Queen Victoria's Little Wars by Byron Farwell

Author:Byron Farwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

17

WOLSELEY IN ASHANTILAND

1873–74

THROUGHOUT the last half of the nineteenth century cabinet ministers and civil servants tried to rid Britain of her unprofitable colonies on the African west coast, but they were always prevented from doing so by traders who wanted protection of their interests and by humanitarians who wanted Britain to stop the slave trade and to bring the benefits of intellectual enlightenment, Victorian moral standards and material progress to the Africans. Politicians and bureaucrats complained that the cost of attempting this was too high and that very little of European civilization rubbed off on the natives. Certainly the possession of Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, Lagos and Gambia was not worth the small amount of trade that was carried on in those places. And there was always some kind of trouble. Countless small expeditions were undertaken against one tribe or another, but these were generally launched by officers on the spot using the available West Indian troops, local levies and sometimes sailors off ships on the West African station. Rarely was it necessary to bring in troops from England or other parts of the Empire. But no local force could cope with the fierce Ashantis, and again in 1873 they were causing trouble.

A large Ashanti army, said to number 12,000 men, crossed the Pra river and invaded the British protectorate. They cut a wide swath of destruction and, in June 1873, they moved on Elmina, a coastal fort which the British had recently acquired from the Dutch. Although the fort was inadequately manned by detachments of marines, sailors and West Indian troops, a determined Ashanti attack was beaten off. The Government now reluctantly decided that the proud, barbarous Ashantis must be humbled and their army whipped. As white men died rather quickly on the Gold Coast, the politicians hesitated to commit British troops, hoping that friendly tribesmen under competent British officers could throw back the invaders. In July The Times and the Daily News advocated sending ‘Chinese’ Gordon, but on 13 August the Government selected Wolseley to be Administrator and Commander-in-Chief on the Gold Coast.

One monthlater, when Wolseley and thirty-five carefully selected officers boarded what Wolseley described as ‘the most abominable and unhealthy craft I ever made a voyage in’ to take them to the Gold Coast, he already had a carefully worked out plan for his campaign. He would first do what he could with levies of coastal Fantis, but he had little hope of succeeding with them. The Fantis were generally unwarlike – cowards, in fact – and he knew that they would have to be strongly reinforced by British regulars. He had already requested that two battalions be specially equipped and kept ready to join him when he needed them. From his studies he had concluded that in the pestilential climate of West Africa military operations could only be undertaken with safety by European troops in the months of December, January and February, the dry season. He therefore planned to make a dash into the country, smash the Ashanti army and make a quick return.

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