Zululand lies to the north-east of Natal, and its inhabitants are the
most warlike of all the Kaffir tribes. Chaka, who became chief of the
Zulus in 1810, established a military despotism, which converted the
whole manhood of the tribe into a disciplined army, obedient to the will
of one man. These warriors in battle fought with desperation, as on
their return from an expedition, all cowards were ruthlessly massacred.
Chaka found the Zulus a pastoral unimportant clan, and left them the
most martial native race in South Africa. In 1828 this ferocious chief
was assassinated by his brother Dingaan, who succeeded him. Dingaan, who
did not possess the military ability of his brother, waged an
exterminating war against the Boers; but at length being utterly
defeated by them under Andreas Pretorius, in 1840 he fled for refuge
among the Swazies, who received and murdered him. His brother Panda, who
had revolted against Dingaan with a portion of the tribe and joined the
Dutch, was then proclaimed King of the Zulus, and wisely preferring
trading to warfare, continued on friendly terms with the Boers and the
English till his death in 1872. Panda was succeeded by his son Cetewayo,
and at the request of the Zulu nation, Sir Theophilus Shepston was
present at his installation as King, representing the British
Government. But Cetewayo was ambitious, and soon abandoned the pacific
policy of his father, to follow the militant example of his predecessor
Chaka. He re-organised the old regiments, and formed new ones, trained
and disciplined by means of torture and death. He armed his men with
guns, instead of only shield and assagai, and perfected the peculiar
Zulu formation for attack in three divisions; two “horns” to assail the
flanks and rear of an enemy, and a main body to advance and complete the
victory. In 1878 this army numbered over fifty thousand men, eager for
battle, commanded by an ambitious and savage chief, a menace and cause
of apprehension to all its neighbours. Another savage chieftain, and an
ally of Cetewayo, named Sekukuni (of whom more, presently) who defied
the Colonial Government, and had in 1876 repulsed an attack of the Boers
on his stronghold, gave rise to a common saying among the natives, “If
the bull-calf (Sekukuni) has to be left alone, what will happen when the
elephant (Cetewayo) attacks the white man?” In August, 1878, two sons of
Sirayo, a favourite chief of Cetewayo, with a party of Zulus, made an
incursion into British territory, and seized two women whom they claimed
as runaway wives of their father Sirayo. Resistance was useless, and the
women were carried across the river Buffalo and slain. The surrender of
the offenders was demanded by the Colonial Government, and a fine of
five hundred cattle as a reparation for the violation of the Natal
territory. Neither being forthcoming, Sir Bartle Frere sent an ultimatum
to the Zulu King, requiring among other things, the disbandment of his
army, and freedom of marriage among his people; also informing him that
unless he complied with the terms on, or before December 31st., he would
be invaded by a British army to enforce these demands. The time allowed
by the ultimatum being expired, and Cetewayo making no sign, on January
11th., 1879, the British forces under the command of Lord Chelmsford,
crossed the Buffalo and Tugela rivers, and the war began. The army was
divided into three columns, with two smaller bodies of troops under
Colonel Durnford, R.E., and Colonel Rowlands, V.C., the whole being
intended to effect a junction near Ulundi. The first column commanded by
Colonel Pearson of the 3rd. Buffs, was composed of the 2nd. battalion
3rd. Buffs, Lieutenant-Colonel Parnell, and afterwards six companies of
the 99th. Regiment; a detachment of Royal Artillery with four guns, one
gatling and a rocket battery, under Lieutenant Lloyd, R.A.; a Naval
Brigade of one hundred and seventy seamen and marines from H.M.S.
Active, under Captain Campbell, R.N., one hundred mounted Infantry under
Captain Barrow, 19th. Hussars, some mounted Volunteers, and one thousand
natives under Major Graves, 3rd. Buffs. Second column, Colonel Glyn,
24th. Regiment, commanding. Seven companies 1st. battalion 24th.
