four o'clock
The march was maintained under a heavy skirmishing fire but , to the general surprise , the fetish town of which Colonel Willcocks had spoken was found deserted . Night was approaching , so that the plan proposed overnight could not be carried out . The troops , therefore , went forward hampered by the whole of the carriers and baggage of the column . At four o'clock action began , at the point where the Cape Coast and Pekki roads converged towards Coomassie . The Ashantis had taken up a position on slightly rising ground -- a position which was favourable to the assailants , as it tended to increase the enemy 's inclination to fire high . Each of the roads was barred with massive entrenchments , which stretched across them into the bush , and flanked with breastworks of timber . These obstacles had been originally intended to envelop the garrison .