This shows the soldiers from the 42nd Highlanders engaged in the front of the battle against the Ashantis during the 2nd Ashanti War towards the end of 1873. In 1873, after decades of an uneasy relationship between the British and the Acing people of central Ghana, the British attacked and virtually destroyed the Asanti capital of Kumasi, and officially declared Ghana a crown colony on 24 July 1874. This sketch comes from a supplement entitled From Cape Coast to Coomassie, a narrative of The Ashanti War, by the Illustrated London News.