Episode 2 of 2

Beginning of the Siege

When: 17 February 1859
Where: Saigon, Vietnam
Part of: French forces under Rigault de Genouilly capture Saigon, beginning the Siege of Saigon

Following the capture, a small Franco-Spanish garrison remained in Saigon, facing Vietnamese pressure that would develop into a formal siege.

After the capture, a small garrison under Jauréguiberry remained in Saigon. The Franco-Spanish force was greatly outnumbered by Vietnamese forces in the region, setting the conditions for the siege that followed. The formal investment of the city by a large Vietnamese army began later, in March 1860, and lies outside this event's scope.

Sources

Siege of Saigon Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22
Cochinchina campaign Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.