The sun was setting on the isolated hill of iSandlwana when Frederick Augustus Thesige, better
known as Lord Chelmsford, arrived back on the hill with his men on January 22nd, 1879. The arrogant,
overconfident, and full of himself General was sure of an easy victory against the tribesmen of
Zulu but the sight at his camp horrified him on return. A night ago, he had moved out to lay a
surprise attack on the approaching Zulu forces but he returned empty-handed to a shocking scenery.
“But I left a thousand men to guard the camp….” He uttered in disbelief for he was welcomed by the
sight of his men, bared and unrecognizable among the broken bags of tea and sugar,
the burnt fabric of tents, and wrecked weapons and furniture. The Zulu have just handed the Imperial
British Army their worst defeat in history. Welcome to Nutty History today we are going
to look at the Battle of iSandlwana, the creepy history of the greatest British Battle. After
his dear friend and the then high commissioner for South Africa, Henry Bartle Frere issued a list of
outrageous demands to King Cetshwayo, the monarch of the Zulu kingdom, Lord Chelmsford became the
commander-in-chief of the British invasion force in South Africa. Most important of all demands,
Frere wanted the Zulu kingdom to demilitarize but naturally, that was unacceptable for the Zulu who
knew how the British would respond to that. The force assembled by Chelmsford was impressive. He
gathered eighteen thousand troops consisting of redcoats, volunteers, and African auxiliaries,
and stationed them along the border with the Zulu Kingdom to invade as soon as possible. With his
biased mentality about tribesmen and imperialistic arrogance, Chelmsford was highly overconfident
that the tribesmen would be no match for superior English warfare technology and prowess. Chelmsford
and nearly four to five thousand men left the British colony of Natal on January 6th, 1879,
and marched into Zululand and they managed to find very little resistance for the first two weeks.
Chelmsford crossed the Buffalo River at a mission station called Rorke’s Drift and
advanced unopposed to iSandlwana. They made camp at the hill, a lion-shaped outcrop, on January 20.
Strategically, it was a perfect outlook spot over the surrounding valleys. Two days later,
at 2 AM Chelmsford heard whispers about Zulu planning an attack and soon it was confirmed.
Roughly 12 miles from the camp, a strong Zulu force was gathering near Mangeni Falls. Hoping
to surprise the enemy instead, Chelmsford took half of the men and headed out to ambush the Zulu
impi. His subordinates, Pulleine and Durnford took charge of the rest of the men at the camp.
The Zulus were, in fact, in no hurry to battle as 22nd was the new moon and it was considered
inauspicious in their culture to be a day for battle. So, they wanted to wait till the day
would pass but when the news of being spotted by English spies reached them, they had no option
but to attack. They managed to outmaneuver Chelmsford and charged at iSandlwana with an
army of 20,000 strong! Using the chest and horn formation, izimpondo zankomo, that was invented
by King Shaka during his time, they dashed toward iSandlwana armed with spears and old-fashioned
muskets that they barely knew how to use. Brits at the other camp on the other hand had contemporary
modern weaponry . The beginning of the Zulu attack went exactly as Brits assumed it would go. The
Zulu warriors were dropping like ripe fruits in a strong wind with every British volley. But a
brief delay in replenishing ammunition supply was all the time Zulu impi needed to gain the
upper hand and when the opportunity showed up, they pounced on the British like hungry tigers.
Throughout the battle, as long as the British were able to keep Zulus at arm’s length the
battles were easy but when and if Zulus got close enough to engage in hand to hand combat, as it
happened in iSandlwana , Brits were no better than sitting ducks. This trend would continue
throughout the entire Anglo-Zulu battle. Zulus were ‘death incarnate’ with assegais in their
hand if they got close enough. And though they suffered a thousand casualties and two thousand
of them were wounded, when Chelmsford returned to camp, he found 858 white men and 471 black men who
were fighting for the Brits, non-responsive. The number of non-Zulu survivors of iSandlwana
was only 350 making iSandlwana the most harrowing defeat for the British during the Victorian Era.
During the Victorian age, the British Empire was at the height of its power, strength,
and geographical reach. After the failure of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857 in India, the only winner of
the conflict was the British Empire. It took over control of India from the East India Company. The
company was hurt beyond repair despite managing to suppress the rebellion. Also, Indian states
had lost the golden chance of escaping the dreaded claws of imperialism. With India officially added
to Queen Victoria’s crown, Britain became the largest and mightiest empire to ever exist on
earth, covering around a quarter of the Earth's land surface and ruling over 458 million people.