Regiment, and 2nd. battalion of the 24th., under Colonel Degacher, a
detachment of Royal Artillery with two seven-pounders under Major
Harness, a body of Natal Mounted Police under Major Dartnell, and
Mounted Volunteers, with a native contingent of one thousand men under
Commandant Lonsdale, formerly of the 74th. Highlanders. Third column,
Colonel Evelyn Wood, V.C., commanding; comprising the 90th. Regiment and
1st. battalion 13th. Regiment, Royal Artillery with four seven-pounders
and two rocket tubes, under Major Tremlett, one hundred mounted Infantry
under Major Russell, Frontier Light Horse, two hundred strong, under
Major Redvers Buller, one hundred volunteers, and a body of five
thousand Swazies. There was also a contingent of Boers, all crack shots,
under Commandant Piet Uys.
The total strength of the army, including the garrisons, was about
sixteen thousand men, with twenty guns; the European portion of which,
much under one half, being the only reliable, as the Native Contingent
was not equal to the enemy in bravery, and after the disaster at
Isandhlwana almost useless. Colonel Pearson’s column on the 18th. of
January began its march into the interior, and on the 22nd., near the
Myezane river, attacked and defeated a body of Zulus, estimated at from
five to seven thousand men.
On the following day the column arrived at the deserted mission station
of Ekowe, when it received news of the terrible disaster at Isandhlwana,
on the day previous. Pearson decided on holding the position with the
British portion of his force; the Native Contingent, and the Mounted
Corps, being sent back to the Lower Tugela. Lord Chelmsford sent him
instructions to do the best he could with the troops under his command;
and under the direction of Captain Wynne, R.E., the post was fortified
and rendered impregnable to the attacks of any force without artillery.
On January 10th., Colonel Glyn’s column, with whom was Lord Chelmsford,
encamped at Rorke’s Drift. On the 12th. a portion of the force, after a
smart skirmish, burnt Sirayo’s kraal, and captured a large number of
cattle. On the 20th. the column encamped near the isolated hill known as
Isandhlwana, and on the 22nd., Lord Chelmsford and Colonel Glyn, with
the second battalion of the 24th. Regiment, the mounted men, and four
guns, set out in search of a large body of Zulus, reported to be near a
place called Matyan’s kraal; leaving in camp five companies of the 1st.
battalion 24th., one company of the 2nd. battalion 24th., about seventy
artillerymen with two guns, and part of the Native Contingent, under the
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pulleine. Colonel Durnford, who had been
left at Rorke’s Drift with five hundred natives and a rocket battery,
was ordered up to take command of the camp. The commander-in-chief who
had neglected to fortify his camp at Isandhlwana, either by throwing up
entrenchments or “laagering” his waggons, proceeded to encounter the
enemy, who retired as he advanced. Meanwhile a force of from fourteen to
twenty thousand Zulus, including some of their best regiments, led by
Dabulamanzi, the king’s half-brother, were preparing for an attack upon
the camp.
About nine o’clock on the morning of the 22nd., Colonel Durnford
arrived, and took over the command from Colonel Pulleine. The mounted
men, with the rocket battery, under Colonel Durnford in person, advanced
some four miles from the camp, and began to skirmish with the enemy,
being unaware of their vast superiority in force. The rocket battery was
suddenly surrounded and destroyed to a man; the mounted men fled towards
the camp, pursued by thousands of Zulus, who came on in regular order in
battalions eight deep, and all the troops in the camp rushed to their
arms. For a time the enemy were checked by the tremendous fire with
which they were received, and their ranks showed signs of wavering, when
the Native Contingent broke and fled, making a fatal gap in the lines,
through which the Zulus poured like a torrent; and about the same time
the right “horn” of their attack having swiftly worked round to the rear
of the hill beneath which the camp was pitched, took the position in
reverse, and launched about four thousand bounding and leaping warriors
on the flank of the devoted British force. In an instant all was
confusion, two companies of the 24th. not having time to form rallying
squares were annihilated, the gunners of the Mountain Battery were
assegaied; Major Smith, R.A., being killed while endeavouring to spike
one of the guns. Some of the mounted natives managed to escape, but the
soldiers of the 24th., the Mounted Police, and Volunteers, in groups, or
back to back, kept their foes at bay while their ammunition lasted, and
then fought hand to hand till the last man fell where he stood.[78]
In the midst of the carnage, Lieutenants Coghill and Melville made a
desperate but unsuccessful attempt to save the colours. They escaped
from the field, but in swimming across the Buffalo, Melville’s horse was
killed, and Coghill returning to assist his comrade, who was clinging to
a rock, his horse was also shot, and the colours fell into the river.
