Battle of Isandlwana Zulu War 1879

on the 22nd of january 1879 in south africa the british suffered the greatest defeat ever inflicted upon them by a native african army when a force of 1500 was annihilated by the army of the zulus south africa at the time was divided between the two british colonies of the cape and natal alongside tubular or dutch republics the transvaal and the orange free state and the british high commissioner sebarto freya had a goal of creating a single british controlled confederation in south africa bringing together those four white controlled areas into one dominion as had just been recently achieved in canada there were two major obstacles to freyr's dream of a british controlled southern african federation the first was the two ball republics the boers descended from dutch and french huguenot settlers had tracked inland away from british rule in the 1830s but by 1877 with the potential invasion of the transvaal by the zulus and a bankrupt treasury subartel freyr offered to both bail out the transfile and protect it from the zulus in return for british control the burs gradually agreed and the british who had historically got on well with the zulus applied a bit of pressure on their king quechua and he reined in his impes from the border but the zulus themselves represented the second obstacle to freyja's ambitious plans fiercely proud and independent with a military structure that could easily put 30 000 well-trained warriors into the field it was hard to comprehend how they would happily agree to british rule in a white dominated south africa moreover zululand was home to fine pastures huge herds of cattle and a labor market who could provide manpower on the european farms and in the diamond mines at kimberley if they weren't in keshueh's army with the impes and finally freyr also recognized that by eliminating the zulu threat he could buy further goodwill for queen victoria's somewhat reluctant poor subjects so during the late 1870s there was a subtle shift in british policy as conducted by london's man on the ground sabato freya keshuyo whom these british have backed in a civil war that brought him to power was now portrayed as a tyrant and a warmonger a clear and present danger to the european settlers not just in the boer transvaal but in the british colony of natal too the zulu king was perplexed by this new stance and suddenly found himself being boxed into a corner that you really couldn't understand despite sir battlefrey's new aggressive position the british government were not keen on any sort of war especially as they're already bogged down in a costly war in afghanistan back in london prime minister benjamin disraeli ordered freya not to seek a fight with the zulus this presented freya with a problem any war he conducted with the zulus would have to be done on the sly and consequently they would have to use only the troops that were already in south africa for any war the good news was that communication from cape town to london took about 20 days there was a telegraph as far as the island of madeira and then they relied on mail ships so if he could conduct a lightning campaign he could present the british government with a fade accompli and queen victoria with a new addition to her empire so as this war was going to be conducted on the sly sabato freyr and the british military commander lord chelmsford would have to rely on the existing british troops in south africa principally the first and second battalions of the 24th regiment to foot the warwickshires as well as the regular british forces and colonial europeans over half the force would consist of local africans formed into what was called the natal native contingent with the one rifle per 10 men and even that of horrified local white settlers who feared that today's ally could be tomorrow's well-armed enemy the majority was simply armed with spears and shields in fact they looked just like zulus except that they wore a red bandana around their head and with this rudimentary army in place freya now engineered a war with the zulus on the 11th of december 1878 the zulus were presented with an ultimatum from the british it demanded that keshueh disbanded his army his whole military infrastructure allow missionaries to freely preach and convert his people and that the zulu king would have to act on the advice of a british official what was called a resident who'd live in his capital effectively surrendering his total independence and these demands were completely unacceptable to keshua as freya had fully intended the zulu king dismissed them out of hand and when the ultimatum expired in early january 1879 freyr had his war and the british invaded zululand the british commander lord chelmsford divided his invasion force into three columns each entering zululand from a different direction but also moving towards the zulu capital at alundi a fourth column under lieutenant colonel dunford was held in reserve to protect natal from any possible zulu counter-attack and a fifth column would also protect transvaal the main column number three column was to be commanded by chelmsford himself and it