3-065-738 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of the Ashantee War by our special artist: setting fire to a village, 1874. Third Anglo-Ashanti War. '"Early on the 6th our homeward movements commenced, headed by the Naval Brigade and covered by a rear guard of the 42nd Highlanders, which did not retire till the town had been set on fire in every quarter and the mines in the palace fired. A tornado had raged during the previous day and night, but the destruction of the town by fire was complete...Our active engineers set fire to the thatched roofs of the houses with large and long torches, and the whole town was soon a mass of flames and smoke".' From "Illustrated London News", 1874.