by Ian Hernon

This contains short stories about nine different campaigns or actions. Necessarily, it does not give complete details of all of the activities. However, for wargamers, five of the chapters can provide you with the information you need to develop either skirmishes or campaigns.

Included within the chapters that are useful are: identifications of the numbers involved on both sides, descriptions of the weapons and equipments used, the numbers of casualties, uniform, buildings and terrain information. The latter three topics are covered by the twenty-nine line drawings within the book that I think will be useful to wargamers. There are an additional thirty- nine drawings or photographs, mainly of the personalities involved. In addition there are five campaign maps.

This book will provide you enough information for you to decide whether or not you would like to try the period. The many well-selected illustrations will give you an idea of what the opposition wore, what their defensive positions looked like, and what the terrain looked like. The bibliography, separate for each chapter, will provide the wargamer with sources for further reading.

The five chapters mentioned above and the countries they took place in are: (1) The First Kandy War, 1803-5 [Sri Lanka], (3) The Flagstaff War, 1845-6 [New Zealand], (6) The Magdala Campaign, 1867-8 [Abyssinia], (8) The Riel Rebellion, 1885 [Canada] and (9) The Ashanti War of the Golden Stool, 1900 [Gold Coast of Africa]. It is a wide range of locations and time periods.

The maps included are: Sri Lanka and the Kingdom of Kandy; The Flagstaff War, North Island, New Zealand; Abyssinian Expedition; Modoc Indian Wars; and Riel Rebellion. The photographs and drawings about the five chapters that I though would be helpful to wargamers are as follows: The battle of Arogee, Abyssinia, in 1868; Abyssinian warrior, 1867; Sri Wickrama Singha, King of the Kandyans; The Kings Palace at Kandy, 1830; A typical hill fort in Sri Lanka; Maoris from the Bay of Islands, 1845; A Maori equipped for fighting; Hone Heke Pokai, the Maori chief and his wife; Kororareka Beach, Bay of Islands, 1845; The battle of Puketutu Pa’; The line of match of Napier’s army; Loading artillery on elephants; Adi Woka, a mountain village on the route top Magdala; Train of mountain gun s crossing hilly terrain; 33rd Foot advances on Magdala from below Islamgee; The storming of Magdala, as seen from the heights of Salamji; Theodorus lying dead; The burning of Magdala; Front page, Illustarted London News, 27 June 1885; Ambush at Duck Lake; The battle of Duck Lake; Capt. French taking Indian prisoners; Metis prisoners, Aug. 1885; Indian prisoners; Gabriel Dumont; Gen. Wolseley receiving news from Kumasi; Sir Frederick Hodgson directing the defenses in the Kumasi fort; Ashanti fire from stockades in the bush; and the relief force ambushed at Bali.

The chapters that I thought were not suitable for use by wargamers are (2) Falklands, 1833, (4) The Jamaica rebellion, 1865 [Jamaica], (5) The Arracan Expedition, Andaman Islands, 1867, [Indian Ocean] and (7) The Modoc Indian War, 1872-3 [United States]. The only reason that I can think of that these are included is that they are massacres or the retribution that follow massacres. The chapters are primarily descriptions of the political background of the key participants and the killings that took place in each location. Two of these are rather short, 5 pages for chapter 2 and 7 pages for chapter 5.

My suspicion is that chapter 4, while long at 22 pages, is included because of the sheer brutality and murder on the island in a last ditch effort to maintain the ruling planter class. The author states that, “Indignation at the ferocity of the suppression, and in particular the judicial murder of Gordon, led to a heated political debate in England. The statesman John Bright said that the nation ‘has never received a deeper wound or darker stain’ on its reputation. John Stuart Mill wrote, “The question was whether the British dependencies, and eventually, perhaps, Great Britain itself, were to be under the government of law or of military license.”

I suspect that the chapter on the Arracan expedition was included because the story is about the extraordinary heroism of a surgeon and four privates of the 24th Foot, in rescuing British soldiers from the island. All five were awarded the Victoria Cross. They were the first of ‘Old Green Howards’ to receive the Victoria Cross and the last to win it away from battle.

I don’t know why the Modoc War is included. It is rather long at 25 pages. The Modoc War, chapter 7, was simply the application of massive army retaliation following the murder of General Edward Canby during peace negotiations. He was the only regular U. S. Army General killed during the many Indian wars, Custer was only a brevet General. I believe that the book would have been better served had the author selected the Nez Pierce campaign.

The appendix contains biographical information on Hector ‘Fighting Mac’ MacDonald, 1853-1903 and Valentine Baker, 1827-89. Both men seemingly falsely accused and their careers broken, MacDonald of homosexuality and Baker of assaulting a woman in a railway carriage.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, even those chapters which don’t lend themselves to wargames either because they are one sided or have insufficient information. Reading it will certainly give you a feel for obscure campaigns during the colonial period and the difficulties faced by the men during the small wars that took place in times of relative peace. After the chapter on the Flagstaff War, I am contemplating buying some British and Maori lead. My only concern would be in how to paint the tattoos.

The book is 208 pages long, and has 199 pages of text and illustrations, a three page appendix, a three page bibliography and a three page index. The book was published by Sutton Publishing Limited, Great Britain, in 1998. Its ISBN number is 0-7509-1846-2. I don’t know what the cost is. I obtained a copy to read via interlibrary loan from the Fordham University Library.