In 1867 and 1868, the British Empire sent an expeditionary force to Ethiopia to oust the then Emperor Theodore from the throne and free the hostages he had taken in previous years. The campaign was preceded by meticulous planning and some of the participants were awarded the Abyssinian campaign medal.
The “Abyssinian campaign medal” is one of the campaign medals awarded in the Victorian era. The medal was established on March 1, 1869. It was awarded to participants in the Ethiopian campaign of 1867 and 1868 and was awarded around 14,000 times. The “Abyssinian campaign medal” is made of silver and measures around 32 millimetres in diameter. The wearer’s name and unit (or ship) are embossed in relief on the reverse, so you can imagine the amount of work involved. Queen Victoria can be seen in profile on the obverse, her portrait surrounded by a nine-pointed star, with a letter of the term “Abyssinia” embossed between each of the points. The medal is held by a ring, which is attached to a crown surmounting the medal. The medal comes with a 38 millimetre wide ribbon in crimson with white edges. The accompanying campaign was a curiosity in itself: 2,538 riding horses, 19,580 pack horses and mules, 6,045 camels, 7,086 draught oxen, 1,850 donkeys and finally 44 elephants. This multitude of four-legged creatures was by no means part of an ancient army possibly commanded by Hannibal, Scipio or Caesar, no, this was the “transport division” of a relatively modern army of the British Empire. This force was commanded by Sir Robert Cornelius Napier. The campaign he led against the Ethiopian Emperor (“Negus Negesti”) Theodoros II in 1867/68 was a prime example of military planning. The attack was prepared with such meticulousness that the minting of half a million Maria Theresa thalers was even agreed with the Austro-Hungarian government, as only these coins were accepted as currency throughout Ethiopia.
Theodoros (actually Tewodros) had ruled there since he subjugated the province of Tigray in 1855. He had also been able to subjugate the Oromo people (then called Galla) and made their strong mountain fortress Magdala one of his main bases. Theodoros yearned for greater things; he planned a crusade to liberate Jerusalem from the Turks. However, he overestimated himself a little and his tendency towards irrationality became even stronger when his wife died. In 1860, rebels assassinated the British consul Walter Plowden, whose advice Theodoros had always listened to. Theodoros did not like Plowden’s successor, Charles Cameron. He wrote a very friendly letter to the distant British Queen Victoria, but did not receive a reply; the letter disappeared under piles of paper in the British Foreign Office. Theodoros now began to suspect Cameron. In 1864, the increasingly paranoid ruler first threw Cameron into prison, then various European missionaries. Former friends of the emperor were also among them, such as the German explorer Eduard Zander. Years ago, he had built the Church of St. Mary in Daesge, where Theodoros II had been crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in 1855. Now, in a much worse working climate, he had to cast guns for Theodoros. https://militaeraktuell.at/leonardo-liefert-den-fuenften-aw169-an-das-bundesheer/ In the meantime, the Ethiopian ruler had a whole host of European hostages, half of whom were citizens of various German states. The British Empire felt it had a duty to secure their release and sent an emissary – who was then captured. When all diplomatic efforts proved fruitless, London decided to send an expeditionary force to free the hostages and punish the tyrant.
The nearest major concentration of the Empire’s forces was the Bombay Military District, whose commander, General Napier, assembled an expeditionary force of 14,214 soldiers and 26,254 men from the Indian and British units of the Bombay Army, borrowed units from Bengal and Madras and a Naval Brigade (of 80 men) belonging to the Royal Navy – plus the draught and pack animals mentioned at the beginning. Material for the construction of a field railroad was taken along, as well as equipment for the construction of a telegraph line. They also brought distillation plants for desalinating seawater and several thousand bottles of port wine. The fine spirit was mixed with quinine and was ideal for preventing malaria. In contrast to Theodoros, the 57-year-old Napier was not only temporarily sane and brought renowned African explorers onto his staff. Men, animals and material were transported on 280 ships to a coastal strip near Massawa – then under Egyptian control – because Ethiopia was a landlocked country. General Napier began his advance against Magdala in the spring of 1868. His scouts had learned that Theodoros wanted to entrench himself there. The Maria Theresa thalers in the marching baggage were very conducive to the willingness of the local population to provide information, and Theodoros also had many enemies in many regions. These included the British adventurer and explorer Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy, who had previously been a close confidant of Theodoros. He had fled the country a few years earlier and then joined Napier’s staff as a highly esteemed expert. Speedy was familiar with both the topography of Ethiopia and the ruler’s psyche. Gerhard Rohlfs, who was part of a Prussian mission with Napier’s expeditionary force alongside a number of officers, also had considerable experience of Africa at this time. So while Napier’s Anglo-Indian column slowly made its way through extremely rough terrain towards Magdala, the situation on the enemy side was no different. Instead of moving swiftly towards Magdala, Theodoros was dragging a large body of troops with him. This included a number of hostages, parts of his court and his artillery. He had to have a road specially built to move them. However, as much as they slowed down his march, he did not want to do without the guns, especially not the bronze mortar “Sebastopol”, a gun that had been cast in Ethiopia itself. When they finally arrived at the foot of Table Mountain, whose plateau was the fortress of Magdala, they realized that they could not get the giant thing up into the fortress.
