Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War

Ian Knight

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781473813311
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: History Reference
• Index: History

The Anglo-Zulu War was a defining episode in British imperial history, and it is still a subject of intense interest. The Zulu victory at Isandlwana, the heroic British defence of Rorke's Drift and the eventual British triumph are among the most closely researched events of the colonial era. In this historical companion, Ian Knight, one of the foremost authorities on the war and the Zulu kingdom, provides an essential reference guide to a short, bloody campaign that had an enduring impact on the history of Britain and southern Africa. He gives succinct summaries of the issues, events, armies and individuals involved. His work is an invaluable resource for anyone who is interested in the history of the period, in the operations of the British army in southern Africa, and in the Zulu kingdom.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Glossary
Chronology
Preface
Introduction: The Anglo-Zulu War
A Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War
	Ammunition Boxes
	Ammunition Supply (British)
	Artillery
	BaSotho
	Beards (British)
	Big Game Hunting
	Boers
	Border Raids
	The ‘Boys’ of iSandlwana
	Brevet Ranks
	Buried Treasure
	Burying the Dead
	Cattle
	Caves
	Cinema
	Climbing Kranskop
	Colours
	Disease
	Disembowelling
	Dixie, Lady Florence
	Dogs
	Eclipse
	Ernest Grandier, Prisoner of War
	False Alarms
	Flogging
	Food (British)
	Food (Zulu)
	Forts
	Gallantry Awards (British)
	Gallantry Awards (Zulu)
	Gatling Gun
	Haggard, H. Rider
	Horses (British)
	Horses (Zulu)
	inkatha yesizwe yakwaZulu
	Irregular Troops (British)
	Irregular Troops (Zulu)
	iSandlwana: ‘Ancient, Stern and Grand’
	iSandlwana: ‘A Portion of Bovine Intestinal Anatomy’
	iSandlwana: ‘Arguments … Prolonged and at Times Rather Hot’
	iSandlwana: ‘Such A Bloody Mess’
	Liars, Fakes and Rogues
	Medical Facilities (British)
	Medical Facilities (Zulu)
	Military Organisation (British)
	Military Organisation (Zulu)
	Missionaries
	Mnyamana Buthelezi, inkosi
	Natal Auxiliary Troops
	Natal Volunteer Troops
	Naval Brigades
	‘No Quarter’: Total War in Zululand?
	Paintings
	Pay
	Photographers
	abaQulusi
	Regime Change, 1879
	Religious Belief and Ritual (British)
	Religious Belief and Ritual (Zulu)
	Rockets
	Rorke, James
	Royal Homesteads (Zulu)
	Shields (Zulu)
	Signalling
	Small Arms (British)
	Small Arms (Zulu)
	Snakes
	Spears
	Stimulants (British)
	Stimulants (Zulu)
	Suicide
	Swazi
	Tactics (British)
	Tactics (Zulu)
	Travellers and Tourists
	Travelling Shows
	Trophies
	Ulundi
	Uniforms (British)
	Uniforms (Zulu)
	Wagons and Laagers
	Wales and the Anglo-Zulu War
	War Correspondents
	War Cries
	‘What do you come here for?’: Popular Zulu Defiance
	Wives
	World Events, 1879
	Zibhebhu kaMaphitha
	Zulu Royal House
Notes
Further Reading

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

King Cetshwayo kaMpande, photographed in captivity at Cape Castle.

Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford, the commander of British forces in southern Africa in 1879.

Royal Artillery guns in Zululand.

A wooden headboard made by members of the garrison of Eshowe and afterwards placed upon the British graves at Nyezane.

Zulu dead left on the battlefields at Ulundi … and kwaGingindlovu.

Irregular troops under Redvers Buller capturing abaQulusi cattle during the attack on the ebaQulusini homestead on 1 February 1879.

Lady Florence Dixie, seated among the British officers at the Nhlazatshe meeting on 31 August 1881.

False alarm. Panics like this were common in the British camps at night during the final advance on oNdini.

Flogging was a common field punishment in Zululand for regulars and auxiliaries alike.

Major J.F. Owen and men with the two Gatling guns of 10/7 Battery RA.

A Zulu inyanga or herbalist, draped in the gourds and horns containing his medicines.

Limb bones shattered by the impact of Martini-Henry bullets, as sketched by British surgeons.

A white officer, probably Henry Francis Fynn Jnr, with some of his auxiliary troops, photographed after the war.

Two men of the Victoria Mounted Rifles in typical field uniforms.

The Last of the 24th, Isandula. R.T. Moynan’s 1883 painting depicts one of the last British soldiers to die in the battle.

Ernest Grandier was the only white man captured alive by the Zulus during the war.

The assault on the hospital at Rorke’s Drift, represented for once from the Zulu side.

British troops looting and burning the royal homestead at oNdini.

The efficiency of Zulu rifle fire at Khambula was greatly improved by the capture of British Martini-Henrys at iSandlwana.

A studio portrait of a Zulu man, his stabbing spear and his wife.

These Swazi men attached to Wood’s Irregulars fought with Wood’s column; unlike the Zulu, the Swazi retained a good deal of their ceremonial costume in the field.