consisted of over 4 000 men regular british soldiers from the 24th regime to foot white colonial soldiers and over 2 300 members of the natal native contingent keshwayo mastered his forces at his royal capital atalundi and then sent them out to face all three columns the zulu king may have been wrong-footed by the sudden change in relations with the british but he was acute enough to realize that on the international stage he could rightly present himself as a victim he also recognized that the only way to preserve zulu independence was to defeat the british decisively and to force them to the negotiating table before any reinforcements could come there was no better way to do that than to take out the british column commanded by lord chelmsford himself and it was against number three column that keshuyo sent the bulk of his army something between 20 and 25 000 men the zulu warriors were armed with three to five foot high shields made from toughened cowhide throwing spears knob carries which are like huge clubs and the feared assa guy this short spear had a blade that was about 18 inches long two inches wide and was deadly in close hand-to-hand combat many zulus were also armed with rifles it's estimated that over 20 000 rifles actually found their way into zulu land over the previous decade or so many were old obsolete muskets but at least 500 were modern breech-loading rifles the problem was that few zulus had ever been trained to properly use them and ammunition was also scarce and in battle mosul would prefer to cast aside their guns and ultimately use their assa guys having crossed the buffalo river at rorke's drift into zululand by the 21st of january chelmsford and number three column had set up a camp underneath the mountain called isan juana chelmsford sent a large reconnaissance force eastwards towards the zulu capital trying to spot the oncoming zulu impe that force consisting of about 1 600 nnc was commanded by major john dartnell it had gone about 14 miles away when they encountered a sizable zulu force with darkness descending dartznall couldn't get back to the camp so he sent messages back to chelmsford and then spent a very jittery night with his natal native contingent in a defensive position whilst to the east on the hills were fires lit by the watching zulus when chumps had heard the news he decided that dartmouth had met the advanced party of the zulu army and in his keen desire to smash the zulus as fast as possible he decided to march out without delay and before dawn 3 30 on wednesday the 22nd of january he moved out with about half of his column one thousand one hundred men he left one thousand two hundred men under lieutenant colonel pauline with orders to strike camp later that day and follow him bringing as much ammunition as possible for the battle that was going to happen to the east he also ordered number two column under colonel anthony dunford which was at the border at rorke's rift to move up to his handwana it never occurred to chelmsford that the camp itself would be attacked in fact his biggest concern was the zulus wouldn't meet him in battle at all and would adopt a guerrilla hit-and-run campaign which would not give him and freyja that decisive victory they needed before the government back in london found out what they were up to but chelmsford had made a fatal error not only had he divided his army in enemy territory without actually knowing where the enemy were but the forces that have been seen by dartmouth were a clever decoy the zulus had brilliantly managed to move 25 000 men over the hills unobserved and were now lying silently in a valley just a few miles north of the campetis and juana wednesday the 22nd of january dawned lieutenant colonel henry pauline was the 40 year old son of a parson from near thirsk in yorkshire and the grandson of a colonel in the scots graze graduating from sandhurst military academy in 1855 he'd built a reputation as a solid administrator in the army who in his 24 years of service had never seen command in a combat situation and he wasn't expected to command a combat situation on this day either once again the army was heading off to fight the zulus and he was being left to do what he did best organize the supplies to move forward as soon as possible not only was he not expecting a fight but he could be forgiven for being slightly complacent not only was the zulu army after all to the east but his command consisted of 1 200 men two seven pound artillery pieces and over one million rounds of ammunition more than enough to take on any commas surely so you must have been somewhat disturbed when around 7am whilst the camp were having breakfast a scout came in from the plateau to the north of the camp reporting large parties of the zulus in that vicinity this news was brought by a lieutenant verrica who actually appears in the film zulu dawn play out his characters played by simon ward although most of the verica story in the film is just that a story by now zulus had appeared on the skyline on the plateau nowhere near large enough to attack the camp but puzzling nevertheless seeing as chelmsub was supposed to be engaging