Townsend Ward introduced what were for the time radical ideas involving force structure, training, discipline, and weaponry (though there are historians[who?]

He believed in a more flexible command structure, and that well trained, disciplined, mobile units could defeat larger forces lacking these qualities.

Many were dismissed in the summer of 1861, but the remainder became the officers of 1,200 Chinese soldiers recruited by Ward in and around Songjiang (romanized at the time as "Sungkiang").

It was the first Chinese army to incorporate western style training and tactics, modern weaponry, and most important, the concept of light infantry units which could move faster than their opponents.

Under Gordon the Ever Victorious Army, in collaboration with the Chinese Imperial forces, would fight some of the final and decisive battles that ended the Taiping Rebellion.

Li Hongzhang said of Gordon: "What a sight it is for tired eyes, what an elixir for a weary heart to watch this Englishman fight.

According to the North China Herald, the Bodyguard wore blue uniforms with scarlet facings and green shoulder straps bearing unit identification in Chinese characters.

Infantry wore dark green in winter dress with red facings and shoulder straps in regimental colours.

In the final year of its existence, the Ever Victorious Army was largely recruited from former Taiping rebels who had been taken prisoner and persuaded to change sides.

In the time-travel novel This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, the character Red refers to Blue and the Ever Victorious Army burning down a palace.