Isandlwana: The Survivors Accounts (Walking the Fugitives Trail, 2023)

the Battle of is sandana one of the worst and most famous defeats in British colonial history did you know that despite the crushing Zulu Victory there was a surprising number of survivors from amongst the British and their allies today I'm back on the battlefield here at isand Lana to follow the route that many of those survivors took on that fateful day 22nd of January 1879 so how many survived the battle well of course there was five British Imperial officers I.E Army regulars but there was also men from the mounted infantry and a decent number of colonial volunteers I've often read that the number of survivors is between 50 and 60 but that doesn't include black auxiliaries let's not forget that danford's Nal native horse despite heavy casualties managed to maintain some sort of cohesion and fight their way back to Rock's drift no mean feet okay guys so today we're going to be hiking along the trail I'm going with an experienced tour guide Johan I'm I'm a tour guide myself but there's always things to learn and he's really good knows his stuff so thanks to him and Pat rungren for organizing this today by the way if you want to learn more about the Battle of isand Lana you can sign up for my mailing list over at Redcoat his.com newsletter and when you do so you'll get your free ebook which is a guide to the battle I think you'll really enjoy that in today's video I'll be reading the men's accounts and examining the Topography of what is now known as the fugitives Trail as an aside I'm not going to be reading accounts of the Zulu warriors as I'll be doing a separate video covering those in the near future all of today's accounts as well as others can be found in this recent book Witnesses at isand Lana by Neil Thornton and Michael denigan so it's hard to imagine now but where I'm walking along this path would have been absolute Chaos on the day of the 22nd of January there would have been cattle here making terrible noise there would have been thousands of Zulu warriors streaming down stabbing shooting the British Soldiers with their Martini Henry's probably using up their last rounds to defend themselves it would have been absolutely horrific so these days as you travel along the path there are a lot of stone White Stone canes as there are around the battlefield these would have been survivors putting up a Last Stand along the fugitives Trail before they were wiped out we don't know exactly who's buried under here it'll be just a pile of whatever bones were found long after the battle was finished so let's start off with Captain Edward Essex he had passed out from Sandhurst in 1867 and joined the 75th Regiment of foot in 1878 he had completed his staff College course and volunteered for service in South Africa on the day of the battle he was fulfilling his duties as a transport officer attached to the center column here's an excerpt from his account of the day the 24th men he means the 24th regiment however were as cheery as possible making remarks to one another about their shooting and the enemy opposed to them made little progress but they were now within 500 yards of our line the two companies which had been moved from the hill were now getting short of ammunition so I went to the camp to bring up a fresh Supply I got such men as were not engaged bandsmen Cooks Etc to assist me and sent them up to the line under charge of an officer and I followed with more ammunition in a mule cart in loading the latter I helped the quartermaster of the second Battalion of the 24th to place the boxes in the cart and while doing so the poor fellow was shot dead the enemy's fire was now increasing and I could hear the whiz of bullets all over the place I noticed that our natives were now running away by twos and threes I looked around and was horrified to see that the enemy had nearly surrounded us and was beginning to fire from the rear coming up in that direction at a tremendous Pace the right of the 24th was now turned and the men became unsteady a few fixed bayet and I heard the officers calling on their men to keep together and Be steady it was was however no use in a few seconds the whole field was a rabble and the Zulus were among us we were driven up through the camp towards the road by which we had arrived men falling right and left the road immediately in rear of our camp LED across a sort of neck between two Hills by the time we arrived here the retreat had become a stampede horses mules oxin wagons all being carried in the same direction the worst was yet to come on gaining the neck we found the circle our enemy had drawn round us was nearly complete the only space not yet occupied by them being a rugged and deep dry water course to the left of the road a rush was made to gain this before the enemy and I gave myself up for lost I had thank God a very good horse and a very shooted one but I saw many poor fellows roll over their horses stumbling over the rocky ground it was now a race for dear life the Zulus kept up with us on both sides being able to run down the Steep Rocky ground quite as fast as a horse could travel Essex survived and made it to the encampment at helmar over 15 miles away here he and a handful of others prepared what defenses they could and stood waiting for a Zulu attack that never materialized essic continued to fight the Zulus and was present during the second invasion and the Battle of wundi he also fought in the first Anglo B War AKA transval rebellion and was given the nickname lucky Essex another interesting story is Lieutenant Smith Dorian of the 95th he later became a core commander and army commander in World War I leading the British forces at mons and leato in 19 14 but in 1879 he was a transport officer working alongside the Royal artillery on the afternoon of the 22nd of January as the Battle of isand Lana was clearly being lost and because he wasn't in command of any troops he made a dash for it he's left as this account everybody then who had a horse turned to fly the enemy were going at a kind of very fast half walk and half run on looking around we saw that we were completely surrounded and the road to Rock's drift was cut off the place where they seemed thinnest was where we all made for everybody went pelm over ground covered with huge Boulders and rocks until we got to a deep Sprite or Gully how the horses got over I have no idea I was riding a broken kned old Croc which did not belong to me and which I expected to go on its head every minute we had to go bang through them at the Sprite lots of our men were killed there I had lots of marvelous escapes and was firing away at them with my revolver as I galloped along the ground there down to the river was so broken that the Zulus went as fast as the horses and kept killing all the way this lasted till we came to a kind of precipice down to the Buffalo River I jumped off and led my horse down there was a poor fellow of the mounted infantry a private struck through the arm who said as I passed that if I could bind up his arm and just stop the bleeding he would be all right I accordingly took out my handkerchief and tied up his arm just as I'd done it Major Smith of the artillery came down by me wounded saying for God's sake get on man the Zulus are on top of us I'd done all I could for the wounded man and so turned to jump on my horse horse just as I was doing so the horse went with a bound to the bottom of the precipice being struck with an asy I gave up