with them all to the east unbeknownst to pulling this was the 70 year old commander of the zulu army who had run with his men all the way from ulundi and he was scouting the camp in preparation for an attack at dawn the following day the zulus having scouted then disappeared just after 10 a.m lieutenant colonel anthony dunford and 500 mounted soldiers cantered into the camp dunford's orders had been to march the camp at once with all the forces he had he was somewhat puzzled to find that there were no further orders when he arrived at the camp dunford was senior in rank to pauline and afterwards many argued that he was actually therefore in command of the camp however this would have actually meant combining number three column and number two column and no specific orders had actually been issued for this to happen with further reports coming in of still large numbers of zulus up on the plateau durnford came to the conclusion that the zulus were attempting to encircle chelmsford to the east and he decided to take his column out to prevent that encirclement happening about an hour after he had arrived durnford was on the move again his decision to leave the camp has been as i say a source of debate and controversy ever since at about the same time 11 30 in the morning up on the nakuta heights the plateau lieutenant raw was scouting and he rode to the edge of a caribbean and peered over i couldn't believe his eyes there sitting silently were 20 000 zulus upon being discovered the zulu army without any orders from their superiors rose and started to form their battle formations the charging bull buffalo the right wing which will go round to the north side of the camp the left wing which would go out across the plateau and would run into colonel dermford as he was riding towards chelmsford pulling formed his men along the north and northeast sides of the camp about a mile and a half out from the camp this was a massive sort of defensive position to try and hold with just six companies of british regular soldiers and one contingent of the nnc and don't forget they only have one rifle for every ten men historian ian knight estimates that the soldiers in the british companies were actually standing about three yards away from each other which makes it a very thin british red line indeed nevertheless these were experienced soldiers many have been in the army for over 10 years they were in their 30s most had combat experience and there was no sign of panic despite the size of the army that was advancing upon them in fact many thought of what great luck they thought they were being left behind while the chelsea had gone off to fight the main army and it was them who were going to get the action the 15 000 main chest of the zulu army descended off the heights and at 600 yards the british opened fire the steady volley fire three rounds a minute had a devastating effect on the zulus opposite to them and the attack started to falter meanwhile on the spur to the north of the camp e and f companies were firing away at a force of zulus who were about 800 yards away but rather than turning to engage the british this force just kept moving behind isandjuana hill to the east chelmsford alerted by the sounds of cannon fire asked a naval officer lieutenant milne to climb a nearby hill and look at the camp through his naval telescope all milne could see was the tents and cattle being herded into camp all of which looked like it was under control but actually what was happening was the cattle weren't being herded by the british but were fleeing from the oncoming zulus back at his honduana it was approaching 1 30 p.m and suddenly lots of things started to happen all at once very quickly out on the plane facing the zulu left horn dunford was running out of ammunition seeing their predicament lieutenant pope the monaco officer commanding g company of the 2nd battalion 24 foot moved off the line to close the gap with dunford and provide covering fire for him but at that very moment durnford's mounted men withdrew leaving g-company horribly exposed meanwhile the zulu regiments forming the chest of the charging bull were still being pinned down by the volley fire of the british along with the artillery fire it was at this moment that a brave zulu in duno or chief arrived from up on the plateau a chief from the biela people in his early forties wearing a leopard skin collar and wearing a huge headdress made from long feathers of a crane he seemed almost immune to the british bullets as he paced up and down in front of the warriors looking down at them as they sought cover he raised his voice about the dinner the battle and shouted the little branch of leaves which was the name for the king gave no such order as this and upon hearing those words with a roar the zulus rose and charged and in that very moment the inspirational indoona was shot through the head in that initial charge made by the zulu chess pope's company exposed outer out on the who had been trying to cover dunford were annihilated seeing zulu's annihilating redcoats the nnc armed mainly with spears fled in terror at that same time the zulu right wing which