The Battle of Intombe 1879 - Zulu War

zulu victory at the battle of isandjuana in january 1879 had thrown the british invasion of zululand into chaos it also sent shockwaves and panic through the populations especially the white populations in neighboring natal colony and transvaal and no greater was this fear felt than in the lands bordering northwest zululand this was an area that had been disputed between white settlers the swazis and the zulus for years upon hearing of the british defeat at issandwana the residents surrounding the small village of luenberg had sought safety in their local church which they had fortified and for good reason on the 10th and 11th of february just two weeks after isandwana and the british defense said at rorke's rift zulus raided across the border into this area and whilst this wasn't a full-blown zulu invasion but merely an opportunistic raid by marauders to seize cattle and anything else they could lay their hands on it was of little comfort to you or your family if you're on the receiving end of an assagai this area of zululand that was bordering a natal colony in transvaal was fiercely proud to be zulu but was also an area that was semi-autonomous with many local powerful leaders one such leader was the exiled swazi prince umbellini he'd fled his native country when he had back to the wrong side in a succession crisis and an old friend and ally the zulu king keshuyo he was allowed to settle with his supporters in zululand and over the years he had gathered zulu supporters into his entourage so that by 1879 he could personally put about a thousand warriors into the field and whilst those numbers were nowhere near strong enough to invade either natal or transvaal they were more than enough to cause a nuisance and disrupt communications between the two colonies the british commander lord chelsea ordered four companies of the 80th regiment of foot to move from the transvaal to luenberg to both offer some peace of mind to the residents who were holed up in their church and to check any further zulu incursions the 80th regiment of foot had been raised during the french revolutionary wars in the 1790s and tended to be recruited from the county of staffordshire in england a few years after the zulu wars they would be amalgamated with the 38th regiment what i happened to mention in my video about the battle of alma in the crimean war to form at the south staffordshire regiment and those four companies the 80th foot were commanded by major charles tucker tucker had been born in devon in 1838 received his army commission in 1855 at the age of 17. and five years later he had transferred to the 80th regiment during the 19 years that he'd spent with the 80th regiment he had participated in campaigns in bhutan in the himalayas and modern-day malaysia having marched his infantry companies to lumber he was now waiting for his supplies not least 90 000 rounds of ammunition to arrive in a convoy of 18 oxen pulled wagons lumbering very slowly behind them this convoy was attracting the attention of umbellini's scouts who were licking their lips at the rich and unprotected pickings not least the 250 cattle that were being driven along along with the convoy concerned both at the convoy's slow progress and the vulnerability tucker sent out d company of the 80th regiment under captain anderson to provide an escort and to deter india marauders five days later the convoy was struggling to make progress torrential rains had made rivers almost impassable and the ground so soft that the heavily laden wagons were constantly getting stuck still eight miles away from luneburg and with the intombe river to cross tucker sent his captain instructions to get to the village at all costs whether there was ambiguity in that instruction or whether captain anderson read them literally is open to question but tucker was a glass to suddenly find anderson and d company marching into his camp that evening minus the wagons major tucker now sent captain moriarty and just over a hundred men to reinstate the escort and bring the wagons finally home on the 7th of march moriarty's men crossed the intombe river and started to gather in their flock they found most of the wagons lagered circled a few miles north of the river the 11 civilian drivers and their 30 black african helpers were mightily pleased to see them because umbellini's scouts had descended on the undefended wagons and had helped themselves to some of the goodies because the scouts were few in numbers that only carried away what they could take including some modern martini henry rifles destined for the 80th in lundberg more importantly they were on their way now to tell the swazi prince that there were 80 modern rifles and 90 000 rounds of ammunition going begging in the undefended wagons 90 000 rounds of ammunition is one heck of a prize for those of you who saw my video about the battle of rocks drift you may recall that the defenders of the mission station were fortunate enough to have 20 thousand rounds of ammunition available to them we are talking nearly five times that amount that the zulus could possibly capture from this wagon convoy and strangely enough dumbellini was very interested and he gathered his whole force of 1000 warriors to make his next move meanwhile captain moriarty was moving the wagons down to mayer's drift to cross the intombi river david moriarty was a 42 year old irishman who joined the army in 1853 he'd been gazetted as a lieutenant in 1857 and he'd seen service both