The History of the First West India Regiment Part 16

In February, 1852, Major L. Smyth O'Connor, 1st West India Regiment, had arrived at Sierra Leone and a.s.sumed command of the troops in West Africa, and finding in May that the company on the Gold Coast was reduced by deaths to only 50 rank and file, he recommended that it should be recalled to Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast Corps, then almost completed, being quite sufficient for the garrison of the Gold Coast.

In September, 1852, Major O'Connor was appointed Governor of the Gambia, and as by Horse Guards letter of September 20th, 1852, "it was considered expedient that he should continue invested with the command of the troops on the West Coast of Africa, and move the head-quarters to the Gambia," this was done in October, 1852.

The War Office having approved of Major O'Connor's recommendation, No. 2 Company, 50 strong, arrived at Sierra Leone from Cape Coast Castle on March 20th, 1853.

CHAPTER XX.

THE STORMING OF SABBAJEE, 1853--THE RELIEF OF CHRISTIANSBORG, 1854.

On March 23rd, 1853, No. 3 and No. 6 Companies, under Captain A.W.

Murray and Lieutenant Upton, embarked at Port Royal, Jamaica, in the troops.h.i.+p _Resistance_, for the relief of the West African garrisons. On May 17th, the _Resistance_ arrived at the Gambia with four out of the six companies forming the relief for the detachments of the three West India regiments, and reinforcements being urgently required for the suppression of a hostile movement amongst the Mohammedans at Sabbajee, they were landed.

On the 25th of May, Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor prepared to take the field with a force of 603 men, consisting of 463 of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments, 35 pensioners, and 105 of the Gambia Militia.

A field battery, consisting of 2 six-pounder field-guns and 2 howitzers, was also organised. On the 30th May, the brigade marched from Bathurst to Josswung, a distance of eight miles, where a camp was formed; and on June 1st, the force advanced to the attack of Sabbajee.[56]

Sabbajee was one of the oldest Marabout towns in Combo, and boasted the possession of the largest mosque in that portion of Africa. The town, more than a mile in circ.u.mference, was surrounded by a strong stockade, double ditches, and outward abattis; and the inhabitants, who could muster 3000 fighting men, were, from their predatory and warlike habits, the dread of the surrounding country.

On approaching the town, a strong body of the enemy was observed stationed round the mosque, while the stockade was lined with men. A portion of the stockade presented the appearance of having been removed, but had in reality only been laid lengthwise, so as to form a very formidable obstacle; while a deep trench dug in rear was crowded with men, who, in perfect security, could fire upon the advancing British, should they fall into the trap which had been laid for them, and attempt to carry the town at this point.

The force was drawn up in three divisions: the 1st West India Regiment, under Captain A.W. Murray, forming the centre division; the 2nd West India Regiment, under Captain Anderson, the right; and the 3rd West India Regiment, under Captain Brabazon, the left. At about four hundred yards from the stockade the field battery opened fire, and with such precision that after a few rounds the roof of the mosque and those of the adjacent houses were in flames. Observing the disorder caused amongst the enemy by the burning of their sacred building, Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor determined to seize the opportunity, and storm.

The right and left divisions extended in skirmis.h.i.+ng order, the centre remaining in column, and the whole advanced to the a.s.sault. The enemy kept up a heavy fire from the loop-holes of their stockade, over which the green flag was flying; but at the same moment the three divisions, which had in advancing formed a crescent, rushed at the stockade at three different points, and, clambering over, got at the enemy with the bayonet. This was more than they could stand, and abandoning their stockade, they fled down the streets and escaped through sally-ports in the rear of the town.

A strong body of fanatics, however, still held the mosque, the fire in the roof of which they had succeeded in extinguis.h.i.+ng, and, amid the beating of war-drums and cries of "Allah" from the priests, kept up a smart fire upon the troops as they entered the large central square in which the mosque stood. To have stormed the building would have involved great sacrifice of life; the men, therefore, were directed to occupy the houses enclosing the square, and open fire, until the rockets could be brought into play.

