3-053-790 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ashantee War: howitzer battery for n*gro gunners, 1873. The British Army in West Africa. 'The artillery, to be commanded by Captain Rait, will consist of a battery of six small 4½-inch-bore brass howitzers, throwing 12 lb. shells, and mounted on carriages 2 ft. 6in. wide between the axles, which are to be drawn by the native soldiers, and will pass more easily through the dense forest than larger guns or mortars could do. The native troops enlisted will be armed with muzzle-loading Enfield rifles...The Adda, screw steam-ship, of Grimsby...[is] loading at Woolwich, and has taken on board the battery of brass howitzers, with some wooden huts for the troops, who will require better shelter than tents can afford under the tropical rains of the Gold Coast'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.