On June 7, 1900, the 2,100 strong Seymour Relief Expedition set out from Tientsin by train with the destination Peking and the objective the release of the besieged foreign legations. However, progress was repeatedly halted due to stretches of track that had been torn up by the Boxers and intermittent attacks. The imperial forces of the Dowager Empress were allied with the Boxers and joined in the attacks. Just seven days into its rescue mission, the expedition was forced to retreat to Tientsin due to the rail-bed both north and south of Yang Tsun being destroyed by the Boxers, cutting off the force's supply replenishment. During the retreat, Taussig was seriously wounded in the leg during a Boxer attack. He recovered in Japan and was advanced four numbers in grade because of his injury. Forty-three years later he was awarded the Purple Heart for his combat wounds. As he had done during the Spanish–American War, Taussig maintained a daily journal of the time he was in the Philippines and subsequently China while attached to as a naval cadet. These include detailed descriptions of his shipmates and officers including Captain Bowman H. McCalla of the , Vice Admiral Seymour, the progress and setback of the Seymour Expedition, the political dynamics, social customs and recreation in China, and drawings of engineering details of and urban scenes in Vigan and Pamplona. Of tactical significance, the journal includes a list of the ports of call for and an intelligence report on the fortifications of Sydney, Australia and the government of New South Wales. Taussig submitted his journal to Captain John Fremont of the who attested to it and pronounced it an excellent piece of work. The 120 page journal that Taussig wrote during his time attached to was the basis for his April 1927 article on the Seymour Relief Expedition, one of forty-four articles that he eventually authored for the U.S. Naval Institute magazine Proceedings. Cuban pacification and inter-war years Following recuperation from his leg wound, Taussig was assigned to the in the Philippines and then to the , a supply ship carrying food stores for the Army from Australia to the Philippines. Following that, he was assigned to commanded by his father, Commander Edward D. Taussig USN. While serving on at Yokohama Harbor, Taussig rescued a shipmate who had gone to the rescue of another drowning man. Both men were saved and for