The two officers reached the Natal side safely, but were overtaken and
slain about three hundred yards from the river’s bank. Their bodies were
found lying side by side, and the colours which they had died to save,
were found ten days afterwards in the rocky bed of the river.
The victory of the Zulus cost them dear, between two and three thousand
of them being killed in the battle, or died afterwards of their wounds.
The British loss was terrible, fifty imperial and colonial officers, and
over eight hundred non-commissioned officers and men having perished
around that fatal hill. Five entire companies of the 1st. battalion of
the 24th. fell, with ninety men of the 2nd. battalion, and hundreds of
natives. Upwards of one hundred waggons, fourteen hundred oxen, two
seven-pounders (afterwards retaken), eight hundred Martini-Henry rifles,
and a vast quantity of stores of all kinds, fell into the hands of the
enemy.
Meanwhile the column under Lord Chelmsford, after a slight skirmish, was
returning towards the camp, and about four miles from it met with the
Natal Native Contingent, which had halted in a state of dismay at the
turn affairs had taken. Half an hour afterwards a solitary horseman came
up. It was Commandant Lonsdale, who had unsuspiciously ridden into the
captured camp, and escaping a shower of bullets, brought the almost
incredible news that the camp was in possession of a Zulu army. The
General immediately sent an order for Colonel Glyn’s troops to join, and
on their arrival marched at once towards Isandhlwana hill.
The daylight was fading, and darkness had set in before the column,
unopposed, reached the fatal camp, which they found silent, and deserted
by all but the dead. The tents were upset, the waggons destroyed, and
the whole place strewn with the dead bodies of men and horses.
After a sad bivouac, Lord Chelmsford marched at dawn for Rorke’s Drift,
expecting to find it in the hands of the enemy, but to his surprise and
gratification found it still in the possession of an heroic handful of
the 24th.
On the advance of the centre column, a company of the 24th., and a small
body of natives, under the command of Lieutenant Bromhead, had been left
to guard some sick men and stores at Rorke’s Drift. “A worse position,”
says one present, “could hardly be imagined. Two small thatched
buildings, about thirty yards apart, with thin walls, commanded by
rising ground in the south and west, completely overlooked on the south
by a high wall. On the north side an orchard and garden gave good cover
to an enemy up to within a few yards of the houses.” The place had
formerly been a Swedish Mission Station. One of the buildings was filled
with stores, and the other had been converted into a military hospital.
Some fugitives bringing tidings of what had happened at the camp,
Lieutenant Bromhead and Lieutenant Chard, R.E., who was with him, at
once set to work to strengthen the position. The buildings were
loopholed and barricaded, and connected by defences formed by a few
waggons sacks of “mealies,” and Indian corn, and biscuit boxes. The
natives, terror-stricken, fled, and the garrison was reduced to the
company of the 24th., consisting of about eighty men; the total number
within the defences—including thirty-five sick in the hospital—being one
hundred and thirty-nine all told. The place was soon surrounded by three
or four thousand Zulus, who commenced a series of desperate attacks.
They set fire to the hospital, which the garrison defended room by room,
but five sick soldiers perished in the flames. Such was the fury of the
assault, that the garrison were forced to retire to an inner line of
defence. Six times the Zulus got inside the barricades, but each time
they were hurled back with loss. At length, after a conflict which
lasted from five p.m. on January 22nd. till four a.m. on the following
morning, the Zulus retired defeated and disheartened, leaving three
hundred and seventy dead around the post. Their whole loss was probably
about five hundred, while the heroic defenders had but seventeen killed
and ten wounded.
