named by the Qing government, and to history, as 'The Ever Victorious Army〃, and Ward himself would be made first a 4th-rank, and then a 3rd-rank mandarin, high honors from the Manchu court for a Barbarian.