By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti WarHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Ashanti war, 1873-1874 -- Juvenile fiction
The Ashantis were supposed to have had from fifteen to twenty
thousand men in the field. What their loss was could not accurately be
calculated, as they carry off their dead as fast as they fall; but where
rushes were made by our troops, as they had not time to do this, they
lay everywhere thick on the ground. By the most moderate computation
they must have lost over two thousand. Ammon Quatia himself was killed,
as well as Aboo, one of the six great tributary kings. The body of the
king's chief executioner was also pointed out by some of the prisoners.
They fought with extraordinary pluck and resolution, as was shown by
the fact that although wretchedly armed, for upwards of five hours they
resisted the attack of troops armed with breech loaders, and supported
by guns and rockets. Their position was a good one, and they had, no
doubt, calculated upon coming down upon us from the rising ground,
either on the flank or rear, with advantage, should we succeed in
pushing forward.
Upon our side the loss in killed was very slight, not exceeding eight or
ten. The 42d out of a total of four hundred and fifty had a hundred and
four wounded, of whom eight were officers. In the right hand column,
Colonel Wood, six naval officers, and twenty men of the Naval Brigade,
with many of the native regiment, were wounded. Of the sixty engineer
laborers twenty were wounded; while of their five officers Captain
Buckle was killed, Major Home and Lieutenant Hare wounded, together with
several of their white soldiers. Altogether our casualties exceeded two
hundred and fifty. Fortunately but a small proportion of the wounds were
serious.
While the battle was raging at one o'clock Quarman was attacked by a
strong body of Ashantis coming from the west, probably forming part of
Essarman Quatia's force. Captain Burnett, who was in command, having
under him Lieutenant Jones of the 2d West Indian regiment, and
thirty-five men of that corps and a few natives, conducted the defense,
and was well seconded by his men. Although the attacking force was very
greatly superior, and took the little garrison by surprise--for they did
not expect, while a great battle was raging within a distance of a mile,
that the Ashantis would be able to spare a force to attack a detached
party--the garrison defended itself with great gallantry and complete
success, not only beating off the enemy whenever they attacked, but
sallying out and assisting to bring in a convoy of stores which was
close at hand when the attack began.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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