had moved unobserved around its anduana mountain now entered the camp from the rear pauline ordered the bugler to recall the men to the camp this battle was fast turning into a route small groups of soldiers standing back to back using their last bullets and then their bayonets fighting to the very end in the unfolding calamity pauline asked an officer lieutenant melville to carry the queen's colour to safety together with another officer lieutenant coghill he galloped out of the camp the flight of melville and coghill has to this day being marred in controversy and deserves a video in its own right which i will be making for you very soon back in the camp it was chaos zulu reports later recalled british soldiers fighting with their bare fists and zulus in a killing frenzy slashing at anything that moved in horses cattle even camped dogs the orderly of the naval officer with the telescope lieutenant milne have been left in the camp and he stood with his back to a wagon clenching a naval cutlass and challenging beckoning the zulus to take him on like some sort of gladiator he dispatched his enemies one at a time until one zulu crawled under the wagon and speared him from behind as the battle reached its zenith the scene became even more hellish as the sun entered a partial eclipse and a weird darkness descended on isandwana meanwhile above the mayhem in the camp sea company commanded by lieutenant young husband retreated along the slopes of his handwana itself above the carnage the zulus brought their further retreat and when the men of sea company ran out of ammunition young husband took his sword and led them in a brave but futile bayonet charge down the hill terrified survivors fled the battlefield down a rough trail towards the buffalo river and the safety of natal through thorn bushes boggy ground with zulus chasing them among them were lieutenants coghill and melville trying to save the queen's color having run that terrifying seven mile gauntlet called fugitives trail they found the river in full flood and any man not on a horse was killed by the zulus there and it was there at fugitives drift that the exhausted melville and coghill were overtaken on the natal side of the river by the zulus and killed unfortunately for fans of zulu dawn lieutenant verrica was not with them although another colonial officer called higginson was he managed to get away verica by the way was killed at the main battle it was also at the river that private samuel wassel of the 80th regiment serving with a colonial mounted unit won the victoria cross by returning under fire to rescue private westwood who is floundering in the swirling waters the battle of issandwana was over by 2pm it was less than three and a half hours since raw had discovered the zulu army in that ravine not a single man on foot escaped with his life only 55 europeans escaped at all from that bloodbath only five of which were officers from the regular british army included in that number was a lieutenant smith dorian who would go on to command the second corps at the retreat from mons during the first world war just one lone british soldier survived on the battlefield against the whole victorious zulu army one unknown member of young husbands company hadn't charged down the hill with his officer but had made his way up the sleep steep slope of the mountain and there he'd hold himself up in a small cave and took pot shots at inizulu who came anywhere near him eventually the zulus got tired of this annoying british soldier and brought up men with captured rifles from the battlefield who proceeded to fire several volleys into the cave zulu's stories say that he was killed when the shadows were starting to get long on the ground which would suggest that he had actually held the zulus at bay for probably a couple of hours hoping against all hopes for relief maybe he could even see three miles away chelmsford's column gathering to return since naval officer lieutenant milne had looked at the camp chelmsford had been receiving more urgent and desperate reports from the camp and i decided to write back to his handwana to see what on earth was going on on the way he met an officer called lonsdale who relayed a shocking story lonsdale had been with chelmsford's party in the east but had been sent back to his handwana having suffered a fall and the effects of sunstroke he was in a bit of a daze as his horse wandered into the camps of one homing device and as he came to and focused he became aware there were zulus milling around the camp wearing red british tunics and holding bloody asa guys he turned his horse and spurred it into a gallop some zulus gave chase but their efforts were half-hearted they were exhausted and quite frankly there was loot to be had in the camp his news shocked chelmsford who urgently called his very disparate forces in the east to come together and return to this handwana camp it was nightfall before chelmsford re-entered the camp bodies lay everywhere in the dark many of the british soldiers had been ritually disemboweled by the zulus who believed that dead warriors spirits needed to be released or the stomach would puff