The Ashanti Campaign of 1900

This 1901 publication describes the Ashanti siege of Kumasi in Ghana in 1900 and how British troops recaptured the city.

Cecil Hamilton Armitage (Author), Arthur Forbes Montanaro (Author)

9781108032148, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2011

320 pages, 10 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.41 kg

In March 1900, Frederick Hodgson, the British Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded to sit on the Golden Stool of the Ashanti people in Ghana. The Golden Stool had great historical and symbolic significance for the Ashanti people and the Governor's demand was perceived as nothing short of a declaration of war: they responded by besieging the garrison in the city of Kumasi. British troops were sent in and recaptured the city in September 1900. C. H. Armitage (1869–1933), private secretary to Hodgson (and later himself to serve as Governor of Gambia) and A. F. Montanaro (1862–1914) were in the British retaliatory force, and as such perfectly positioned to give a first-hand account of the episode. The book was originally published in 1901 and is divided into two parts. The first part, by Armitage, describes the Ashanti siege of Kumasi, and in the second part Montanaro relates the British response.

Prefatory note
Part I. Capt. Armitage's Narrative: 1. The quest of the golden stool
2. The first engagement
3. The rebellion comes to a head
4. Shut up in Kumasi
5. With the Lagos Haussa column to Kumasi
6. Operations against the besiegers
7. A broken armistice and its sequel
8. Rumours of relief
9. Preparations for cutting through
10. The march out from Kumasi
11. The Kumasi column's march to the coast
Part II. Lieut.-Col. Montanaro's Narrative: 12. Preparations in the Gold Coast
13. How Kumasi was relieved
14. The siege of Kumasi (June 23 to July 15)
15. From the coast to Bekwai
16. Punitive operation begun
17. With Beddoes' and Burroughs' columns
18. Operations round Kumasi
19. An expedition against a fetish town
20. A victory in the north-west
21. Longing for the finish
22. The close of the campaign
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]