No action in recent warfare is better known than that of the heroic
defence of Rorke's Drift. We are here able to give the narratives of
two soldiers who gained their Cross for bravery in that day's gallant
struggle. Here, first, is Private Jones's account of the affair:--
About half-past three o'clock on the afternoon of the 22nd of January,
1879, a mounted man came galloping into our little encampment and told
us that the Zulus had taken the camp at Isandlwana, and were making
their way towards us at Rorke's Drift. We at once set to work, and
with such material as we had at hand formed a slight barricade around
us; this was formed of sacks of mealies (Indian corn), boxes of sea
biscuits, &c., of which we had a good supply. We also loopholed the
walls of the two buildings. We had scarcely completed our work when the
Zulus were down upon us.
[Illustration: PRIVATE JONES DEFENDING THE HOSPITAL DOOR.]
The hospital being the first building in their line of attack, they
surrounded it. Having twenty-three sick men in the rooms, our officer,
Lieutenant Bromhead, ordered six men into the hospital, myself being
one of the number, to defend and rescue the sick from it. We had
scarcely taken our post in the hospital when two out of our number were
killed in the front or verandah, leaving four of us to hold the place
and get out the sick. This was done by two (viz., Privates Hook and
Williams) carrying the sick and passing them into the barricade through
a small window, while myself (William Jones) and my comrade (Robert
Jones) contended each door at the point of the bayonet, our ammunition
being expended. The Zulus, finding they could not force us from the
doors, now set fire to the thatched roof. This was the most horrifying
time. What with the blood-thirsty yells of the Zulus, the cries of the
sick that remained, and the burning thatch falling about our heads,
it was sickening. Still we kept them at bay until twenty out of the
twenty-three sick men were passed into the barricade under the fire of
our own men; the other three sick I have every reason to believe must
have wandered back into one of the rooms we had cleared, as they were
men suffering from fever at the time. By this time the whole of the
hospital was in flames, and as we could not stay in it any longer, we
had to make our own escape into the barricade, by the window through
which the sick had been passed. This we did, thank God, with our lives.