Battle of Isandlwana

On 22 January 1879, at the foot of the hill of Isandlwana in Zululand, an army of the Zulu Kingdom overran a British camp, killing more than 1,300 of its roughly 1,800 defenders. It came eleven days into the British invasion that began the Anglo-Zulu War, and it ranks among the worst defeats the British Army suffered against an indigenous opponent with far inferior weapons. The disaster wrecked the first invasion but also hardened British resolve, leading to a larger second campaign that ended Zulu independence.

In the 1870s Britain hoped to unite its South African possessions in a confederation, a plan obstructed by independent states such as the Zulu Kingdom. On 11 December 1878 the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, acting without London's approval, presented King Cetshwayo with an ultimatum he could not realistically accept. When it expired, Lord Chelmsford invaded. His centre column crossed the Buffalo River at Rorke's Drift on 11 January 1879, and on 20 January it camped beneath Isandlwana. Confident that modern rifles and artillery would prevail, Chelmsford did not entrench the camp or form a wagon laager.

Early on 22 January, believing he had found the main Zulu army, Chelmsford marched out with roughly half his strength. He left about 1,300 soldiers, including six companies of the 24th Regiment of Foot and two field guns, under Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pulleine, an officer with little front-line experience. Colonel Anthony Durnford arrived mid-morning with some 500 African auxiliaries and a rocket battery. In fact the main Zulu army, around 20,000 men under Ntshingwayo kaMahole, had slipped unseen into a valley a few miles away intending to attack on 23 January.

Around 11 a.m. British scouts stumbled on the hidden army, which immediately advanced in its classic "horns and chest" formation designed to surround an enemy. Pulleine pushed his infantry out into an extended firing line. For a time disciplined volleys from Martini–Henry rifles and shellfire halted the Zulu centre, but the left horn was working around the British right. As Durnford's men, probably running short of ammunition, fell back, the line was exposed and Pulleine ordered a retreat to the camp. The Zulus broke through, and the fighting became hand to hand. A solar eclipse darkened the sky in the afternoon as the camp fell.

More than 1,300 men on the British side died, among them Pulleine, Durnford and 52 officers; the Natal Native Contingent lost around 400. Zulu losses were never counted. Modern historians estimate that at least 1,000, and perhaps 1,500 to 2,000, Zulu warriors were killed, with many more wounded. Cetshwayo is said to have lamented that a spear had been thrust into the belly of the nation. The victors carried off about 1,000 rifles, both field guns and large quantities of ammunition and supplies.

Late in the day some 4,000 warriors of the Zulu reserve crossed into Natal and attacked the mission station at Rorke's Drift, where about 150 British soldiers beat them off. Chelmsford returned to the ruined camp after dark and withdrew. Defeat persuaded the government in London to send substantial reinforcements, and in a second invasion Chelmsford defeated the Zulus at Ulundi and Cetshwayo was captured. Afterwards the British divided Zululand among subordinate chiefs, and the kingdom ceased to exist as an independent state. Chelmsford's attempt to blame Durnford for the disaster was disputed at the time and has been since; an official inquiry found the main cause to be an underestimate of Zulu fighting power.

Our 1878 map shows the Zulu Kingdom just before the invasion, beside the Cape Colony and Natal, and our 1880 map shows the region after the war. The area is now part of South Africa.