No quarter. ‘We are soldiers; we have shown you how we can fight, and I’ll show you how we can die’ runs the original caption to this contemporary engraving.

The novelist H. Rider Haggard examining British graves on the Ulundi battlefield in April 1913.

Travelling shows: ‘the Great Farini’ (centre) and some of the Zulu troupe he brought to Europe.

Zulu prisoners under guard by men of the Buffs at the Lower Thukela in the aftermath of the kwaGingindlovu campaign.

A Zulu warrior in full ceremonial regalia.

Captain F. Glennie and men of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment.

Troops unloading supply wagons at ‘Dunn’s camp’.

The war correspondent Melton Prior’s narrow escape at oNdini.

Zibhebhu kaMaphitha, inkosi of the Mandlakazi branch of the Zulu Royal House.

Hlubi kaMota, the Tlokoa inkosi who fought for the British in 1879, photographed in about 1883 alongside representatives of the old order, the Princes Ndabuko kaMpande (left) and Shingana kaMpande (right).

GLOSSARY

Afrikaans
commando:	a group, usually of Afrikaner farmers, assembled for military purposes.
laager:	a defensive circle of wagons.
isiZulu
ibutho (pl. amabutho):	guild or regiment recruited according to the common age of the members.
induna (pl. izinduna):	state official or appointed functionary, officer, etc.
ikhanda (pl. amakhanda):	homestead maintained by the Zulu king containing a barracks for the royal amabutho. From ‘head’, meaning of royal authority.
umkhonto (pl. imikhonto):	a spear.
inkosi (pl. amakhosi):	hereditary ruler, chief, king.
inyanga (pl. izinyanga):	herbalist.
umnumzana (pl. abamnumzana):	head of the homestead, family patriarch.
impi (pl. izimpi):	a group gathered together for military purposes, an armed force; matters pertaining to war.
umuzi (pl. imizi):	homestead, collection of huts usually constituting a single family settlement.
isangoma (pl. izangoma):	spirit diviner; one who is able to commune with the ancestral spirits.

