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The Expedition to Magdala of 1867-1868 was a memorable event in British Military history of warfare in general, and in the history of Ethiopia. Meticulously planned and executed, the campaign was a triumph for its commander, Sir Robert Napier. It was notable for the use of Elephants imported from India, the building of a port railway and the use of breech-loading rifles, the first time they employed in War.
This account of the 1867/68 campaign is by an officer of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, one of the regiments involved, and in the introduction he states clearly that his aim has everywhere been impartiality; his object truth. He begins with a brief but informative historical background to the country of Abyssinia, going back to the earliest days and leading up to the reasons for the despatch of an expedition against the Christian Emperor Theodore III. Briefly, the British Consul, Captain Cameron, was sent home by Theodore with a letter to Queen Victoria which reached the Foreign Office in February 1863 but, due to Foreign Office cack-handedness never reached the Queen. The lack of any response and a visit by Cameron (after he had returned from England in January1864) to the Egyptian frontier town of Kassala infuriated the Abyssinian monarch who had Cameron and his staff thrown into prison. The British made a belated effort to retrieve the situation through an emissary, Mr Rassam, who arrived in January 1866 but he
This account of the 1867/68 campaign is by an officer of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, one of the regiments involved, and in the introduction he states clearly that his aim has everywhere been impartiality; his object truth. He begins with a brief but informative historical background to the country of Abyssinia, going back to the earliest days and leading up to the reasons for the despatch of an expedition against the Christian Emperor Theodore III. Briefly, the British Consul, Captain Cameron, was sent home by Theodore with a letter to Queen Victoria which reached the Foreign Office in February 1863 but, due to Foreign Office cack-handedness never reached the Queen. The lack of any response and ...
The British 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia was a punitive expedition carried out by armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, also known as "Theodore," imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to get the attention of the British government, which had been ignoring his requests for military assistance. The punitive expedition launched by the British in response required the transportation of a sizable military force hundreds of miles across mountainous terrain lacking any road system. Harold G. Marcus described the action as "one of the most expensive affairs of honour in history."