[1] In 1866, Lieutenant Colonel George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy, commanding officer of the 3rd West India Regiment and Governor of The Gambia, marched to confront a rebellious Marabout leader named Amar Faal at Tubabecolong [de] (also known as Tubab Kolon), a stockaded town on the northern bank of the River Gambia; taking with him 270 officers and men of the 4th West India Regiment from the Bathurst garrison, Hodge being one; around 500 warriors from the Soninke people later joined his force.

British troops poured in through the now open gates; and in the fierce fighting that followed, several hundred of the Marabouts were killed, and the village and stockade burned down.

However, he never fully recovered from the terrible injuries he had sustained during the attack, and died of fever less than a year later during service in British Honduras (now Belize),[2] and was buried at the military cemetery there.

Colonel D'Arcy having effected an entrance, Private Hodge followed him through the town, opening with his axe two gates from the inside, which were barricaded, so allowing the supports to enter, who carried the place from east to west at the point of the bayonet.

On issuing to the glacis through the west gate, Private Hodge was presented by Colonel D'Arcy to his comrades, as the bravest soldier in their regiment, a fact which they acknowledged with loud acclamations.