The left column, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, after the Isandhlwana
disaster, by order of Lord Chelmsford, fell back to a strong position at
Kambula Kop, about twenty miles from the Blood river, where was formed
an entrenched camp. From this position a series of dashing raids upon
the Zulu kraals and stores was made by the Frontier Horse, under Colonel
Redvers Buller, and the Dutch Burgher troop of Piet Uys, which inflicted
great damage on the enemy, who were astonished by the daring and range
of these expeditions.
About the end of March, Colonel Wood received a letter from Lord
Chelmsford, to the effect that he was taking steps for the relief of
Colonel Pearson, at Ekowe, and directing Wood to make a diversion in the
direction of the Zlobani to distract the enemy. His force had been
strengthened by a body of Mounted Infantry, and some Border Horse,
commanded by Colonel Weatherley, formerly of the 4th. Dragoons. About
twelve miles from the camp was a precipitous, thickly-wooded, and almost
inaccessible stronghold of the Zulus, known as the Zlobani, or Inhlobani
mountain, at which place they had gathered together great herds of
cattle—their chief wealth—thinking it impregnable. This fastness Colonel
Wood resolved to attack, with his mounted men and natives, operating
simultaneously against the mountain on both sides. His force was divided
into two columns, under Colonels Buller and Russell.
Buller’s force, with whom was Colonel Wood, attacked the mountain at
dawn on March 28th., and under cover of the mist gained the summit with
trifling loss; the Zulus retreating into caves, with which the place
abounded. Colonel Russell’s column had scarcely reached the westward
side of the mountain, when he was aware of a Zulu army of twenty
thousand, marching rapidly, with the object of cutting off Buller’s
retreat. Russell abandoned some cattle he had taken; sent his native
troops back to Kambula, and formed up his mounted men at the foot of the
mountain, to cover the retreat of Buller. The Zulus on the mountain
seeing the advance of their warriors, came out of their hiding places,
and harassed the movements of Buller’s men, who had no alternative but
to descend the rugged side of the mountain by paths “utterly
impracticable for even led horses.” The retreat soon became a rout, for
the Zulus occupied the rocks; pouring a hot fire at point blank range
into the struggling mass of men and horses, and using their assegais
with fatal effect. But for the heroic efforts of Colonel Buller, Major
Leet, and Commandant Darcy, the force would have been exterminated. How
Buller escaped was almost miraculous, he saved the lives of six of his
men at least, personally, and was one of the last down the rocks, where
only one horseman could pass abreast, called the “Devil’s Pass.” Once
clear of this precipitous path, the worst was over; the retreat being
covered by Colonel Russell, and the remainder of the force reached
Kambula, with a loss of over one hundred killed and wounded, including
thirteen officers. Colonel Weatherley and his son, a lad of fifteen, and
the whole of his Border Horse, except eight, were slain. Captain Barton,
of the Coldstream Guards, who lost his life in endeavouring to rescue a
wounded trooper, and eighteen of his men perished; also the gallant old
Boer leader, Piet Uys,[79] whose father and uncles had fallen in the
wars against Dingaan.
Encouraged by this success, next day the Zulu army, numbering
twenty-five thousand men, made a most determined attack upon the
entrenched camp at Kambula, which was manned by detachments of the
18th., 80th., and 90th. Regiments, with a battery of Royal Artillery,
under Major Tremlett, and some Volunteers. For more than four hours
raged a desperate conflict, during which the enemy, in spite of enormous
losses, madly rushed on with deafening yells, till their assegais
clashed against the British bayonets; but finding all their efforts of
no avail, and mowed down by the deadly fire, lost heart, and began to
retire in confusion. A ringing cheer arose from the camp, the mounted
men sprang into their saddles, and led by Buller and Russell, pursued
the enemy for seven miles, strewing their way with the bodies of
hundreds of Zulus, and amply avenging the disaster of the previous day.
