THE ASHANTI EXPEDITION, 1864.
The head-quarters and four companies of the 1st West India Regiment had
been removed from Nassau to Barbados in the hired transport _Avon_,
before that vessel sailed for West Africa, and on the 3rd of March,
1861, the six companies of the regiment embarked in her at the Gambia
for the West Indies. During the four years' tour of service which they
had just completed, five officers had fallen victims to the fatal West
African climate, Lieutenant Kenrick having died at Sierra Leone, in
August, 1857; Lieutenant Leggatt, in February, 1859; Brevet-Major Pratt,
in July, 1859; and Captain Owens, in July, 1860; while Lieutenant E.
Smith had died at the Gambia, in September, 1859.
On the arrival of the wing from West Africa, the regiment was
distributed in the West Indies as follows: The head-quarters, with Nos.
5, 7, and 8, the Grenadier and Light Companies at Barbados; Nos. 1 and 2
at St. Lucia; No. 3 at Trinidad; and Nos. 4 and 6 at Demerara. Towards
the close of the year the practice of selecting men for flank companies
was forbidden by Horse Guards General Order, and the grenadier and light
companies became Nos. 9 and 10.
The regiment remained thus stationed until December, 1862, when the
three existing West India Regiments were called upon to furnish two
companies each for the formation of a new 4th West India Regiment, and
Nos. 9 and 10 Companies of the 1st West India Regiment were transferred.
In the same month, No. 1 Company rejoined head-quarters from St. Lucia.
The establishment of the regiment was now eight instead of ten companies
as formerly.
On the 23rd of December, 1862, a detachment of three companies (Nos. 5, 7,
and 8) embarked in the troopship _Adventure_, under Lieutenant-Colonel
Macauley, and proceeded to Honduras, arriving there on January 3rd,
1863. A war of reprisals between the Santa Cruz and Ycaiche Indians was
then raging on the frontier, and the greatest vigilance was necessary to
prevent violation of British territory, the detachments of the regiment
at the outposts of Orange Walk and Corosal being continually employed.
In March, 1863, the whole of the southern side of Belize was destroyed
by fire, and the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment there
stationed received the thanks of the Legislative Assembly for the
assistance it had rendered in preventing the conflagration spreading, a
sum of $200 being voted for the men, "as an acknowledgment of the
valuable services rendered by them." In this, or the preceding year,
companies were designated alphabetically instead of numerically; No. 1
becoming "A," No. 2, "B," and so on.
On the 31st of October, 1863, A Company, with the head-quarters,
embarked at Barbados on board the troopship _Megaera_, which had arrived
the day before from Demerara with D and F Companies. The vessel then
proceeded to St. Lucia, where B Company was embarked, and all four went
to Nassau. The distribution of the regiment was then: 4 companies at
Nassau, 3 in Honduras, and 1 in Trinidad.
In 1863 occurred what is usually called the Second Ashanti War. It was
caused, as almost every Ashanti war or threat of invasion has been
caused, by the refusal of the Governor of the Gold Coast to surrender to
the Ashanti King fugitives who had sought British protection. In revenge
for this refusal an Ashanti force made a raid into the Protectorate, and
reinforcements were at once asked for by the Colonial Government. In
December, 1863, B Company, 1st West India Regiment, under Captain Bravo,
embarked at Nassau in H.M.S. _Barracouta_ for Jamaica, and proceeded,
towards the end of February, 1864, to Honduras, in the troopship
_Tamar_. There E and G Companies embarked, and all three, under the
command of Major Anton, sailed for Cape Coast Castle on the 2nd of
March, arriving there on the 9th of April. The officers of the regiment
serving with these companies were Major Anton, Captains Bravo and
Hopewell Smith, Lieutenants J.A. Smith, Gavin, Roberts, Smithwick,
Lowry, Barlow, Allinson, and Ensign Alt.
On the arrival of the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment at Cape
Coast Castle, the strength of the expeditionary force was as follows:
Officers. Men.
1st West India Regiment 11 300
2nd West India Regiment 6 170
3rd West India Regiment 6 170
4th West India Regiment 30 850
5th West India Regiment 4 10
--- ---
57 1,500
The rainy season--the most unhealthy period of the year on the Gold
Coast--was then commencing, and the Government appear to have had some
idea of making an advance upon Coomassie at its close--about the month
of June or July. In order to have everything in readiness for the
forward movement, depots of stores and munitions of war had been
established at Mansu and Prahsu, and at Swaidroo in Akim, detachments of
troops being stationed at these places for their protection. These
detachments the Colonel commanding the troops on the Gold Coast
determined to maintain during the rainy season, and it fell to the lot
of B and G Companies of the 1st West India Regiment to be detailed for
the fatal duty of relieving the detachment then encamped at Prahsu.
Towards the end of the month of April these two companies, under
Captains Bravo and Hopewell Smith, started amidst continuous torrents
of rain on their march of seventy-four miles to the Prah. They had,
since their arrival, been encamped with E Company on the open space to
the west of the town known as the parade ground, there being no
accommodation for them in the Castle; and owing to the unsanitary
condition of the site and the want of proper shelter, had already begun
to suffer from the effects of the climate.
On arriving at the Prah they encamped at the ford of Prahsu, at a point
where the river, making a sudden bend, enclosed the encampment on three
sides. Here in the midst of a primeval forest, on the banks of a
pestilential stream, without proper shelter or proper food, they
remained for nearly three months. The sickness that ensued was almost
unparalleled. Before they had been a month encamped, four officers and
102 men were sick out of seven officers and 214 men who had marched out
of Cape Coast; and the hospital accommodation was so bad that the men
had to lie on the wet ground with pools of water under them. The rains
were unusually severe, the camp speedily became a swamp, the troops had
worse food than usual, and, above all, were compelled to remain
inactive. The small force had no means of communication with the coast,
and no expectation of a reinforcement; and, had the enemy made an
appearance, the troops were hardly in a fit state to defend themselves.
