3-065-718 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ashantee War: sentries of the different lines of troops in camp at Prah-Su, 1874. Third Anglo-Ashanti War. The British Army in West Africa. 'The different corps of Sir Garnet Wolseley's mixed force showed an odd diversity of attire and equipment...The English sailor will at once be recognised, but he has quite a soldierly air, being one of the smart men of the Naval Brigade detached for this inland service. On his right hand, is a negro soldier of one of the West India regiments. On the sailor's left hand are two of our West African auxiliaries, a Kossoh man, from the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, and a Bonny man, from the delta of the Niger, who are little better than savages. The Kossoh wears a canvas shirt, like a night-gown: he has a fetish necklace on him. The two men at the left-hand side of the engraving are Houssas of Captain Rait's Artillery dressed in an easy-fitting uniform of dark blue, which consists of loose wide breeches, folded waist-cloth, open-sleeved vest, cross-belts, and light cap with a numbered plate in front. They are fine fellows, and their officers have found them well worth the trouble of drilling them to carry and work the battery of light guns, which no Europeans could have done in that climate'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.