But the right wing did not leave Yancoomassie-Assin till the 19th, when starting at five in the morning they reached their camp at Barracoo at half-past eight. They found it the worst camp they had hitherto occupied; the huts very small, and the position, as has been above stated, very unhealthy. Seventeen men of these four companies were sent back, mostly ill with fever, and they found at Barracoo seven men of the other wing who had been left behind sick.
On the 20th the right wing marched to Prahsu, and the whole Battalion was once more reunited. On their march they heard in the front what they believed to be the report of three cannon, and much wondered why they should be fired. On arrival they found that these were the report of three volleys fired over the grave of Captain Huyshe of the 1st Battalion. He had died the day before of fever and dysentery. The left wing of the Battalion was at Prahsu, and paid the last sad honours to his remains.
He was a man of great promise, and a most well-informed as well as talented officer. The early part of his career had been in the 83rd Regiment, from which he exchanged into the Rifle Brigade. He had accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley in the expedition to the Red River in 1870, and had written an interesting account of it.[327] He had entered the Staff College, and after a few months’ study there, had, on the Ashantee Expedition being determined on, been offered the post of Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster General of the force, which he most gladly accepted. He had come to the Gold Coast with Sir Garnet Wolseley in September. He had started from Cape Coast with diarrhœa, had exposed himself a good deal to the weather in surveying and sketching country; and dysentery and fever supervened and carried him off. His talents, his fund of information, his sweetness of disposition, and his gentlemanly manners had endeared him to his brother officers, who have erected a handsome memorial to him in the Cathedral of Winchester; but to none more than to the writer of these lines.[328]
Hitherto the Battalion had found at their camping, or rather halting stations, huts built of bamboo, and thatched with plantain or palm leaves. The men’s huts contained about seventy men; those of the officers were, of course, smaller. In all of them were bedsteads, constructed of bamboo, keeping the sleepers about two feet from the ground.
On the 21st the Battalion crossed a narrow bridge, which had been made across the Prah, here about eighty yards wide, and marched to Essiaman, about thirteen miles and a half. Cocoa had, however, been prepared for them at Attobiasse, about half-way. The morning was very dark when they started; but it was cooler, the bush much more open, and the road good. On their arrival, they no longer found the huts which had been prepared for them on the other side of the Prah. At Essiaman the men were in long open sheds, covered with palm leaves, while the officers built themselves shelters of bushes and tentes d’abri, in which they could sling their field-hammocks.
On the 22nd, starting at half-past five, the Battalion marched to Accrofoomu, about fourteen miles, which they reached about a quarter to eleven. Some fourteen men fell out, mostly from fatigue; for the heat was excessive and the march long. The sheds here were insufficient to accommodate the Battalion; so that lean-tos had to be built and tents pitched. As at Essiaman, the officers had to construct huts for themselves.
On the 23rd they started at a quarter to six, and marched to Moinsey, at the foot of the Adansi hills, a distance of about eight miles. It was a pleasant march, for the road was good, the bush much more open, and the air cooler. There were no huts nor sheds, and the men had to build them.
The next day they started at the same hour, and ascended the Adansi range. The ascent, which is steep, occupied about half an hour. They halted at the top, and saw the sun rise over the trees below, while the mists hanging between the hills had the appearance of lakes. Resuming their march, they passed through Quisah, a large village about five miles on the way, deserted by the Ashantees. They arrived at Foomanah at about nine. This was a considerable town, containing the house or palace of the King of Adansi. The men and officers were quartered in the so-called houses, built of yellow baked clay, and rather resembling ovens with roofs over them. In some of them were found dead bodies.
An envoy from the King of Ashantee had here met Sir Garnet Wolseley; and the Battalion, with the Naval Brigade, paraded at five in the afternoon, and lined the road north of the town, by which he was to return to Coomassie, the ranks facing inwards.
They halted at Foomanah till the 29th. But on the 25th the Battalion was inspected by Sir Garnet Wolseley, and on the 26th Major Nicholl’s company formed part of a reconnaissance in force to the village of Kiang Boassu, about four or five miles to the front, where Ashantee tom-toms had been heard the day before. The Riflemen on this reconnaissance were under the command of Major Stephens. They started at a quarter to six, and returned soon after nine. The Ashantees fired on them; they returned the compliment, killed two Ashantees, and made two prisoners, besides burning the village.