him a staff position. With a young family to support but not hopeful of getting a staff position, Wood also studied law, enrolling at the Middle Temple on 30 April 1870. On 22 June 1870 Wood was given an unattached majority. In the summer of 1871 he paid £2,000 () to purchase a permanent majority in the 90th Light Infantry, effective 28 October 1871 and one of the last such transactions before the purchase of commissions system was abolished. Nursing his children through diphtheria (he had sent his pregnant wife away), he was prescribed morphine for insomnia and nearly died of an overdose. Wood was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 19 June 1873 on the basis of seniority from the purchase of his majority. Imperial wars Third Ashanti War In May 1873, with the Third Anglo-Ashanti War brewing, he met Wolseley by chance in the War Office and joked that his naval experience might come in handy for West African waterways. On 12 September 1873 he was appointed to Wolseley's staff for special services. He commanded a flank at the Battle of Amoaful (31 January 1874) where he was wounded. and at the Battle of Esaman. He helped recruit a regiment from among the coastal African tribes, although he wrote of the Fantis that "it would be difficult to imagine a more cowardly, useless lot of men". He did, however, discourage British officers from using physical abuse on them. He was wounded just above the heart, confining him to a stretcher for a day. Relying on chlorodyne and laudanum to keep going, he was ordered to lead the sick and wounded back to the coast. It was erroneously reported in the London press that he had been captured and probably flayed alive. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 31 March 1874. Wood presented two African chieftains with a walking stick, a hat and an umbrella. Twenty-two years later, later his eldest son was also in Ashanti. While there, he saw a native carrying a stick which the man would not sell, saying it belonged to his chief. On closer inspection, Wood Junior read an inscription; 'Presented to Chief Andoo by Colonel Evelyn Wood, 1874.' He was promoted in permanent rank from major and brevet lieutenant-colonel to brevet colonel on 1 April 1874. A man of relatively modest means for much of his