Enomoto’s Fleet Sails North and Fights the Hakodate War

Enomoto Takeaki refused to surrender the whole former shogunate fleet and sailed north from Edo on October 4, 1868. In the northeast his force gathered additional opponents of the restoration government. It reached Ezo in December and occupied Goryōkaku, the former magistrate’s fortified headquarters near Hakodate.

The northern army also took Matsumae and Esashi. Its naval strength suffered a major loss when Kaiyō Maru ran aground at Esashi. Officers elected leaders of a provisional administration in January 1869, but the government rejected the project of establishing a northern settlement for former Tokugawa retainers.

Government forces landed at Otobe in May. They advanced through different routes toward Hakodate, while their ships supported the campaign. The combined land and naval attack on June 20 broke the defenders’ position around the port; fighting continued at the remaining forts before Enomoto surrendered Goryōkaku on June 27.

The capitulation ended the Boshin War’s last principal campaign. Enomoto and other leaders entered custody. His pardon and appointment to the Hokkaido development administration came in 1872, after imprisonment. His later government career followed defeat and a separate decision to employ his expertise.