It was pretty much like the real-life version of the ‘Risk’ where one crucial territory could be
the decider and all other players give up. Britain was riding the high and its expansion was only
fueling its ambitions. They were happy to grab any land that could reap profits. Throughout the
decade of the 1870s, the British only controlled the coastline of South Africa and the interior
belonged to the Dutch-speaking settlers known as Boers who were predominantly farmers. In between
the interiors and the coastline was the scattered region belonging to various native tribes,
among which the Zulu was the dominant one. The Zulu Kingdom was formed in 1816 with the
ascension of Shaka Zulu but under the influence of their prominent leader, the tribe quickly earned
the reputation of being a capable, dynamic, and formidable military power. One by one,
the Zulu assimilated other tribes on their own or subjugated them and had become a menace for the
Boers. The British weren’t much interested in the interiors of Southern Africa until the discovery
of diamonds in 1867 made it a very lucrative prospect. Lord Chelmsford had a decorated
career in the military and had proved his worth in India. After being promoted to Major General in
1877 he was appointed to command British forces in the Cape colony. He had experience fighting
the Xhosa and he had formed a low opinion about the capabilities of African soldiers for obvious
reasons that he was an imperialist and a white middle-aged man. He wasn’t alone in this endeavor,
fortunately, or unfortunately, the former Governor of Bombay, Henry Bartle Frere was
now High Commissioner for South Africa and he wanted to turn all of South Africa into a
federation of British Colonies. Not only were the Boers against the idea but Zulus outright threw
the British demands into the sea. This gave Lord Chelmsford the excuse to invade Zulu territories.
Shocked to find how much he underestimated the African tribe; Chelmsford was forced to
retreat out of Zululand. Meanwhile, another Zulu army, 3 to 4000 men strong, attacked the British
garrison stationed at Rorke’s Drift. The garrison had hardly a hundred and fifty men and four of
them were civilians. However, the British at the garrison had a harder resolve and despite being
dazed and bruised, they stood their ground all night. Seventeen British soldiers perished and
15 were wounded, while the Zulus lost 351 warriors and about 500 got wounded without gaining an inch.
Dejected, the Zulus left the early morning of January 23rd. The English media used Rorke’s
Drift as a cover-up for the embarrassment at iSandlwana but the authorities knew the defeat had
to be avenged. Veteran unit reinforcements sailed to Zululand from nearby India where they had been
fighting the second Afghan Battle. On March 28, the British felt another blow at Hlobane. Colonel
Buller’s regiment was surprised by the sudden appearance of a huge Zulu impi and 90 Europeans
and 100 African auxiliaries lost their lives during the chaotic retreat. The very next day
Zulu attacked Evelyn Woods’ entrenched positions at Kambula. Only 2000 men on the Imperial British
side were up against 20,000 Zulus, but the British had learned their lesson at iSandlwana. With
proper defenses, they kept Zulus at arm’s length and the tribe forces were routed. With 2000 Zulu
deceased, it broke their morale. For the British, there were just 29 deceased and 54 wounded. Lord
Chelmsford got his revenge at Gingindlovu where he attacked the Zulu siege of Eshowe
and managed to send 1200 Zulus to their maker while the British lost only two casualties. Until
iSandlwana happened, the British government had zero ideas what Frere and Chelmsford had
done in South Africa and after learning of the Anglo-Zulu war, the prime minister of Britain,
Benjamin Disraeli was strongly against it. Yet, Chelmsford and Frere continued the war. In June,
Chelmsford was racing against time as British authorities had decided to replace him with Sir
Garnet Wolseley. Desperate, he marched his forces, right into the heart of Zululand, at their capital
Ulundi with his trump card, a Gatling Gun. Half an hour of sustained artillery and Gatling fire was
enough to break the Zulu resolve, and the battle ended quickly where 1500 Zulu perished. Chelmsford
regained some of his honor but his lust for war made Ulundi his last front. With the war over,
the British divided the Zulu into thirteen tribes, so they would keep squabbling among themselves and
never be strong enough to challenge their British overlords. The Anglo-Zulu battle was over and so
was the Zulu kingdom. South Africa had to wait 126 years to have a Zulu as its leader
again. Thank you for watching Nutty History, if you enjoyed the video, please like and share,
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