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Updated: June 29, 2025
On the 12th the messengers returned with an unsatisfactory answer to Sir Garnet's letter; they brought with them Mr. Kuhne, one of the German missionaries. He said that it was reported in Coomassie that twenty thousand out of the forty thousand Ashantis who had crossed the Prah had died. It is probable that this was exaggerated, but Mr.
"My men cannot fight in the open against the English guns. Besides, they do not know what they are fighting for here; but if your general should ever cross the Prah you will find it different. There are forests all the way to Coomassie, as you know, and the men will be fighting in defense of their own country, you will see what we shall do then. And now I will keep my promise to you.
When they reached a point where they took the enemy in rear, they charged the stockade. The enemy fled, and were kept at a run until Coomassie was reached, before dark. "The list of casualties showed how hard had been the fighting. All the white officers had been wounded, and there were a hundred and thirty casualties among the two hundred and fifty British soldiers.
On this the brigadier immediately advanced, and, passing the Soubang swamp which surrounds the city, entered the great market-place of Coomassie, without opposition, about 5:30. The major-general himself arrived at 6:15, when the troops formed on parade, and, at his command, gave three cheers for Her Majesty the Queen. The town was full of armed men, but not a shot was fired.
They then set out again and, after a terrible march, in the course of which they had to cross many swollen rivers, they arrived, two weeks after they had left Coomassie, half starved and worn out, on the coast.
It was six hours from the time at which the advance began before the rear guard entered the village, and as but a mile and a half had been traversed and Coomassie was still six miles away, it was evident that if the Ashantis continued to fight with the same desperation, and if the baggage had to be carried on step by step from village to village, the force would not get halfway on to Coomassie by nightfall.
Fighting went on at intervals throughout the day, and it was decided to spend the night in a village that had been taken, after some resistance. This place was less than halfway on the road from Pekki to Coomassie. During the night a tropical deluge fell, and the troops and carriers were, all the time, without shelter.
So far as I know, the garrison of Coomassie is amply sufficient to defend the fort; but we know that they are short of ammunition, and also of supplies to maintain the large number of people shut up there. "I am expecting the vessel with the main Nigerian contingent tomorrow, or next day; and I hope that this reinforcement will enable an advance to be made." "Thank you, sir!
Your friend, the white guest of the king, died at Coomassie." "Yes," Frank asserted, "but he had been nearly a year in the country before he died. Three weeks will be enough for an English army to march from Cape Coast to Coomassie. A few might die, but most of them would get there." "Coomassie!" the general exclaimed in surprise.
The Ashantees, a large and warlike tribe who had fought their way from the interior, established themselves early in the last century to the north and west of the Prah, and founded Coomassie as their capital, about 140 miles to the north of Cape Coast Castle.
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