The second rocket fired whizzed through the roof of the mosque, the defenders of which, however, only increased their drumming and shouts of defiance, for they were secure in their belief of the local tradition, which said that the mosque was impregnable and indestructible. In a very few minutes flames began to appear on the roof, and, though the enemy worked hard to extinguish it, it rapidly increased, until the mosque was untenable. Dozens of the fanatics blew out their brains rather than surrender, while others threw themselves out of the windows and pa.s.sages, and rushed sword in hand, in a state of frenzy, upon the British. The coolness and steadiness of the troops was, however, more than a match for the mad rage of the Mandingoes, who were shot down one after another, until the whole of the defenders of the mosque were killed or made prisoners. The remainder of the enemy, who fled at the storming of the stockade, had taken refuge in the neighbouring woods, and, the object of the engagement being accomplished by the capture of the town, they were not pursued.

The stockade and mosque being destroyed, the force left Sabbajee on June 4th, and returned to Josswung, where, by an arrangement with the King of Combo, a portion of that kingdom, including the town of Sabbajee, was ceded to the British.

The mosque was a singularly strong building, and for a day and a half resisted every effort to pull it down, being eventually reduced to ruins by blasting the walls with bags of gunpowder. It consisted of a large central hall, with walls made of baked clay, three feet in thickness, and an external corridor running round the whole circ.u.mference of the inner apartment. The roof, conical in shape, was supported by six masonry pillars.

As the Gambia was still in an unsettled state, Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor deemed it prudent to increase its garrison at the expense of that of Sierra Leone. No. 6 Company of the 1st West India Regiment was therefore detained at Bathurst, and on June 8th, No. 3 Company, under Captain Murray, proceeded in the _Resistance_ to Sierra Leone. On arriving at that station, on June 17th, Captain Murray a.s.sumed the command of the troops.

No. 2 Company embarked at Sierra Leone for Jamaica on June 22nd, arriving at Kingston on August 5th. On October 18th the _Resistance_ returned from the West Indies with the remaining companies destined for the quinquennial relief, and No. 5 Company, embarking in her on October 22nd, reached Jamaica on November 25th. The West African garrisons were now as follows: At the Gambia, one company of the 1st West India Regiment, two of the 2nd, and one of the 3rd; at Sierra Leone, one of the 1st West India Regiment, and one of the 3rd.

In the West Indies the following changes had taken place: Nos. 7 and 8 Companies had been moved in August from Na.s.sau to Barbados and Dominica respectively, and, in July, the light company had proceeded from Na.s.sau to Jamaica. In December, 1853, the distribution of the regiment was then as follows: 4 companies at Jamaica, 2 at Barbados, 1 at Dominica, 1 at St. Christopher's, 1 at Sierra Leone, and 1 at the Gambia.[57]

In September, 1854, the inhabitants of Christiansborg, a Danish settlement on the Gold Coast four miles from Accra, which had been recently purchased by the British, rose in rebellion against the Colonial authorities. The only armed force then on the Gold Coast consisted of the Gold Coast Artillery, recruited from amongst the Fanti tribes, and this body the rebels blockaded in the Castle of Christiansborg.

On the outbreak of the rebellion, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gold Coast at once sent to Sierra Leone for a.s.sistance; and, on the 12th of October, the following detachments embarked at Sierra Leone in H.M.S.

_Britomart_ and _Ferret_: Lieutenant Strachan and 33 men of the 1st West India Regiment, Captain Rookes and 46 men of the 2nd West India Regiment, Lieutenant Haneahan and 31 men of the 3rd West India Regiment.

From the Gambia were also despatched in the Colonial steamer _Dover_, on the 24th of October: Ensign Anderson and 25 men of the 1st, Captain Mockler and 70 men of the 2nd, and Lieutenant Hill and 23 men of the 3rd West India Regiment.

The troops from Sierra Leone and the Gambia arrived at Christiansborg on the 27th of October and the 7th of November respectively. Several small skirmishes had taken place between the Gold Coast artillery and the rebels without either side gaining any material advantage; but, on the arrival of the reinforcement from Sierra Leone, the siege was raised, and the natives retired inland to some villages on the plain behind Christiansborg. There, like all undisciplined bodies, they gradually melted away; the chiefs, finding their followers abandoning them, were compelled to ask for terms; and directly negotiations were opened, the detachments of the three West India regiments re-embarked to return to Sierra Leone, sailing from Christiansborg on the 12th of November.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 56: See map.]

[Footnote 57: This year, 1853, appears to have been particularly unhealthy in the West Indies, to judge from the following inscription, taken from an intramural monument in Kingston Cathedral Church:

TO THE MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Capt. Robt. Mostyn, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever, at Na.s.sau, Bahamas, 23rd July, 1853, aet. 27.