in india and south africa and was known for his affability and also his relaxed attitude to his duties rain waters were once more hampering operations having got two wagons across the 30-foot wide river the river was now in flood suddenly creating a 50-foot barrier nearly five feet deep moriarty decided to form the remaining wagons into a defensive position on the north side of the river until the waters subsided it was now the 11th of march 1879. his party had been working in the rain and mud for four days they were absolutely exhausted as the river finally started to fall major tucker arrived from bloomberg to assess the situation he wasn't impressed by moriarty's attention to detail or should we say lack of attention to detail the wagons hadn't been drawn up in a circular lager but instead we're in an inverted v formation heading away from forming a triangle heading away from the river and moreover those defenses had run as far as the flooded river and the flood levels were starting to fall leaving a gap in the defenses at each end of the v maybe tucker took one look at the exhausted men and decided not to be too draconian especially as they were only miles from the british garrison at bloomberg and he rode back to his base leaving the majority of the wagons formed in their v under moriarty on the north bank of the drift and just two wagons under lieutenant harwood on the south side lieutenant henry hollingworth harwood was 32 years old he'd been commissioned in the west indian regiment in 1871 and had seen active service in the ashanti war in modern day ghana upon successfully completing that campaign he transferred to the 80th regiment of foot with him on the south side of the drift were 30 men from the 80th including sergeant anthony booth booth had been born in carrington in nottingham in 1846 at the age of 18 he'd enlisted in the army initially failing a medical for the royal marines he then passed the medical for the 80th regiment afoot and was a corporal within a year married at the age of 20 he and his wife lucy were to have eight children all born at different parts of the world wherever his military service took him in queen victoria's empire he was now 32 years old and was regarded as a steely professional soldier who some said was a little bit too overt in his desire to get promoted it was booth who noticed a local african eating corn with some of the drivers upon inquiring one of the drivers told him it was umbellini himself scouting out the camp he reported this to moriarty the irishman didn't seem at all concerned retorting to booth you're as bad as your pals said you are you'd shoot your own brother by now the mysterious african had disappeared and the two camps on either side of the drift settled down for the night the 70 men with moriarty on the north bank were absolutely exhausted and they fell asleep quickly moriarty posted just two centuries and no outlying pickets thick mist descended onto the drift at around 4 am a single shot broke the silence of the night a little way off in the distance sergeant booth came to as indeed to capture moriarty in the on the north bank moriarty looked around saw no problems asked his sentries what was going on and then went back to sleep blissfully unaware that the zulus were silently sneaking up on his command booth on the other hand couldn't get back to sleep maybe it was a soldier's intuition but it says something felt wrong he sat up on the wagon on the south bank having a cigarette at around 5am as he looked across the river the mist lifted for a brief moment and he saw hundreds of zulus closing in on moriarty's wagons he fired a warning shot but it was too late the zulus fired a ragged volley with some of the guns that they'd pilfered a few days beforehand and then charged they charged straight through that gap between the wagons and the river where the flood rivers flood waters had subsided the slumbering british soldiers didn't know what hit them as the zulus descended with their asa guys and their lethal knob carries the wooden clubs they staggered from their tents and now from underneath the wagons and the zulus were already in the camp amongst them a driver who survived the sorter saw moriarty shoot three zulu's dead with his revolver before being speared with an asa guy shouting far away boys death or glory i'm done captain moriarty fell amongst a frenzy of slashing the zulu assage in the panic of the dark the mist the battle the zulu war cries men shrieking soldiers and civilians tried to swim across the river but they were dragged out and killed by the zulus just 15 made it across just because they crossed the river didn't mean that they had reached safety the zulus were now forwarding the drift in the time-honored zulu tradition of linking their arms to rush against the current a couple of hundred zulus against thirty men plus were the exhausted and terrified survivors from the camp and the two wagons hardly created a defensible position you couldn't exactly form a lager a circle with just two wagons and while sergeant booth tried to organize his men the situation looked hopeless certainly it looked hopeless to lieutenant harwood who chose this moment to ride off towards loomberg leaving booth to organise a fighting retreat every few yards he'd order his men to fire a volley into the zulus which kept the attacking zulus at the bay for three miles booth fought this game of cat and mouse with the zulus until in the growing light of the day they reached a farmhouse and decided