Battle of Battle Hill

Last updated
Battle of Horokiri (Battle Hill)
Part of New Zealand Wars
The fight at Battle Hill, Horokiwi, 6th August, 1846, oil on canvas by George Hyde Page.jpg
The fight at Battle Hill, Horokiwi, 6th August, 1846 by George Hyde Page
Date6–13 August 1846
Location
Horokiri, north of Pauatahanui, New Zealand
Coordinates: 41°03′07″S174°56′15″E / 41.051978°S 174.93747°E / -41.051978; 174.93747
Result Tactically indecisive, strategic colonial victory
Belligerents

Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Empire

Ngāti Toa
Commanders and leaders
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Edward Last
Wiremu Kīngi
Rawiri Puaha
Te Rangihaeata
Units involved

Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army

Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy

Militia

  • Hutt Company, Wellington Battalion

Kūpapa Maori

Police

Strength
250 bayonets: Regulars of the 58th, 65th, and 99th, the Hutt Militia, and the Wellington armed police
150 Ngāti Awa
2 small mortars
12 Royal Artillery men
300 including women and children
Casualties and losses
3 killed At least 9 killed

The Battle Hill engagement took place from 6 to 13 August 1846, during the New Zealand Wars and was one of the last engagements of the Hutt Valley Campaign.

Contents

The engagement was between Ngāti Toa on one side and a colonial force of European troops, police, and Ngāti Awa allies on the other. The colonial force commanded by Major Last was seeking to end resistance to European settlement in the Hutt Valley region. It was pursuing over 300 Ngāti Toa, including women and children, led by Te Rangihaeata.

Action

The battle took place over several days in early August 1846, on a forest ridge around 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of Pauatahanui. [1] On the Government side was Ngāti Toa chief Rawiri Puaha and 100 Ngāti Toa warriors, as well as 150 Ngāti Awa "friendlies". [1] Three government soldiers and at least nine Ngāti Toa were killed. [2]

On 6 August, the colonial force encountered Te Rangihaeata defending a breastwork at the crest of the narrow forest ridge. Elements of the colonial force advanced to within 50 yards (46 m) of the fortification, but pulled back to around 80 yards (73 m) after losing three men, including acting-brigade-major Ensign Blackburn, who was killed by a Ngāti Toa fighter concealed in a tree. Last was unwilling to launch a suicidal frontal assault, terrain and vegetation prevented a flanking manoeuvre. Over the next several hours, the colonials unleashed a musket barrage of thousands of rounds, but with little effect. On 8 August, Last had two small mortars brought up to about three-quarters of a mile from the defenders. They fired around 80 shells, many landing in or near the fortification. Disinclined to attack, and vulnerable to a counter-attack, Last withdrew the regular troops on 10 August, leaving Ngāti Awa troops to launch an occasional skirmish. [1]

On 13 August, Ngāti Awa discovered Te Rangihaeata had slipped away under cover of rain and darkness. They set off northwards in pursuit. The final skirmish occurred on the seaward side of the Pouawha Range, inland of Wainui. Ngāti Awa lost three men, in return killing four Ngāti Toa, before Te Rangihaeata made good his escape. [1]

Legacy

The engagement pushed Te Rangihaeata out of the area and was one of the last fought between Maori and early colonial forces in the region. [3] The site of the battle has been preserved as a recreational area named Battle Hill Farm Forest Park. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Hutt</span> City in Wellington, New Zealand

Upper Hutt is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand Wars</span> 1845–1872 armed conflicts in New Zealand

The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the Māori Wars, while Māori language names for the conflicts included Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa and Te riri Pākehā. Historian James Belich popularised the name "New Zealand Wars" in the 1980s, although the term was first used by historian James Cowan in the 1920s.

Wairau Affray 1843 conflict between British settlers and indigenous Māori in New Zealand

The Wairau Affray of 17 June 1843, also called the Wairau Massacre in older histories, was the first serious clash of arms between British settlers and Māori in New Zealand after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the only one to take place in the South Island. The incident was sparked when a magistrate and a representative of the New Zealand Company, who held a possibly fraudulent deed to land in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough in the north of the South Island, led a group of European settlers to attempt to clear Māori off the land and arrest Ngāti Toa chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata. Fighting broke out and 22 British settlers were killed, nine after their surrender. Four Māori were killed, including Te Rongo, who was Te Rangihaeata's wife and Te Rauparaha's daughter.

The Hutt Valley campaign was an armed conflict in the lower North Island of New Zealand between indigenous Māori and British settlers and military forces in 1846. The campaign was among the earliest of the 19th century New Zealand Wars that were fought over issues of land and sovereignty. It was preceded by the Wairau affray and followed by the Wanganui campaign and was triggered by much the same pressures—the careless land purchasing practices of the New Zealand Company, armed government support for settler land claims, and complex intertribal tensions between local Māori. The three conflicts also shared many of the same combatants.