up with with gas and instead of ascending to heaven the spirit of the warrior would haunt the man who'd killed him the british unaware of this custom believed that their comrades had been tortured and that belief would result in some vicious reprisals not least the killing of zulu wounded found at the relief of rorke's drift the following day of the camp that chelsea had left that morning nothing was left it had been thoroughly looted and 1500 men 700 british soldiers 700 members of the native natal native contingent 100 colonial troops or civilians have been massacred it wasn't until later in the year that the british returned to bury their dead and the cairns marking their resting places are littered across the battlefield to this day only one british soldier was brought back to britain for burial lieutenant edgar anstey the 28 year old born in adelaide in south australia is buried in saint john's churchyard in woking not only is the only is he the only british soldier to have been brought back from miss anduan to britain but he's the first australian-born soldier to die in action outside of australia the slow communications that sabato freyr and chelsea had hoped to use as a cover for their war now delayed the news of the disaster heading back to britain it was around midnight on the the 10th 11th of february that news finally reached london and britain went into a state of shock the plucky defense of the mission station of rocks drift was poor compensation for the magnitude of the defeat at isandjuana whilst playing up the gallantry of the defenders of rorke's drift not least with a number of vc's rewarded chelmsford was quick to lay the blame for the defeat at issandwana or anybody but himself but equally it couldn't be the fate of red-coated infantry so rather than pulling being held to account for spreading his troops doubt too thinly three myths were planted as to who was to blame the nnc collapsed at a crucial moment in the battle durnford didn't take command and the commissariat delayed ammunition supplies by quibbling and with a lack of screwdrivers to open the boxes up not only do these myths not all stand up to scrutiny and also obscure chelmsford's culpability in dividing his forces and pauline's decision to spread his line too thinly and not to create any entrenched positions it ignores something far more important that the modern british army had been out maneuvered and out fought by an enemy with spears and shields the zulus had successfully forward chelmsford into dividing his forces with that decoy move they had moved 25 000 men undetected to the north of the camp and then they had delivered a horns of the buffalo attack over a four mile front and finally despite the withering fire laid down by experienced british redcoats the zulu warriors had held their nerve and had pressed home their attack inspired by the chief from the bahila people indeed if there was a hero at his anduana i would argue that it wasn't a british one but that chief who resplendent in his leopard skin coat and a crane feather headdress inspired his warriors in one final charge against that withering british rifle fire maybe without his urgings the zulu attack could have completely faltered and petered out history turns on very small hinges doesn't it the zulu victory at his handwala came at a heavy price over one thousand of keshueyo's cracked troops had died and as the zulu king lamented and asagai has been plunged into the zulu nation the shocking defeat of the british did have a silver lining for chelmsford and sabato freya however isandjuana had been a disaster a national humiliation and now troops would be found to restore britannia's honor with this new stronger army made up of british regular troops not local forces chelmsford was able to re-invade zulu land and on the 4th of july 1879 less than six months after the defeat at issandwana had delivered he delivered a devastating defeat on the zulu army outside their capital of ulundi king kashua was captured zulu land was subjugated and on the fields of zululand lay over 7000 warriors who died defending their homeland and the old zulu order well thank you for watching and i hope you enjoyed that story from the zulu wars i always find that battle so fascinating on so many fronts there there are so many videos i could still do about it not least you know melville and coghill and of course there were battles to follow up including some further british defeats plenty more videos from military history coming your way but in the meantime keep well and i'll see you very very soon [Music] you

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, military history, battle of isandlwana, the battle of isandlwana, battle of isandlwana zulu war 1879, battle of isandlwana documentary, the battle of isandlwana 1879, battle of issandwana, isandlwana, the battle of isandlwana zulu war, zulu, zulu dawn, british army, victorian military, anglo-zulu war, zulu wars battle of isandlwana, lord chelmsford, cetshwayo, 24th regiment of foot, zulu wars, isandwana

Id: ey0NZnld_P8

Length: 27min 54sec (1674 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 05 2022