 After early French victories at Tourane and Saigon, the Cochinchina campaign reached a point of equilibrium with the French and their Spanish allies besieged in Saigon, which had been captured by a Franco-Spanish expedition under the command of Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly on 17 February 1859.The arrival of massive reinforcements from the French expeditionary corps in China in 1860 allowed the French to regain the initiative.On 24 and 25 February 1861 Admiral Léonard Charner relieved the Siege of Saigon by defeating the besieging Vietnamese army in the battle of Ky Hoa.