The Anglo Zulu War - Isandlwana: The Revelation of a Disaster

249 Pages·2017·47.24 MB·English

by  Ron Lock

The Anglo-Zulu War –
Isandlwana
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For my granddaughter Larissa, who died too young.
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The Anglo-Zulu War –
Isandlwana
The Revelation of a Disaster
Ron Lock
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First published in Great Britain in 2017 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Ron Lock 2017
ISBN 978 1 52670 742 0
The right of Ron Lock to be identified as the Author of this Work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
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Library
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Contents
Foreword vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgements x
Author’s Note xii
Chapter 1 ‘ A little war in Zululand would lead to its consolidation
within the British Empire’ 1
Chapter 2 ‘ … Come and establish what is wanting amongst the
Zulu People’ 10
Chapter 3 ‘I do not think his disposition is very warlike’ 19
Chapter 4 ‘… The Zulus have been very kind to us’ 27
Chapter 5 ‘A big fuss over a small matter’ 47
Chapter 6 ‘Deceit is your most valuable asset in war’ 55
Chapter 7 ‘ … The Zulus are a match for us in generalship, and
more than a match for us in cunning’ 71
Chapter 8 ‘ Startled by a calamity so sudden. So great and so
close …’ 84
Chapter 9 ‘ What excitement this will cause in England and what
indignation’ 93
Chapter 10 ‘ I regret I have to report a very disastrous engagement …’ 104
Chapter 11 ‘ I have no desire whatever to shift any of the
responsibility …’ 115
Chapter 12 ‘ Her Majesty places entire confidence in you and the
troops, to maintain our honour and name’ 122
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vi The Anglo-Zulu War – Isandlwana
Chapter 13 ‘ My dear fellow, the rear always looks after itself’ 127
Chapter 14 ‘ God save you, Sir, from ever seeing a camp or
homestead sacked by Zulus’ 145
Chapter 15 Fugitive’s Drift 186
Chapter 16 The Aftermath 197
Chapter 17 Reconciliation 211
Notes 214
Bibliography 224
Index 228
List of Maps
1. Natal and the Zulu Kingdom, illustrating Lord Chelmsford’s
Invasion Plan. 35
2. Military Survey Map of the country around Isandlwana as
annotated by Colonel Evelyn Wood. 141
3. Ordnance Survey Map of area around Isandlwana indicating
where Colonel Evelyn Wood believed that the Zulu Army was
discovered. 154
4. The Isandlwana Battlefield at approximately midday,
22 January 1879. 157
5. Ordnance Survey map of the Isandlwana Battlefield indicating
the depression from which the Zulu Army emerged. 175
6. A map circa 1883, depicting the flight and graves of the fugitives. 195
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Foreword
by Prince Buthelezi
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Preface
F
or close on a hundred years, despite the sensation it caused at the time,
the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 was remembered as little more than just
another encounter between Queen Victoria’s redcoats and one of her
many far-flung adversaries. Then, in 1964, the late Sir Stanley Baker released
the film epic, Zulu, an immediate international success that is still frequently
shown on British television. Within a year the film was followed by Donald
Morris’s tome The Washing of the Spears, another international success. It
seemed that renewed interest in the Zulu War was not to be a brief enthusiasm.
During the last half century, I would cautiously suggest that more words have
been written about the Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift than have been
devoted to all the other colonial wars put together.
Yet there is more to the Anglo-Zulu War – the Battle of Isandlwana in
particular – than a bloody conflict that, for the Brits, evokes romantic nostalgia
for Empire long gone whereas, for the Zulus, once a proud warrior nation, it
engenders resentment for 150 years of subjugation. However, despite the prod, a
wink and a nod, from the Colonial Secretary (to be read on page 1 hereof), it was
not a conflict planned and instigated by Whitehall; it was a war, clandestinely
contrived in Natal by the colonial administration, enthusiastically supported
by Lieutenant General Frederick Thesiger (soon to inherit his father’s title of
Lord Chelmsford), the Officer Commanding HM Forces in Southern Africa.
However, between the time it took Thesiger to confidently write ‘I am inclined
to think that the first experience of the Martini-Henry [rifle], will be such a
surprise to the Zulus that they will not be formidable thereafter’, and the time
it took for a reprimand to follow, much had happened. Thesiger, now Lord
Chelmsford, had been outwitted, his column destroyed, 1,300 men slain and
1,000 Martini-Henry rifles taken by the Zulus.
In the ensuing scurry to apportion blame, there was a similar urgency to
not only be seen as disassociated with the disaster but, by finding a scapegoat,
to soldier on unabashed though guilty. As an additional precaution in the
safeguarding of their careers, the guilty anxiously sought the protection and
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Preface ix
patronage of the highest in the United Kingdom, and they did not seek in vain:
Queen Victoria, no less, declared confidence in her defeated general.
New evidence has also challenged views of the Isandlwana battle long held
sacrosanct. Perhaps the most controversial dilemma being did Lord Chelmsford
fall victim to a Zulu ploy, a ploy that lured him and half his force from the
defenceless camp? Was the East London and Province Standard, twenty-three
days after the battle, justified in declaring ‘The Zulus are a match for us in
generalship and more than a match in cunning’? Yes, it seems it was.
I have no doubt that this book will not be favourably received in some quarters
and many of its assertions refuted. Nevertheless, whether or not Isandlwana has
revealed some of its long-held secrets I am sure many more are waiting to be
exposed. And what better way could there be than a book penned by a Zulu
author. I eagerly await its publication.
Ron Lock – Port Edward, kwaZulu-Natal
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