The Third Battle of Nanjing in 1864 was the last major engagement of the Taiping Rebellion in the Qing Empire. With the fall of Nanjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the rebellion came to an end. The Hunan Army, an unpaid and barely fed militia commissioned by the Qing Empire, lost all their discipline and committed mass-scale random murder, wartime rape, looting and arson against the civilians of Nanjing, seen as "rebels". 100,000 "rebels" were reported dead by Zeng Guofan, the commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army.

The Third Battle of Nanjing started on March 14th, 1864, when Zeng Guoquan, the younger brother of Zeng Guofan, attacked the city using ladders to climb its walls. The defenders were able to beat the Qing forces, thus pushing them to change their tactics. They started digging tunnels at the gates of Nanjing, but the defenders dug their own tunnels to counter them and built a second wall to secure the city. On July 3rd, the Qing forces managed to take over the Purple Mountains and its Dibao Castle. This strategically excellent location provided several dozen artillery positions, and so, the bombardment of Nanjing commenced. Two weeks later, on July 19th, the city wall collapsed due to the tunnel explosives that were placed under the Taiping Gates. The attackers rushed inside the city on four fronts.

The central front was led by imperial General Li Chendian. His task was to lead the attack toward the palace, where Hong Xiuquan used to reside. The right front was led by imperial General Liu Lianjie. His troop's task was to push toward the Shence gate, where they would meet the force entering the city by ladders. Together, their task was to lead the attack on the Lion Mountain and to take Yifeng Gate. The central left, which was led by imperial General Peng Yuju, had the task of attacking the Tongji Gate. And finally, the left front, under the command of imperial General Xiao Fusi, attacked the Chaoyang and Hongwu gates.

The rebels put up a fierce fight, but they were no match for 60,000 imperial soldiers. They did hope to repel the attackers beyond the city gates, but their morale was at an all-time low after witnessing the fall of the Chaoyang gate. By evening, all the Nanjing gates were in the hands of the imperial Qing forces. However, Li Xiucheng managed to escape the city with the son of Hong Xiuquan, and together, they fled toward Qingliang Mountain. Zeng Guoquan sent a cavalry unit to pursue them, and Li got separated from Hong's son. Li was captured on July 22nd, 1864, but he wasn't executed until August. Many Taiping leaders and generals were executed after the fall of Nanjing; only Lai Wenguang managed to escape with his 3,000 men.

Hong Xiuquan died during the siege of Nanjing. The city was low on food due to the siege, and he ordered his subjects to eat wild plants and medicinal herbs. Hong gathered some weeds from the palace gardens and ate them. As a result, he fell ill in April and died on June 1st, 1864. It is possible that Hong was ill because he ate some poisonous plants, but some historians suggest he committed suicide by poisoning. He was buried according to Taiping customs near the Ming Imperial Palace in Nanjing. His successor was Hong Tianguifu, his teenage son. After the fall of Nanjing, the Qing forces exhumed Hong Xiuquan's body, cut off his head, and burned the remains. As eternal punishment for his rebellion, the ashes of Hong Xiuquan were blasted out of a cannon to make sure he would never have a proper resting place.