all hope as the Zulus were all around me finishing off the wounded and the man I had helped a major Smith among the number however with the strong hope that everybody clings to and that some accident would turn up I rushed off on foot and plunged into the river which was little better than a roaring torrent I was being carried down the stream at a tremendous Pace when a loose horse came by me and I got hold of its tail and he landed me safely on the other bank but I was too tired to stick to him and to get on his back I got up again and rushed on and was several times knocked over by our mounted black soldiers who would not get out of the way and then up a tremendous Hill with my clothes wet and my boots full of water a few Zulus followed us for about 3 miles across the river but they had no guns and I had a revolver which I kept letting them know also the mounted black soldiers stopped a little and kept firing at them they did not come in close and finally stopped all together well to cut it short I struggled in to help Ma about 20 m miles off at nightfall to find a few men who had escaped about 10 or 20 with others who had been entrenched in a wagon logger he was certainly another lucky bugger now for those of you looking to travel to the battlefields for this trip I stayed at the Rocks drift hotel which is literally positioned right on the drift right on the Old Wagon Trail where the invasion started they can be found at Rock drift hotel.com they're not paying me for this but I always have a good time there and I thought I'd share the details so the final account I want to share today is that of a translator attached to the central column called James brick Hill let's join his recollection in the afternoon just as the Zulus are about to burst into the camp going down to the first 24th Camp I saw Mr Dubois who asked me in Zulu how it looked I replied ugly and said yes the enemy have scattered us this day Panic was everywhere and no officer to guide no shelter to fall back upon so seeing that the Zulus were already stabbing in the this Camp as well as the others I joined the fugitives retreating over the neck on reaching which I found all communication by the road we' come along cut off by several lines of Zulus running across they had come along behind this Sana and thus intercepted our Retreat the Zulu's left horn had now come over the Ridge South of the Stony copy they could have completed their Circle but I think they preferred leaving the Gap so that they might attack us in our rear our flight I shall never forget no path no track Boulders everywhere on we went borne into some dry torren bed now weaving our way amongst trees of stunted growth so that unless you make the best use of your eyes you were in constant danger of colliding against some tree or finding yourself unhorsed at the bottom of some Ravine our way was already strewn with shields asag blankets hats closing of all description band Sergeant Gamble tottering and tumbling about amongst the stones said for God's sake give me a lift I said my dear fellow it's a case of life and death with me and closing my eyes I put Spurs to my horse and bounded ahead that was the last I sore of him got to respect his honesty there haven't you I think most people would have lied about that the next person I Came Upon also a soldier said well I'm jumped I'm done the Zulus can just come and stab me if they like and he just sat quietly on a stone awaiting death you can see how steep and difficult this terrain is Imagine now being stabbed being shot at there's horses going crazy there's cattle everywhere hard to imagine it isn't it whilst going down into a deep torrent bed I saw lieutenants Melville and cogill and conduct a F about 200 yards ahead only more to our right a stream of Zulus running on their right was fast pressing them down towards the course we were on scrambling over this Rocky bed as best we could we came up a hill on this side fully exposed to the enemy's rear and Crossfire we came to an abrupt Hole by reason of a huge Chasm or Gully which opened up to view in front of our horses there was nothing for it but to turn sharply around and follow the course of the Gully down in the hope of finding another crossing a mounted infantryman impatient of our Indian file type of following one another put his horse at the Gully it was a noble looking gray but the horse fell far short and the rider lay crushed beneath his horse about 12T below we found a Crossing to the Gully but so deep that on coming out on the other side I laced my arms around my horse's neck and threw my head forward as far as possible and even then it remains a mystery how our horses got out of this without falling over backwards a little further I found Mr Melville carrying the colors that was just in front of me some of danford's horse the bassus who were a little in front stopped now and then and took shot at the enemy and rode on again I overheard one of them tell His companion that he knew the way across country to the missionary and they agreed if they escaped to take that course knowing that everybody else who escaped would make for help marar I decided if I escaped to keep with them so that I might appraise the Mission Station of the true State of Affairs so this is the manzin Yama River it's very very steep Riverbanks and this is as far as the majority of people got going down to the manzin Yama Blackwater River we had some very bad country so bad that we all got off and led our horses here we were compelled to take one narrow pass the fleeing party all converged there there was a great Crush seeing the danger of Melville's position for there was a steep precipice on his immediate left I backed my horse and kept all the others back as well as I could as a collision there might have sent him and his horse rolling for several yards it was then that I became aware that Mr cogill was just behind as he shouted get on your horses there Mr T there's no time to be leading a horse get on your horse your fellows there some near him said you get off yours this is no place to be riding one I did not know then that he suffered from an injured knee and could not walk so most of those fugitives emerged at the top of this hill they tried to work their way down here down to the Buffalo River which on that day was much much deeper than this fast flowing you can imagine it all of this was deep water so on Ice bed reaching the buffalo we found it Rolling High no time for choosing the best Crossing then there were the Zulus in running lines making for the Stiller water to higher up my horse plunged in swimming at once but had scarcely gone six yards before he stumbled over something large but on WE sped catching up many Native fugitives I sent word to Mr woodro that our camp had been taken and that the Zulus were in Pursuit we did not feel out of danger even temporarily until we had reached the Reverend Mr Weber station brick Hill was one of the who later returned to recover the bodies of Li tenants Melville and cogill they're now buried here on the natal side of the river theirs is a fascinating story and a little bit controversial and one I'm going to come back to in a future video so watch this space

Channel: Redcoat History

Views: 120,946

Keywords: military history, British army, redcoats, tactics, battlefield guide, history, documentary, history documentary, British military history, Zulu War, Isandlwana, Zulus, hiking

Id: g9ZJcOc3qbw

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 03 2023