General Wood on seeing the panic-stricken flight of the enemy,
exclaimed, “Oh, for two regiments of British cavalry!”
The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was variously estimated from
three to four thousand; fifteen hundred dead bodies were lying around
the camp at nightfall, of which many were carried away before morning,
but the victors were occupied for two days in burying their dead foemen.
The wounded that were captured, were kindly treated, and their wounds
dressed.
The British loss was two officers[80] and twenty-three men killed, and
eight officers and fifty-seven men wounded.
A week or two before this, another disaster, similar to the affair at
Isandhlwana, but fortunately of lesser magnitude, befel Captain Moriarty
and a company of the 80th. Regiment, encamped on the bank of the Intombe
River; who were surprised in the early dawn, by an overwhelming body of
Zulus, and two-thirds of the party slain on the spot. Lieutenant
Harvard, the only surviving officer, leaving the remnant of his men to
shift for themselves, galloped off to Luneberg for help; and it was only
by the exertions and bravery of Colour-Sergeant Anthony Booth, that a
man escaped. For this service, Sergeant Booth well won, and obtained,
the Victoria Cross.
All this time the force under Colonel Pearson remained blockaded at
Ekowe. Pearson had made some successful raids on the enemy; but his
stock of provisions was rapidly diminishing, and he was anxiously
expecting relief.
On March 29th., Lord Chelmsford, with a force of three thousand three
hundred English soldiers and seamen, from the “Shah,” “Tenedos,” and
“Boadicea,” with gatling guns and a rocket battery, and about two
thousand two hundred Natives, set out from Fort Tenedos for Ekowe. On
the 2nd. of April he was attacked by the Zulu army, under Dabulamanzi,
at Ginghilovo. The enemy fought with desperation, but their frantic
attacks were repulsed with enormous loss, and after a very sharp action
of about one and a half hours, they fled in disorder, hotly pursued by
the mounted men, under Captain Barrow. Eight hundred Zulus were buried
on the field, and their total loss must have been over a thousand men.
The British casualties were trifling.
Ekowe was relieved two days after, the works destroyed and the post
abandoned; the whole force returning to the Lower Tugela.
In the meanwhile large reinforcements arrived from England, including
the 1st. Dragoon Guards, the 17th. Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers,
the 58th., 91st., and 94th. Regiments, and drafts for other corps in the
Colony, the whole amounting to over ten thousand officers and men. Among
the new arrivals was the unfortunate Prince Imperial, who reached Durban
two days after the conflict at Kambula, and was appointed an extra
A.D.C. on the head-quarter staff.
An immediate advance into Zululand was decided on, and organised in
three divisions. The first under General Crealock, C.B.; the second
under Major-General Newdigate; and the third—a flying column—under
General Wood; with whom was Lord Chelmsford, acting in advance of the
second division; Ulundi being the object of the combined operations. For
a time the invaders were almost unopposed, the enemy seeming to realise
the uselessness of attacking, with assegai and shield; entrenchments,
and squares of men armed with breechloaders, gatlings, and rockets; but
they had gained wisdom by experience, and avoiding fighting, overran
defenceless territory and carried off cattle, at the same time as a
_ruse_, sending messengers with proposals of peace.
At the commencement of this final stage of the war, occurred another
untoward accident, which cast a gloom over the whole campaign, and
thrilled the heart of England with shame and indignation. On June 1st.,
the Prince Imperial of France, Louis Napoleon, while out on a
reconnoitring expedition with Lieutenant Carey of the 98th. Regiment,
and six troopers of Bettington’s Horse, was surprised and killed by a
party of Zulus. As an officer in the camp wrote:—“The news of his death
fell like a thunderbolt on all.” His body was next day recovered and
sent to England.
On June 5th. was a smart cavalry skirmish, in which Lieutenant Firth, of
the 17th. Lancers, was killed.
