The speech was received in silence by the assembly, but the chiefs that were present began war preparations upon their return to their homes.

In his book The Golden Stool: Some Aspects of the Conflict of Cultures in Modern Africa the anthropologist Reverend Edwin W. Smith wrote of this: "A singularly foolish speech!

Gaurav Desai quotes this passage and goes on to clarify that the Stool was not seen as a mere physical object and symbol of power but as a metaphysical and spiritual representation of the soul of the Ashanti people as a whole – this misunderstanding being the catalyst for the conflict, coming at a time of already strained relations.

As Hodgson's deputy Captain Cecil Armitage searched for the stool in a nearby brush, his force was surrounded and ambushed, but a sudden rainstorm allowed the survivors to retreat to the British offices in Kumasi.

The offices were then fortified into a small stockade 50 yards (46 m) square with 12 feet (3.7 m) loopholed high stone walls and firing turrets at each corner[9] that housed 18 Europeans, dozens of mixed-race colonial administrators and 500 Nigerian Hausas with six small field guns and four Maxim guns.

The Ashanti continued to snipe at the defenders, cut the telegraph wires, blockade food supplies, and attack relief columns.

Recognising that it was necessary to escape from the trap and to preserve the remaining food for the wounded and sick, some of the healthier men along with Hodgson, his wife and over a hundred of the Hausas made a break on 23 June, meeting up with the rescue force they were evacuated.

[citation needed] On 7 July 1900 The Star newspaper in Guernsey featured an article about Yaa Asenatewaa and her growing support amongst the Ashanti: "The Colonial Office has received disquieting news that the Queen Ashantuah [sic] ruler of Ofesa, has taken Supreme Command of the insurgent forces.

She has under her Command General Asmarah, the Cacique of Esili, and an army of 20,000 warriors, including a battalion of Amazons and 1000 hand picked Soldiers who form a kind of Sacred Band (Estafette (journal) [fr] Paris)".

On the march Willcocks's men had been repulsed from several well-defended forts belonging to groups allied with the Ashanti – most notably the stockade at Kokofu, where they had suffered heavy casualties.

[citation needed] On 17 July the majority of the force (excluding a garrison of 160 men under the supervision of five British officers and NCOs under the command of Captain Eden) set off on the return journey to Bekwai carrying their sick and wounded.

On 22 July Morland attacked Kokofu with a force of 800 men, taking the Ashanti by surprise and resulting in a rout with weapons and supplies being abandoned.

[16] In September, after spending the summer recuperating and tending to the sick and wounded in captured Kumasi,[clarification needed] Willcocks sent out flying columns to the neighbouring regions that had supported the uprising.

[citation needed] Following the storming of the town, Captain Charles John Melliss was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in the attack.

The war cost the British and their allies approximately 1,000 fatalities in total; however, according to a statement made by MP David Lloyd George in Parliament in 1901, "the Colonial Office should have had some justification for the foolish policy of the [British] Government in regard to the Golden Stool, that had led to the hundreds and thousands of the corpses of savages festering round the fort of Coomassie"!

David Lloyd George further admonished Joseph Chamberlain for his dismissive attitude towards the Ashanti casualties in the war, noting that the Golden Stool was never captured by the British: "Surely human life was worth some respectful treatment", he said.

[20] Shortly after this, it was accidentally uncovered by a team of labourers who took the golden ornaments that adorned the stool and left the rest, which was of wood.

An Ashanti court sentenced the labourers to death for their desecration, but British officials intervened and arranged for their exile instead.

They were sorely disappointed when the news flashed through that Nana Prempeh was not to be seen by anyone, and that he was to land at 5:30 pm and proceed straight away to Kumasi by a special train.