Invasion of the Waikato Campaign of the New Zealand Wars (1863–1864)

The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation of Māori tribes known as the Kingitanga Movement. The Waikato is a territorial region with a northern boundary somewhat south of the present-day city of Auckland. The campaign lasted for nine months, from July 1863 to April 1864. The invasion was aimed at crushing Kingite power and also at driving Waikato Māori from their territory in readiness for occupation and settlement by European colonists. The campaign was fought by a peak of about 14,000 Imperial and colonial troops and about 4,000 Māori warriors drawn from more than half the major North Island tribal groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Rangihaeata</span> Maori chief

Te Rangihaeata, was a Ngāti Toa chief, nephew of Te Rauparaha. He had a leading part in the Wairau Affray and the Hutt Valley Campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Te Rauparaha</span> Māori chief and war leader of Ngāti Toa (1760s–1849)

Te Rauparaha was a Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe who took a leading part in the Musket Wars, receiving the nickname "the Napoleon of the South". He was influential in the original sale of land to the New Zealand Company and was a participant in the Wairau Affray in Marlborough.

Te Mamaku

Hemi Topine Te Mamaku was a Māori chief in the Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi iwi from the Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island.

Ngāti Toa Māori iwi in New Zealand

Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Toarangatira or Ngāti Toa Rangatira, is a Māori iwi (tribe) based in the southern North Island and in the northern South Island of New Zealand. Its rohe extends from Whanganui in the north, Palmerston North in the east, and Kaikoura and Hokitika in the south. Ngāti Toa remains a small iwi with a population of only about 4500. It has four marae: Takapūwāhia and Hongoeka in Porirua City, and Whakatū and Wairau in the north of the South Island. Ngāti Toa's governing body has the name Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miramar Peninsula</span> Land in Wellington city, New Zealand

The large Miramar Peninsula is on the southeastern side of the city of Wellington, New Zealand, at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, in Wellington's eastern suburbs. According to Māori legend, it was formed when the taniwha Whaitaitai beached as he tried to escape the confines of the harbour. It contains the suburb of Miramar.

Pōtatau Te Wherowhero First Māori king

Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was a Māori warrior, leader of the Waikato iwi, the first Māori King and founder of the Te Wherowhero royal dynasty. He was first known just as Te Wherowhero and took the name Pōtatau after he became king in 1858. As disputes over land grew more severe Te Wherowhero found himself increasingly at odds with the Government and its policies.

Te Āti Awa Māori iwi in New Zealand

Te Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and around 5,000 of unspecified regional location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngāti Tama</span> Māori iwi in New Zealand

Ngāti Tama is a historic Māori iwi of present-day New Zealand which whakapapas back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru waka. The iwi of Ngati Tama is located in north Taranaki around Poutama. The Mōhakatino river marks their northern boundary with the Tainui and Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. Titoki marks the southern boundary with Ngati Mutunga. The close geographical proximity of Tainui's Ngati Toa of Kawhia and Ngati Mutunga explains the long, continuous, and close relationship among the three Iwi.

Battle Hill Farm Forest Park

Battle Hill Farm Forest Park is a regional park near Paekakariki, in the Kapiti Coast District and Wellington Region of New Zealand's lower North Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenside, New Zealand</span> Suburb of Wellington City Council in New Zealand

Glenside is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It is bounded by Tawa to the North, Churton Park to the West/South and Grenada across the motorway to the East.

Battle of Hingakaka Major battle between two Maori coalitions c. 1807

The Battle of Hingakākā was fought between two Māori armies of the North Island, near Te Awamutu and Ohaupo in the Waikato in the late 18th or early 19th centuries, and was reputedly "the largest battle ever fought on New Zealand soil". One army was from the south of the North Island and the other was from the Tainui confederation of the central North Island. Both armies included allied forces from several different hapū and iwi.

This timeline sets out intertribal battles involving Māori people in what is now New Zealand.

The siege of Ngatapa was an engagement that took place from 31 December 1868 to 5 January 1869 during Te Kooti's War in the East Coast region of New Zealand.

Poroutawhao is a small rural settlement in the Horowhenua District of New Zealand's North Island. It is located just north-west of Levin on State Highway 1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Howard (Ngaumatau)</span> Place in Wellington Region, New Zealand

Ngaumatau – Point Howard is a suburb on the Eastern side of Te Whanganui a Tara - Wellington Harbour, New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cowan, James (1955). "Chapter 13: Paua-Taha-Nui and Horokiri". The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume I: 1845–1864. Wellington: R. E. Owen. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  2. "New trail depicts Battle Hill history". Northern Courier. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  3. 1 2 "Battle Hill Farm Forest Park - History". Greater Wellington Regional Council. Retrieved 12 May 2011.