CHRONOLOGY

1878
11 December:	British ultimatum delivered to King Cetshwayo’s representatives.
1879
6 January:	British no. 4 Column (Wood) crosses the Ncome river into territory claimed by the Zulus.
11 January:	The British ultimatum expires. No. 3 Column (Glyn) crosses into Zululand at Rorke’s Drift.
12 January:	No. 1 Column (Pearson) begins to cross into Zululand at the Lower Thukela Drift. No. 3 Column attacks inkosi Sihayo’s kwaSogekle homestead.
17 January:	Main Zulu army leaves oNdini.
18 January:	Elements leave main Zulu army to reinforce men defending the coastal districts; remainder continue towards no. 3 Column. No. 1 Column begins advance on Eshowe.
20 January:	No. 4 Column establishes base at Fort Thinta. No. 3 Column arrives at iSandlwana.
22 January:	No. 4 Column begins extended foray against abaQulusi positions on Zungwini and Hlobane hills. Battle of Nyezane. Pearson’s column repulses an attack by an impi of 6,000 men commanded by inkosi Godide kaNdlela. Camp at iSandlwana attacked; 1,700 men of nos 2 and 3 Columns under Pulleine and Durnford defeated by main Zulu army (20,000 men) commanded by Ntshingwayo kaMahole.
22/23 January:	Elements from the Zulu reserve at iSandlwana (3,000+ men) attack British supply depot at Rorke’s Drift and are driven off by garrison commanded by Lts Chard and Bromhead.
24 January:	No. 4 Column receives news of iSandlwana; breaks off engagement below Hlobane hill.
27 January:	No. 1 Column receives news of iSandlwana.
28 January:	No. 1 Column decides to hold position at Eshowe.
31 January:	No. 4 Column moves camp to Khambula hill.
11 February:	Lord Chelmsford’s despatch detailing the disaster at iSandlwana reaches London. The Zulus cut communications between Pearson’s force at Eshowe and the Thukela.
3 March:	Improvised communication opened between Thukela and Eshowe.
11 March:	First reinforcements authorised by UK Government arrive in Natal.
12 March:	Stranded 80th convoy commanded by Captain Moriarty overrun at Ntombe by a force commanded by Prince Mbilini waMswati.
28 March:	Attack by mounted elements of no. 4 Column on Hlobane mountain defeated by abaQulusi.
29 March:	Main Zulu army under amakhosi Ntshingwayo and Mnyamana attacks no. 4 Column’s camp at Khambula but is defeated.
1 April:	Prince Imperial of France arrives in Natal to join Lord Chelmsford’s staff.
2 April:	Lord Chelmsford’s column defeats Zulu coastal forces at kwaGingindlovu.
3 April:	Eshowe relieved.
5 April:	Prince Mbilini mortally wounded in a skirmish with a British patrol near Luneburg.
6 April:	Serious false alarm at Mfunchini mission camp during the withdrawal from Eshowe.
11 April:	The last British reinforcements arrive in Natal.
13 April:	Lord Chelmsford reorganises British forces into 1st Division (H.H. Crealock), 2nd Division (Newdigate) and Flying Column (Wood).
16 April:	Tpr Grandier found wandering near Hlobane mountain after his capture by the Zulus.
20 May:	British forces on central Thukela raid Zulu homesteads opposite Middle Drift.
21 May:	British expedition to iSandlwana battlefield to retrieve wagons and bury some of the dead.
31 May:	2nd Division crosses into Zululand; start of the second invasion by the British.
1 June:	Prince Imperial killed in an ambush while on patrol.
4 June:	Skirmish between British cavalry and local Zulu forces at eZungeni mountain.
16 June:	Lord Chelmsford receives news that Sir Garnet Wolseley will be sent to Natal as his superior.
17 June:	Flying Column and 2nd Division link up for advance on oNdini.
20 June:	1st Division advances from its bases on Lower Thukela.
25 June:	Members of the Magwaza, Nthuli and Cube chiefdoms raid homesteads on the Natal bank at Middle Drift on the Thukela in retaliation for British raids of 20 May.
26 June:	Elements from the Flying Column and 2nd Division destroy Zulu royal homesteads in the emaKhosini valley.
27 June:	Combined Flying Column and 2nd Division arrive on Mthonjaneni heights.
28 June:	Sir Garnet Wolseley arrives in Durban.
30 June:	Lt Scott-Douglas (21st Regt) and his orderly Cpl Cotter (17th Lancers) killed near kwaMagwaza mission after having lost their way delivering despatches.
1 July:	2nd Division and Flying Column establish camp on White Mfolozi river.
2 July:	Wolseley’s attempt to land by sea at Port Durnford frustrated by the heavy swell.
3 July:	Mounted troops under Buller skirmish with Zulus under Zibhebhu kaMaphitha before oNdini.
4 July:	Battle of Ulundi; defeat of last major assembly of the amabutho. Mounted troops from 1st Division destroy emaNgweni royal homestead.
6 July:	Elements from 1st Division destroy kwaHlalangubo (‘old oNdini’) royal homestead.
8 July:	Lord Chelmsford resigns his command.
15 July:	Lord Chelmsford hands over command to Sir Garnet Wolseley.
19 July:	Wolseley begins to accept surrenders of coastal amakhosi.
10 August:	Wolseley arrives at oNdini and establishes camp near the ruins of the royal homestead from which to secure further Zulu surrenders.
11 August:	The two guns of N/5 Battery lost at iSandlwana are recovered.
13 August:	Beginning of extended patrolling to capture King Cetshwayo.
28 August:	King Cetshwayo captured in Ngome forest.
1 September:	Wolseley meets with important amakhosi at oNdini to impose his new political settlement of Zululand.
2 September:	British evacuation of Zululand begins.
4 September:	King Cetshwayo embarks at Port Durnford for exile at the Cape.
5 September:	British attack caves in the Ntombe valley occupied by local Zulus who had refused to surrender.
8 September:	Further attacks on Ntombe caves; last shots of the war.
9 September:	Wolseley arrives at Utrecht, en route from Zululand to the Transvaal.

PREFACE

In the 1940s the Revd A.W. Lee, who had begun a distinguished missionary career working at iSandlwana in the 1900s and went on to become Bishop of Zululand, made a pertinent observation about the significance of the Anglo-Zulu War as it seemed to both participants. ‘From the point of view of those who have experienced two world wars,’ he wrote,

with their widespread bloodshed and devastation, the story of the Zulu War of 1879 reads like that of a series of skirmishes carried on in an unimportant country for obscure reasons. Yet to the Zulu people it was the ultimate tragedy, involving as it did loss of independence, of self-government, and of freedom to live their lives as it seemed best to them.¹

The popular fascination with this war continues unabated. New books appear with almost monotonous regularity and old ones are reprinted, and the output is as variable as it is varied. For the reading public, much of the appeal of the war lies in its undoubted dramatic nature, the Technicolor glamour of lines of redcoats splashed across tawny African landscapes, the bold warriors nobly defending their country against a foreign invader, the themes of courage, self-sacrifice and folly, an almost Shakespearean epic of tragically flawed heroes and the fall of a kingdom. As with most stereotypes, there is an element of truth in all this, but there is also, as Bishop Lee observed, a darker one underlying them, for only in the cinema do mythic figures battle without consequences, and for the Zulu people the consequences of the British invasion of 1879 have been hard indeed. As many as 10,000 Zulu men died fighting for their country and thousands more were wounded, many of them maimed for life, the great royal homesteads maintained by the Zulu kings were destroyed, together with hundreds of ordinary Zulu homes, while the country was stripped of thousands of head of the cattle which represented their national wealth. Having irrevocably damaged the Zulu kingdom, the British Empire then calmly walked away, abandoning the policies that had led to the war in the first place. With tragic irony Britain imposed a post-war settlement on Zululand which, over the following decades, engendered bitter divisions and led to Zulus fighting Zulus in a c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Epigraph
• Full Title
• Copyright Page
• Contents