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The Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879), also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal Engineers and Gonville Bromhead, 24th Regiment of Foot began when a large contingent of Zulu warriors broke off from their main force during the final hour of the British defeat at the day-long Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, diverting 6 miles (9.7 km) to attack Rorke's Drift later that day and continuing into the following day.
The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coupled with military campaigns, might succeed with the African Kingdoms, tribal areas and Boer republics in South Africa. In 1874, Sir Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner for the British Empire to effect such plans. Among the obstacles were the armed independent states of the South African Republic and the Kingdom of Zululand.
Cetshwayo kaMpande was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1879 and its Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. His name has been transliterated as Cetawayo, Cetewayo, Cetywajo and Ketchwayo. Cetshwayo consistently opposed the war and sought fruitlessly to make peace with the British, and was defeated and exiled following the Zulu defeat in the war. He was later allowed to return to Zululand, where he died in 1884.
The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zululand in Southern Africa, a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of about 1,800 British, colonial and native troops with approximately 350 civilians. The Zulus were equipped mainly with the traditional assegai iron spears and cow-hide shields, but also had a number of muskets and antiquated rifles.
Zibhebhu kaMaphitha Zulu (1841–1904) was a Zulu chief. After the defeat of the Zulu Kingdom by the British, he attempted to create his own independent kingdom. From 1883 to 1884, he fought the Zulu king Cetshwayo, inflicting a series of defeats on him.
Frederic Augustus Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, was a British Army officer who rose to prominence during the Anglo-Zulu War, when an expeditionary force under his command suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of a Zulu force at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879. Despite this defeat, he was able to score several victories against the Zulus, culminating in the British victory at the Battle of Ulundi, which ended the war and partly restored his reputation in Britain.
Ntshingwayo kaMahole of the Khoza was the commanding general (inDuna) of King Cetshwayo's Zulu Army during the first Anglo-Zulu War.
The Battle of Ulundi took place at the Zulu capital of Ulundi on 4 July 1879 and was the last major battle of the Anglo-Zulu War. The British army broke the military power of the Zulu nation by defeating the main Zulu army and immediately afterwards capturing and burning the royal kraal of oNdini.
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a modern standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north.
Dabulamanzi kaMpande was a Zulu commander for the Zulu kingdom in the Anglo-Zulu War. He is most noted for having commanded the Zulus at the Battle of Rorke's Drift. He was a half-brother of the Zulu king Cetshwayo kaMpande.
The 12 January 1879 action at Sihayo's Kraal was an early skirmish in the Anglo-Zulu War. The day after launching an invasion of Zululand, the British Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford led a reconnaissance in force against the kraal of Zulu Chief Sihayo kaXongo. This was intended to secure his left flank for an advance on the Zulu capital at Ulundi and as retribution against Sihayo for the incursion of his sons into the neighbouring British Colony of Natal.
The Natal Border Guard was an auxiliary force levied for the defence of the Colony of Natal during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. British military commander Lord Chelmsford had intended to raise a large auxiliary force to support his invasion of the Zulu Kingdom but was opposed by the civilian government of the Colony of Natal, led by its governor Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer, who would have to finance the unit. Bulwer eventually allowed a smaller force to be raised with the stipulation that it not be deployed outside of Natal. This unit was to serve only on a part-time basis, receive no training and fight with the traditional weapons of spear and shield.
The Natal Native Pioneer Corps, commonly referred to as the Natal Pioneers, was a British unit of the Zulu War. Raised in November/December 1878 the unit served throughout the war of 1879 to provide engineering support to the British invasion of Zululand. Three companies were formed each comprising around 100 men and clad in old British Army uniforms. The units served at the battles of Isandlwana, Eshowe and Ulundi.
The Ntuli people were a zulu clan in South Africa that held their own chiefdom title. They lived along the bank of the Thukela River in Kwazulu-Natal.