to make their last stand the zulus however had given up they were more interested in all that loot back at the wagons so that by the time major tucker who had been alerted by the fleeing harwood rode up with men from loomberg garrison booth's battle was over tucker's mounted men rode forward and saw hundreds of zulus retreating from the drift driving 250 captured cattle ahead of them they'd also captured 80 martini henry rifles 225 pounds of gunpowder and 90 000 rounds of ammunition around to the drift lay 62 dead british soldiers from the 80th regime to foot plus nearly two dozen civilians in traditional zulu fighting custom most of the british have been disemboweled the zulus had lost just 30 men in their attack initially major tucker reported lieutenant harwood's actions in a favorable light saying that he had written to loombo to get help and that he ordered booth to conduct a fighting retreat soon however survivors of the fiasco were giving a different account of the events that the officer had fled and that booth who by now had been promoted to color sergeant because the previous one who died in moriarty's camp had organised the retreat under his own initiative the following year harwood was arrested and caught marshalled for misbehaving in front of the enemy and abandoning his men his defense was that as the only man with a horse he felt it was his duty to ride to loomberg to try and get reinforcements and quite frankly as one man he'd have made not a jot of difference to the defense the south bank garrison and the court marshall found in favour of him lord johnson's successor as commander-in-chief in south africa general sir garnett wallsey was furious he refused to endorse the decision of the court martial and he added his own opinions at the bottom of their verdict which castigated the officer this addition wallsey's words were then read out to every regiment in the british army despite being cleared in the court martial wallsey's words of castigation effectively ended harwood's career and he resigned in may 1880 dropping out of the spotlight and dying in 1897. sergeant now colour sergeant booth however was firmly in the spotlight alongside his castigation of harwood wolsey heaped praise on booth and personally recommended him for the victoria cross that in itself is very interesting considering that wolsey felt that the defenders at rorke's drift mostly didn't deserve their victoria crosses because they were just doing their duty he must have felt that booth had done more than his duty probably by taking command in the absence of an officer at the battle of intombi on the 26th of june 1880 booth was presented with his victoria cross by queen victoria herself at windsor castle anthony booth vc served an incredible 33 years in the army finally retiring as a sergeant's instructor in 1898. he died just one year later from rheumatic fever at briley hill near dudley in the west midlands the disaster at in tombi and the failure to tighten up moriarty's defenses didn't seem to affect the career of major charles tucker he was with the 80th regiment at the final battle of the zulu war tolundi and after the 80th amalgamated with the 38th regiment becoming the the south staffordshire regiment he actually became colonel of that regiment he ultimately reached the rank of lieutenant general and in that capacity he commanded all the colonial forces at the coronation of king edward vii in 1902. he retired from the army in 1905 after 50 years service and died in 1933 aged 97 umbellini the victor of intombi retreated to his mountain stronghold near hollabani where he would be involved in another zulu victory but he was killed later in the war the battle of intombi was of no real strategic value to the zulus apart from capturing all that ammunition they only had 80 rifles but coming just seven weeks after the defeat at isandjuana it was another dent to the prestige of queen victoria's redcoats and in particular to their commander lord chelmsford with this anduana rooks drift and now in tombi the british public were now made aware of an enemy who were brave more than capable of fighting and determined to defend their homeland it gave the zulus a kudos in the minds of the british public that few other african peoples ever did the contrast with the defense of rooks drift could not be starker at the mission station 100 men had defied 4 000 zulus at intonbi 100 british soldiers have been defeated by just a thousand zulus it goes to show that small decisions on both sides coupled with incredible courage can swing defeats into victory victories into defeats and throw up incredible human stories well thanks for watching and i hope you enjoyed that lesser told story from the zulu wars what'd you like to hear about in the future post a comment below and i will add your votes to my ever growing list loads more military history coming your way but in the meantime keep well and i'll see you very soon [Music] you

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, military history, the battle of intombe 1879 zulu war, the battle of intombe 1879, the battle of intombe, the battle of intombe drift, the battle of meyers drift, british army, south african history, zulu, anglo-zulu war, isandlwana, rorke's drift, battle of intombe, anglo zulu war, anthony booth vc, sergeant anthony booth vc, the battle of isandlwana, the battle of rorke's drift, battle of intombe 1879

Id: iswBofjZ5sU

Length: 17min 23sec (1043 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 17 2022