Lord Chelmsford, with General Newdigate’s division and Wood’s flying
column, kept steadily advancing; establishing posts, and securing his
communication as he moved forward. On July the 3rd., Colonel Buller,
with five hundred cavalry, pushed forward to the Umvalosi River, on the
road to Ulundi, to reconnoitre the country. He crossed the river, but
had advanced but little beyond it, when he was suddenly assailed in
front and flank by five thousand Zulus, who attempted to surround him
and cut off his retreat. Buller retired, not without loss, hotly
pursued, and would have suffered much, but for the fire of the
nine-pounder guns of Major Tremlett, which checked the enemy. In this
affair, Lord William Beresford, of the 9th. Lancers, who had obtained
six months’ leave from India, and had come to Africa from sheer love of
fighting, gained the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in rescuing from
the pursuing Zulus a dismounted trooper of the Frontier Light Horse.
Next day, in the early morning,[81] Lord Chelmsford crossed the
Umvalosi, with a total strength of four thousand Europeans, and about
eleven hundred natives, with two gatlings, and twelve guns. In the front
were the 80th., 90th., and 13th. Regiments, with four seven-pounders,
two nine-pounders, and two gatlings; the 58th. and 94th. Regiments, with
two seven- and four nine-pounders; and in the rear the Scots Fusiliers,
with three squadrons of the 17th. Lancers. About eight o’clock he
reached the King’s kraal at Ulundi, and was attacked by the Zulu army,
variously estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand men. The troops
were formed in a hollow square four deep, which the furious and repeated
charges of the enemy, who advanced with the utmost bravery, in spite of
a murderous shell and rifle fire, utterly failed to break, and at no
point did they succeed in approaching nearer than thirty yards. In forty
minutes the Zulus were in full flight, pursued by Colonel Drury Lowe,
and the 17th. Lancers, who did terrible execution, literally cutting
them up with lance and sabre.
The British loss in this battle, which virtually ended the war, was
Captain Wyatt-Edgell (17th. Lancers) and ten men killed, and about
seventy officers and men wounded.
The loss of the enemy was upwards of fifteen hundred killed, there being
no wounded on the field, as the native contingent despatched all they
could find with their assegais.
Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had arrived at the Cape at the end of June from
London, now superseded Lord Chelmsford in the command, who with Generals
Newdigate and Crealock, Sir E. Wood, Colonel Buller, and the principal
officers, returned to England. Sir Garnet despatched two columns in
pursuit of Cetewayo, under Colonel Clark of the 57th. Regiment, and
Colonel Baker Russell, C.B., of the 13th. Hussars. For sixteen days the
fugitive king baffled his pursuers, but on August 28th. he was captured
in a kraal in the almost impenetrable Ngome Forest, by Major Marter of
the 1st. Dragoon Guards.
On the 1st. of September, 1879, the sixth anniversary of the day when
Cetewayo was installed King of the Zulus, by Sir Theophilus Shepstone,
and on the same spot, was held a meeting of chiefs; who in the presence
of Sir Garnet Wolseley, acknowledged the sovereignty of Queen Victoria,
abolished the military system, and gave up the importation of arms into
Zululand. They also agreed to condemn none of their subjects to death
without a trial, and their men were also to be free to marry when they
pleased. Fugitives from justice were to be given up, and in all disputes
the decision of the British Resident was to be final.
The cost of this war was estimated to be about £5,230,000.
OPERATIONS AGAINST SEKUKUNI,
1878–79.
Sekukuni was a chief of the Basutos, who in his fastness in the Lulu
mountains, between the Oliphant and Steel Poort Rivers, had defied the
Colonial Government, successfully resisted the Boers, and allied himself
with Cetewayo. Occupying a mountain range of fifty miles in length, he
was surrounded by all the lawless and warlike spirits in the district,
attracted by the hope of plunder; and like one of the robber barons of
the Middle Ages, he despatched them in all directions to ravage and lay
waste the surrounding country. In February, 1878, some of his men made a
raid on a chief under the protection of the English; and Sekukuni,
encouraged by Cetewayo, in reply to the complaint of the British
Commissioner, answered that “the English were afraid to fight—that the
country was his, not theirs, and that he was quite ready for war.”
