THE ASHANTEE WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 3533, 19 June 1874, Page 3

THE ASHANTEE WAR.

The following is an A merican view of the last days of the Ashantee war. It is that of Mr J. M. Stanley, the well-known correspondent of the ‘New York Herald’—who accompanied General Napier in the Abyssinia war, is the finder of Dr Livingstone, and the ‘New York Herald’s’ correspondent on the Gold Coast—and was published in the journal in the course of April last;— THY KINGDOM IS PASSED AWAY.

The Ashantee Kingdom has collapsed like the bladder to which it was aptly compared. There were six great tributary kings, who were the main props of Ashantee proper. One has died, and the people have scattered. The Kings of Jwabin ai-d Adansi have expressed their willingness to surrender, and have abjured their allegiance to Ashantee.. The supreme King is a fugitive, hurrying with a disorganized army towards some point in the North; Coomassie is a mere smoking ruin, and Ashantee is henceforth but a name. These are great indisputable facts, which go far to amend Sir Garnet Wolseley’s faults and failings as a Genera). Since all has ended well, promising a still better end, it is hardly worth while to criticise one who I have no doubt in England will be henceforth lauded most handsomely, and who as a soldier has distinguished himself wsrtbily WOLSELEY AS A COMMANDER. I know I shall run counter to the majority in my opinion of Sir Garnet, but my duty does no't lie in following the views of the majority, but in expressing what I think of Garnet’s conduct in this campaign, and my reasons for this view of him. 1 make thefollowing charges against him First. He did not pay any attention to the control department of his expedition sufficient to save it from the constant series of allures which must be aitributed to it. which on a campaign so peculiar as this ought to have had his continual and unceasing care and attention, Second.—He was too vacillating in his demands upon the King, entertained too serious a regard for what Exeter Hall might say, to the detriment of the mission imposed on him. Third.—He frittered away his time when the King’s treachery was evident, in seeking to recall and win him to friendly alliance by treaty with him, w hen he should have directed a watchful eye upon the enemy’s capital, which lay, jto use Lis own wordsj at his mercy. Fourth I . —He did not adopt the usual precautions of guarding the capital from night attack, fire or plunder, until the city had been fired and almost wholly plundered by the retreating enemy. Fifth. He gave no orders prohibiting plunder by his own troops until one was already caught in the act, and most cruelly strangled as an example, when it might have been prevented by a timely proclamation and adopting proper precaution. Sixth.—Owing to the failure of his transport he was obliged to retreat from Comtnassie before his full duty was accomplished. No one is positively sure that Commassie was entirely burned (except Captain Sartorius, who in five days afterwards), as we could not wait to witness the effect of the conflagration or the mines. Seventh.—The most important place of all, viz., the Bantammah, or the sacred city, the Mecca of Ashantee, distant a mile or so from Coomassie—was not even visited, nor was Aminecha, the King’s country residence, touched, though it was so near. . Eighth.—The most serious next to the seventh mistake Sir Garnet committed was the permission he gave the Ashantees to leave poomassie with arms in their hands, before he had come to any terms whatever with them, GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. But all these errors and omissions, which are only enumerated in order that you may be able to judge Sir Garnet accurately, are made to appear small by the series pf things which have happened since Sir Garueu’s hasty retreat from Coomassie, over which Sir Garnet personally had no control, but were the haopy results of the perpetual defeats the Ashantees had suffered at the hands of British troops in the battles preceding the fall of Coomassie. These happy accidents, all tending to crown a successful campaign • with glory, may, therefore, in a great measure atone for the faults and failings of the General commanding. The desired end has been attained—the Ashantee power has been crushed, I thoroughly believe, irrevocably, and this wis the object of the British expediton to Coomassie.- But supposing, as each of has a right to suppose, judging from what an astute and stubborn enemy might have done, that the Ashantee spies had dogged the footsteps of the rapidly retreating British army, and the King had set to work to surround and destroy Glover with the guns which Sir Gatnet permitted ’ the , Ashantees to bear away from' Coomassie, what would the world have said of a General who had cruelly and needlessly abandoned such a gallant fellow as Captain Glover to his fate ?, Supposing that the Ashantees had, upon the retreat of the British army, immediately taken if into their heads to rebuild Commassie, • whioh they could easily do within 'a week, and had begun to inaugurate a new era of conquest on the Fantees and their neighbors, and were congratulating themselves that, though defeated, they were not crushed ; that, though Commassie had been destroyed, the sacred city bad not been touched, what would the world have said of a general who, entrusted with such a costly expedition, did not make his work thorough while be had them at his mercy? But why need we go further? The Ashantee expedition is at an end. By a series of accidents it has ended happily, and Sir Garnet Wolseley and the Government of Great Britain may congratulate themselves heartily and with good reason that, “All’s welMthat ends well.’ ” H °rJJC THE 42nd CA N E TO TA£E COOMASSIE. Those of our readers who followed the movements of Sir Garnet Wolseley’s force from the Prah to Coomassie, must have been sadly puzzled, like ourselves, to answer this question, and we are now happy to have it in our power to do so. Sir Garnet Wolseley gave to Colonel Mac.eod, of the 42nd, as their senior officer in the force, the command of the advanced guard, composed of Russel’s Hussars, Rait’s guns, and parts of other corps. This, of Coarse, entirely detached him from his own regiment, which formed the main body of the whole force. At the battle of Amoaful, it occupied the centre, and was led by

Major Macphersbn, Sir A. Alison as Brigadier, while Colonel Macleod and his advanced guard, when order of battle had to be formed, occupied the left wing. When the advance was resumed after that victory, ( done! Macleod’s force also resumed its duty of leading the advance, whi'e the 42nd came oh behind, as they had done previous to Amoaful. With this resume of the state of matters, the following extract from the ‘Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette ’ will be read with interest:— “It will be fresh in the recollection of our readers that, when within a comparatively short distance of their capital, the Ashaatee braves made a desperate attempt to repel the white man, but their weapons, rather than their courage failed. It was at this point that the 42nd distinguished themselves in a manner which will not soon be forgotten. Our troops kept back the Ashauteea, but the latter were in such force, and were pouring in such an incessant shower of slugs, and bullets too, for that matter—for several of our men were wounded by bulb ts—that our advance was very feeble. Colonel Macleod, seeing the state of went to Sir Garnet Wolseley, and told him that if he would give him his regiment, he would be in Commassie in two hours. Sir Garnet knew that this was no idle boast, and he granted the permission, the result being that the Highlanders were in Commassie within the specified time. Such was their speed, and so terribly hot were the sun’s rays, that Sir Garnet sent a messenger after them asking them to stop, to which was returned the characteristic reply, ‘ We will stop when we get into Commassie.’ ”