The Capture of Nam Dinh (27 March 1883), a confrontation between the French and the Vietnamese, was one of the early engagements of the Tonkin campaign (1883–86). In a brief campaign in the last week of March 1883, Commandant Henri Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Dinh, the second-largest city in Tonkin, with a flotilla of gunboats and a battalion of marine infantry.