The Anglo-Ashanti wars began with a debacle for the British. On 8 January 1824, word reached Cape Coast that the Ashanti were advancing. Sir Charles M’Carthy, newly appointed governor, divided up the forces at his disposal and hurried a few hundred men up country.
They waded through waist-deep mud and slept exposed to torrential rain. M’Carthy dismissed reports the enemy was near. He was determined to see “how the Ashanti liked our balls”, he said. But at about 2pm on the 21st, they could be heard approaching. There were 10,000 of them.
M’Carthy ordered his band play ‘God Save the King’. The Ashanti responded with drums and horns. M’Carthy ordered it played again. The musical dialogue repeated. A brief silence fell.
By 4pm the British were out of ammunition. The ordnance keeper, a Mr Brandon, arrived in the thick of battle – but ahead of his men. M’Carthy wanted Brandon hanged on the spot. It is said that, of the four cases Brandon brought, three contained macaroni. Unable to a retreat, M’Carthy and two others made a final stand beneath a tree.
One survivor was taken prisoner. He slept among the heads of the three last combatants. M’Carthy, he said, “presented nearly the same appearance as when he was alive”.
This piece first appeared in the January 2023 issue of History Today.
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Mathew Lyons 
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