Day after day torrents of rain fell; it was impossible to light fires
for cooking purposes except under flimsy sheds of palm branches; and
night after night officers and men turned into their wretched and
dripping tents hungry and drenched to the skin. Neither was there any
occupation for the mind or body, and universal gloom and despondency set
in. It was no unusual thing for two funerals to take place in one day,
and the unfortunate soldiers saw their small force diminishing day by
day, apparently forgotten and neglected by the rest of the world.
By a general order published at Cape Coast Castle, on the 30th of May,
1864, the garrison at Prahsu was, on account of the sickness there
prevailing, reduced to 100 men; and on the 6th of June, G Company, under
Captain Hopewell Smith, marched from the Prah and proceeded to Anamaboe,
a village on the sea-coast some thirteen miles to the east of Cape Coast
Castle. B Company still continued to suffer severely, and on the 18th of
June, 57 men were in hospital out of a total strength of 100.
At last the Imperial Government resolved to put a stop to the waste of
life that was taking place, and sent out instructions to the Colonial
Government that all operations against the Ashantis were to cease, and
the troops to be withdrawn. The welcome intelligence reached Prahsu on
the 26th of June, but the work of burying the guns and destroying the
stores and ammunition, which had been collected there at such great
labour and expense that the Government did not care to incur it again
in their removal, occupied several days, and it was not until the 12th
of July that the detachment marched out of the deadly camp on the Prah.
On the 27th of July, the hired transport _Wambojeez_ arrived at Cape
Coast Castle, to remove the detachments of the 1st and 2nd West India
Regiments to the West Indies, and on the 30th they embarked. The day
before their embarkation the following general order was issued:
"(General Order, No. 285.)
"BRIGADE OFFICE, CAPE COAST CASTLE,
"_28th July, 1864_.
"Paragraph 3.--The Lieutenant-Colonel commanding feels great
pleasure in publishing, for the information of the officers and
soldiers of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments about to embark for
the West Indies, the following handsome testimony of their
soldierlike conduct while employed on the late expedition, by His
Excellency Governor Pine, in which feelings and kind sentiments the
Lieutenant-Colonel fully concurs, adding his own thanks to Major
Anton and Captain Reece for the ready and cheerful manner in which
they co-operated with him in carrying out the duties of the command,
and to the officers and men under their respective orders.
"It is a pleasing duty to the Lieutenant-Colonel to have to announce
to these corps that, from the day they took the field until this
hour, not a complaint has been brought by an inhabitant against any
of the men, so excellent has the conduct of all been.
"It is also gratifying to Lieutenant-Colonel Conran to see so few
men on the sick list when about to embark, considering the large
numbers that were reported sick on their return from the front."
"GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE COAST,
"_27th July, 1864_.
"SIR,
"On the eve of the departure of the detachments of the 1st and 2nd
West India Regiments, which have been annexed to your command on my
requisition since April last, I request that you will be pleased to
permit me, through you, to record my thanks as Governor of these
settlements for the services they have performed conjointly with
yourself and regiment.
"I feel that I have been the means of imposing upon Her Majesty's
troops a laborious, ungracious, and apparently thankless duty; but
my intentions and motives have been so fully, and I trust,
satisfactorily discussed throughout Great Britain, that I dare hope
that the officers and men will believe that I invited them to
participate in a constitutional measure, which I felt convinced
would add to their military reputation and honour.
"To the decision of Her Majesty's Government as to its altered
policy we are all compelled to bow, and it only remains for me to
express my regret to every officer and man of the 1st and 2nd West
India Regiments, for the natural and laudable disappointment which
they have experienced in not being engaged in more active military
operations, and to tender my heartfelt thanks for the prompt and
ready obedience with which they responded to my call on behalf of
our Royal Mistress, and for their patience and endurance under
extraordinary trial.
"Major Anton I have served with, and marked with admiration his
display of fortitude, moral courage, and disinterested kindness
during the fearful epidemic of 1859 in the Gambia. Captain Bravo, as
second in command in the Gambia, was my esteemed friend, and enjoyed
the respect of all who knew him.
* * * * *
"This hasty and imperfect notice I trust you will not deem unworthy
of being communicated to the highest military authority, and I shall
esteem myself fortunate indeed if I shall be instrumental in the
remotest degree in their advancement.
"I have, etc.,
(Signed) "RICHARD PINE,
"Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gold Coast.
"The Hon. Colonel CONRAN,
"Commanding the troops on the Gold Coast."
The _Wambojeez_ arrived at Barbados on the 3rd of September; there the
detachment of the 1st West India Regiment embarked by companies in
H.M.S. _Pylades_, _Greyhound_, and _Styx_, for Jamaica, and disembarked
at Port Royal on the 15th of September. H and C Companies rejoining at
Jamaica soon after from Honduras and Trinidad, the distribution of the
regiment was as follows: head-quarters and three companies at Nassau,
five companies in Jamaica.
NOTE.--Out of the 11 officers and 300 non-commissioned officers and
men who landed at Cape Coast Castle on the 9th April, only 6
officers and 269 non-commissioned officers and men re-embarked on
July 30th, 5 officers having been invalided, and 31 men having died
during their short stay of three months and a half.