Ensign John Alex. Gordon Pringle, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever at Kingston, Jamaica, 31st July, 1853, aet. 21.

a.s.sist.-Surg. Walter William Harris, 1st W.I.R., attached to 3rd W.I.R., died at Up Park Camp, of yellow fever, 4th Aug., 1853, aet. 24.

Lieut. John Maryon Wilson, 3rd W.I.R., died at Up Park Camp, of yellow fever, 13th Aug., 1853, aet. 22.

Eliza Chancellor Wilson, wife of the above, died at Up Park Camp, of yellow fever, 5th Sept., 1853, aet. 22.

Cath. Elizabeth, wife of Lieut. Wm. Hen. Wilson Hawtayne, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever at Na.s.sau, Bahamas, 9th Aug., 1853, aet. 23.

a.s.st.-Surg. Gideon Jas. Wm. Griffith, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever at Lucia, 26th Aug., 1853, aet. 23.

Also, Selina Maria, wife of Capt. C.S.H. Hingston, 3rd W.I.R., died at Up Park Camp, 11th April, 1854, aet. 23.

Erected by the officers of the 1st and 3rd W.I. Regts.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TWO EXPEDITIONS TO MALAGEAH, 1854 AND 1855.

The troops that had been despatched from Sierra Leone and the Gambia for the relief of Christiansborg, returned to Sierra Leone, in H.M.S.

_Prometheus_, on the 25th of November, 1854, and in consequence of the hostile att.i.tude a.s.sumed by the chiefs of the Mellicourie and Scarcies Rivers, and the outrages committed by natives on mercantile factories in those rivers, the Governor of Sierra Leone decided to detain the contingent which had been sent from the Gambia, in order to have a sufficient force to overawe the chief of Malageah, the princ.i.p.al offender, and compel him to sign a treaty of trade. With this view, accordingly, detachments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments, numbering in all 401 officers and men, under the command of Captain Rookes, 2nd West India Regiment, embarked in H.M.S. _Prometheus_ and _Dover_, on the 2nd of December, and sailed for the Mellicourie River, on which the town of Malageah is situated. The officers of the 1st West India Regiment who accompanied the expedition were Captain R.D.

Fletcher, Lieutenant Connell, Lieutenant Strachan, and Ensign Anderson.

On December 4th, the expedition arrived off Malageah, and the river-banks having been reconnoitred, Captain Heseltine, of H.M.S.

_Britomart_, who had been appointed diplomatic agent with powers to negotiate, directed a landing to be made. The troops disembarked, and meeting with no opposition, advanced on the town, seizing and occupying the mosque and the king's house, while a second body took possession of all the approaches to the town. By these means, a party of some 200 chiefs and Marabouts, who filled the mosque, were surrounded.

In the meantime, the 1st Division, under Captain R. D'Oyley Fletcher, 1st West India Regiment, had proceeded to a creek to the eastward of the town, which they ascended in the boats of the _Britomart_, and then crossing by bye-paths through the swamp and bush to the back of the town, where they dispersed a body of 150 natives armed with rifles and muskets, they joined the main body before the mosque.

Negotiations were opened by the diplomatic agent, and continued for about half-an-hour; when, as it was noticed that the Marabouts were gradually leaving the mosque and all going in one direction, a reconnoitring party of ten men, under Lieutenant F.J. Connell, 1st West India Regiment, was sent to the northern side of the town. Lieutenant Connell, on reaching the town gate, found from 1800 to 2000 natives armed with fire-arms, spears, bows and arrows, formed in a semicircle, from eight to ten deep, facing the small picket that had been there posted. The whole of the main body, with the seamen and marines, was at once ordered up, and took up a position on the plateau to the north of the town, facing the natives, while a detached party occupied the walls and gates. At first there was a disposition on the part of the natives to resist this movement, but it was so rapidly executed that they were taken by surprise, and, losing cohesion, they soon after gradually dispersed.

The king, Bamba Mima Lahi, now signified his desire to come to terms, promised to comply with all demands, and to pay one thousand dollars as a fine for his offences. The force accordingly re-embarked, the object of the expedition having been effected without bloodshed, and returned to Sierra Leone on December 6th. The following letter may be of interest:

"H.M.S. BRITOMART, "_Sierra Leone, December 6th, 1854._