John Paul Clow Laband is a South African historian and writer, specialising in Anglo-Zulu and Boers wars. He has taught at universities in South Africa, England and Canada. In particular he has been Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, and a Research Associate of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Sihayo kaXongo was a Zulu inKosi (chief). In some contemporary British documents he is referred to as Sirhayo or Sirayo. He was an inDuna (commander) of the iNdabakawombe iButho and supported Cetshwayo in the 1856 Zulu Civil War. Under Cetshwayo, Sihayo was a chief of a key territory on the border with the British Colony of Natal and had a seat on the iBandla. Sihayo was an Anglophile who wore European clothes and maintained friendly relations with trader James Rorke who lived nearby at Rorke's Drift. By 1864, Sihayo was head of the Qungebe tribe and that year agreed a new western border of the kingdom with Boer leader Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.
The Zungwini Mountain skirmishes took place on 20, 22 and 24 January 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War. The mountain was a stronghold of the AbaQulusi Zulu tribe, who were reinforced by the forces of exiled Swazi prince Mbilini waMswati. The mountain lay near the proposed route of advance of a British column under Lieutenant-Colonel Evelyn Wood, one of three that marched on the Zulu capital, Ulundi, from early January. Aware that the other columns had made less progress Wood, who had halted to fortify a camp at Tinta's Kraal, decided to deal with the abaQulusi strongholds.
Symbol of Sacrifice is a 1918 film dramatisation of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. It follows English soldier Preston Fanshall from the British defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana to Rorke's Drift where he participates in the successful defence of that post. His love interest, Marie Moxter, is captured by the Zulu during the battle and taken to their capital at Ulundi. Moxter's black servant, Goba, travels to Ulundi and intervenes to protect her from the advances of German villain Carl Schneider who has allied with the Zulu. The film shows the British defeat at the Battle of Hlobane and the arrival of reinforcements, including Napoléon, the French Prince Imperial. The prince becomes a central character for a portion of the film and is shown, in a lavish flashback, meeting Queen Victoria and Empress Eugénie at Windsor Castle. The death of the prince at the hands of the Zulu is shown. A second love triangle involving a Zulu woman, Melissa, with a warrior, Tambookie, and a villainous witchdoctor, is also depicted. The film ends with the British victory at the Battle of Ulundi, ending the war. Goba and Tambookie help Moxter to escape, but Goba is killed in the process and Tambookie enters Moxter's employment.
Lt Gen Richard Thomas Glyn was a British Army officer. He joined the 82nd Regiment of Foot by purchasing an ensign's commission in 1850. Glyn served with the regiment in the Crimean War and rose in rank to captain before transferring to the 24th Regiment of Foot in 1856. He served with that regiment in the Indian Mutiny and was appointed to command it in 1872. In 1875 he accompanied the 1st battalion of the regiment on service in the Cape Colony and fought with them in the 9th Cape Frontier War of 1877–78. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath after the war.
Fort Pearson was a fortification constructed by the British on the Natal side of the border with Zululand in the lead up to the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. An earthen redoubt on a 300-foot (100 m) high cliff overlooking the Tugela River, the fort and its two external redoubts commanded an important river crossing. The crossing was used by one of the columns of the first invasion of January 1879, that was then besieged at Eshowe in Zululand. The crossing was used again by the Eshowe relief column in March and the second invasion in April. The fort was strengthened in April 1879 and connected to Pietermaritzburg by telegraph by June. The war was won by the British in July but the fort was briefly occupied again by British troops in 1883 during the Third Zulu Civil War.
References
- ↑ "Ian Knight - Historian". www.theculturalexperience.com.
- ↑ "Ian Knight - Historian". www.theculturalexperience.com.
- ↑ "Zulu war artefacts go under". BBC News. 22 January 2014.
- ↑ "Zulu king who crushed British Army honoured with historic blue plaque". The Independent. 24 November 2006.
- ↑ "Andrew Lownie Literary Agency :: Authors :: Ian Knight". Andrew Lownie Literary Agency.
