The punitive expedition launched by the British in response required the transportation of a sizeable military force hundreds of kilometres across mountainous terrain lacking any road system.

The formidable obstacles to the action were overcome by the commander of the expedition, General Robert Napier, who captured the Ethiopian capital, and rescued all the hostages.

"[3] By October 1862 Emperor Tewodros's position as ruler had become precarious: much of Ethiopia was in revolt against him, except for a small area stretching from Lake Tana east to his fortress at Magdala.

Stern had also mentioned the Emperor's humble origins in a book he had published; although the reference was not intended to be insulting ("the eventful and romantic history of the man, who, from a poor boy, in a reed-built convent became...the conqueror of numerous provinces, and the Sovereign of a great and extensive realm"[8]) it proved to be a dangerous mistake.

[12] Rassam, writing in his memoirs of the incident, is more direct: "I date the change in the King's conduct towards me, and the misfortunes which eventually befell the members of the Mission and the old captives, from this day.

"[13] Meanwhile, Emperor Tewodros's behaviour was becoming increasingly erratic, his actions included acts of friendship towards Rassam, paranoid accusations, and sudden violence upon whoever happened to be around him.

Moorehead describes it: "Thus, for example, forty-four trained elephants were to be sent from India to carry the heavy guns on the march, while hiring commissions were dispatched all over the Mediterranean and the Near East to obtain mules and camels to handle the lighter gear.

A railway, complete with locomotives and some twenty miles (32 km) of track, was to be laid across the coastal plain, and at the landing place large piers, lighthouses and warehouses were to be built.

The advance guard of engineers landed at Zula on the Red Sea, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Massawa, and began to construct a port in mid-October 1867.

[19] At the same time an advance guard, under Sir William Lockyer Merewether, had pushed up the dry bed of the Kumayli River to the Suru Pass, where again the engineers were busy at work building a road to Senafe 63 miles (101 km) long, rising to 7,400 feet (2,300 m)[20] for the elephants, gun-carriages, and carts.

These tubewells, versions of the Norton tube well technology, were so successful at providing groundwater for the British forces that they became known as "Abyssinian wells" and were widely adopted in England and elsewhere for providing reliable water supplies[22] From Senafe, Merewether sent out two letters from Lieutenant-General Napier: one to Emperor Tewodros, demanding the release of the hostages (which Rassam intercepted and destroyed, afraid this ultimatum might enrage Tewodros against the prisoners); the other to the people of Ethiopia, proclaiming that he was there purely to free the captives and that he had hostile intentions only towards those who sought to oppose him.

[25] Harold Marcus observes, "For a total cost of about £9,000,000 Napier set out to defeat a man who could muster only a few thousand troops and had long ago ceased to be Ethiopia's leader in anything but title.

"[26] The British were also aided by their diplomatic and political agreements with the native population, local potentates, and important provincial princes to protect the march from the coast to Magdala and to provide a reliable supply of food and forage.

[7]The three most powerful Ethiopian princes in the north, Dajamach Kassai of Tigray, Wagshum Gobeze of Lasta and Menelik II of Shewa pledged to cooperate and aid the British Army, thus transforming an apparent invasion of Abyssinia into a conquest of a single mountain fortress defended by only a few thousand warriors in the employ of an unpopular ruler.

[7] At the same time the British marched south to Magdala, Tewodros advanced from the west, up the course of the Bashilo River, with the cannons (including his prize creation, the massive Sebastopol) that he had induced the European missionaries and foreign artisans to build for him at Gafat.

[27] Tewodros provided one last demonstration of his lack of diplomatic skills on 17 February, when after accepting the submission of the inhabitants of Delanta, he asked them why they had waited until he appeared with his army.

... Consequently, when the King [Tewodros] further ordered them to be attacked, they all fought bravely, and, in conjunction with the inhabitants of Dawunt, killed a great number of his soldiers and seized their arms and mules."

[28] On 9 April, the lead elements of the British force reached the Bashilo, "and on the following morning, Good Friday, they crossed the stream barefooted, stopping to fill their water-bottles on the way.

A modern commentator states "When Tewodros preferred self-inflicted death to captivity, he deprived the British of this ultimate satisfaction and laid the foundation for his own resurrection as a symbol of the defiant independence of the Ethiopian.

"[32] Lieutenant Stumm, an eyewitness, described the discovery of Tewodros's body: Climbing a narrow rock stairway, we advanced quickly toward a second gate, through which we passed without meeting resistance.

A strange smile was on the remarkably young and attractive-looking face, and I was struck particularly by the finely drawn, boldly aquiline nose.Tewodros's body was cremated and his ashes buried inside a local church by the priests.

The church itself was guarded by soldiers of the 33rd Regiment, who looted it, taking away a variety of gold, silver, and brass crosses,[33] as well as filigree works and rare tabots.

Yet as Gobeze was unresponsive to these overtures, much preferring to acquire Tewodros's cannons, and the two Oromo queens could not reach an arrangement, Napier decided to destroy the fortress.

[7] Following the destruction of Magdala, the British began to retrace their steps back to Zula, "an imposing procession, with the bands playing and the flags leading the way, but the army soon learned that they had earned no gratitude in Ethiopia; they were treated as simply another warlike tribe on the move, and now that they were going away like weak and defeated men they were an obvious target for attack.

At Zula, Napier assigned Captain Charles Goodfellow, on behalf of the British Museum, to carry out an excavation in nearby Adulis, the harbour of the ancient Kingdom of Aksum.

This marked the first archaeological excavation of the ancient city of Adulis, a key African port of antiquity which served as a hub for trade along the Red Sea.

Kirkham's troops played a major role in the defeat of Yohannes's rival for the Ethiopian crown, Wagshum Gobeze, fighting with conspicuous success in the Battle of Assam on 11 July 1871.

Kirkham had sacrificed his status as a British subject by agreeing to serve under Yohannes, something which came back to haunt him when he was imprisoned in Massawa by Egyptian forces during the Egyptian-Ethiopian War.

Tewodros and Empress Tiruwork Wube son Prince Alemayehu, was kidnapped and taken to London where he was presented to Queen Victoria, who took a liking to the young boy.

[49] All the scientific acquisitions and expropriated articles of the Magdala expedition stimulated and promoted an increased interest in the history and culture of Ethiopia among European researchers and the educated public.