Nevertheless, Theodorus had won the race to Magdala. On the advice of an Ethiopian prince who was hostile to Theodoros, the advance party of Napier’s army had chosen a route that was practicable for the shock troops but not for the main army. After all, they had two batteries of mountain guns, four Armstrong twelve-pounders and two mortars with them. So a few days were lost. On Good Friday, April 10, 1868, there was a battle at Arogee. The Ethiopian ruler had ordered his commander Fitawrari Gabriye to attack a British column of around 3,700 men. This was a fatal mistake, as most of Napier’s troops were equipped with the Snider-Enfield breechloader in .577 Snider caliber. But not all of them. The 23rd Pioneers (Sikhs from the Punjab) still had their old smoothbore muskets, whose fire the Ethiopians tried to undermine with an assault.
The army reorganized by Theodoros relied on close combat with spears, although 3,000 of the 5,000 attacking Ethiopians were equipped with firearms of all kinds. 500 Ethiopian warriors were horsemen. The British and their Indian brothers in arms quickly formed the famous “Thin Red Line” and the units equipped with Snider rifles fired devastatingly at the onrushing Ethiopians. The soldiers of the4th (King’s Own) Regiment of Foot alone fired 10,200 rounds. The Naval Brigade also successfully deployed its Hale rockets. The infernal howling of the 24-pound rockets caused the Ethiopians’ horses to shy away. There was also fierce fighting in the nearby gorge of Dam-Wanz. The result was fairly one-sided: 700 dead – including Fitawrari Gabriye – and 1,200 wounded Ethiopians contrasted with British-Indian losses of two dead and 18 wounded. Now Theodoros wanted to negotiate, but his mood changed more and more quickly. One minute he wanted to free 200 captured Galla, the next he had them pierced with spears. He had other prisoners thrown down a precipice. During a war council with his nobles, he wanted to shoot himself, but the pistol did not go off. https://militaeraktuell.at/saab-erhaelt-auftrag-fuer-gripen-c-d/ Napier accepted the offer to negotiate and Theodoros released the hostages. However, he rejected the demand to surrender. The ruler let everyone go who did not want to fight at his side. A brief truce expired and Napier had Magdala stormed on April 13, 1868 after a short but fierce bombardment. With the 33rd Regiment of Foot and the “Madras Sappers” in the front line – and with field chaplain Father Goffinet, who wanted to prevent any damage being done to the Coptic Church in the fortress. The biggest obstacle was the boulders piled up behind the Kafi Bur gate by the defenders. But after only a few minutes, the Snider-Enfields had proved their usefulness again and the battle was decided. The Indo-British assault force suffered only light casualties of 15 wounded. When Theodoros saw what was happening to him, he put the barrel of a pistol to his mouth and pulled the trigger – this time the gun went off.
Two soldiers of the 33rd Regiment of Foot (The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment), Private James Bergin and Drummer Michael Magner (both Irish), who were the first to overcome the obstacles behind the Kafi Bur Gate and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the gate’s defenders, were the only campaigners to receive the Victoria Cross. The artillery of Theodoros, 37 guns, was blown up, but not completely. The giant mortar “Sebastopol”, which lay at the foot of the mountain fortress, was simply left lying there. It is still there today. The retreat of Napier’s troops – they had never intended to occupy Ethiopia permanently – was not entirely free of incidents. Ethiopian bandits attempted to enrich themselves by raiding the supplies of the expeditionary force. Thanks to the Snider rifles, they were effectively thwarted. The Anglo-Indian expeditionary force took a number of souvenirs from Magdala, including the crown of Theodore, which was ceremoniously returned to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie by King George V in 1925.
The costs of the Ethiopian campaign were immense when you consider the financial side. On the British side, however, thanks to precise preparation and impeccable discipline, there were relatively few casualties: 48 in total. 20 of these fell victim to tropical diarrhea, one man drowned and one committed suicide. Most of the equipment was taken back with them when they withdrew, but a number of weapons and ammunition were also handed over to the Prince of Tigray, who had supported the British. He himself became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1872 as Yohannes IV. General Napier was elevated to1st Baron Napier of Magdala and was later also commander-in-chief of the Indian Army for a time. He was promoted to field marshal in 1883 and died in London in 1890. Eduard Zander also left Ethiopia with the expeditionary force and died at the end of 1868. One of his great-great-grandsons was the British actor Sir Peter Ustinov. His portrayal of another mentally ill tyrant earned him an Oscar nomination.
