HISTORY
February In
History: Battle Of
Nsamankow: A
History Of Military
Misjudgment,
Incompetence And
Cowardice!!!
T
"It appears evident that though they
have been blustering and threatening
our forts without any just cause since
last August, they were not prepared
for war but depended solely upon the
terror of their name to bring us to seek
a compromise" Sir Charles McCarthy;
- letter to Earl Bathurst April 1823
camped by a tributary of the River Pra
with only 60ft water separating the two
armies, McCarthy instructed his army to
play "God Save The King" loudly.
he Ashanti’s responded
by beating their war
drums even more
fiercely without let up
and drawing ever closer.
The Ashanti’s were busy
felling trees to make a
crossing over the river.
The front was tense and the armies were ready
to clash eye to eye, boot to boot. This was 200
61 | Colossium . March 2020
years ago on February 21st, 1824.
The aforementioned reasons in the letter
were some of the excuses given for the Battle
of Nsamankow, the first of the many Anglo
– Ashanti wars. The Ashanti had become a
powerful nation to reckon with covering almost
all of Ghana and extending into Cote D’Ivoire.
They wanted access to the coast and control
trade and this was a source of major