In October a small body of one hundred and thirty men of the 13th.
Regiment, some Frontier Horse, and Mounted Infantry, commanded by
Colonel Rowlands, V.C., advanced to attack Sekukuni, but through the
roughness of the country, want of water, and the smallness of his force,
he could effect nothing, and was obliged to retreat. War in Zululand now
being imminent, operations against this formidable chieftain were for a
time suspended, but after the capture of Cetewayo, a new expedition
against him was organised by Sir Garnet Wolseley.
Sekukuni’s chief stronghold, called his “Fighting Koppie,” and deemed
impregnable by the Basutos, was a tremendous natural fortress rising
from the plain several hundred feet. Boulders and vast rocks piled one
over another formed the sides, the interior was honeycombed by caverns
and crannies innumerable, and the base of the hill was covered with
trees and jungly brushwood. It was occupied by a population of about
twelve thousand, but only five thousand were fighting men. The British
force consisted of two thousand two hundred Europeans, of whom fourteen
hundred were detachments of the 21st., 94th., and 80th. Regiments, and
about ten thousand Swazies, under Major Bushman (9th. Lancers) and
Captain Macleod, the whole being commanded by Colonel Baker Russell.
Sir Garnet Wolseley having completed his arrangements, the attack on the
stronghold was made November 28th., 1879, at four a.m., in three
divisions. Commandant Ferreira, with his colonial troops, carried the
heights on the south; Major Carrington, of the 24th. Regiment,
commanding the left attack, occupied the heights to the north; and Major
Bushman, with his Swazies, gained the top of the ridge commanding the
“town,” and combining with Carrington’s attack, poured down on the
central kraal, which was soon wrapped in flames. The “Fighting Koppie”
now being completely surrounded, was shelled by two Krupp guns, and two
seven-pounders, directed by Captain Knox, R.A., and at ten a.m., was
stormed by the centre column, consisting of the English infantry under
Colonel Murray. The kraals below were burning fiercely; Ferreira’s men
rushed up on the right, and with the Volunteers and Swazies, raced with
the red-coats to be first in the Koppie, but after an obstinate
struggle, the men of the 21st. and 80th. gained the summit of the hill,
and the place was taken.
The position was captured, but the resistance of the defenders was not
at an end. Hundreds of them sought refuge in the caverns with which the
hill abounded, and from them kept up an intermittent fire till they were
hunted out and slain. Sekukuni for some days escaped capture, but being
surrounded on all sides, his supply of water cut off, and his caverns
blown up, he surrendered on December 2nd. to Major Clark, and was
conveyed a prisoner to Pretoria.
In this brilliant affair the British loss was three officers and seven
men killed, and six officers and forty-three men wounded. The Swazies
had nearly a thousand killed and wounded, and the five thousand
defenders of the Koppie were nearly all slain, as our native allies gave
no quarter.
Among the officers who distinguished themselves was Major Herbert
Stewart, who shewed great energy and tact in dealing with the Native
Contingent, and who in January, 1885, as General Sir H. Stewart, in
command of the Gordon Relief Expedition, was mortally wounded, near
Metammeh, on the Nile.
The regiments engaged in these harassing operations were: the 1st.
Dragoon Guards, 1879; the 17th. Lancers, 1879; the 3rd. and 4th. Foot,
1879; the 13th., 1878–9; 21st, 1879; 24th., 1877, 1878, and 1879; 57th.,
1879; 58th., 1879; 60th., 1879; 80th., 1878–79; 88th. and 90th., 1877,
1878, and 1879; 91st., 1879; 94th., 1877, 1878, and 1879; and the 97th.,
99th., 1879.
[Illustration:
The Afghanistan Medal.
]
Every incident in these campaigns, which greatly consisted in patrolling
and skirmishing in all directions, has not been narrated in detail; yet
enough has been stated to show that the military power of Great Britain
has seldom contended with more obstinate and braver enemies than the
half-civilised Kaffirs and Zulus; and no medal has been more hardly
earned than that granted for services in South Africa.