Battle of Rorke's Drift

Battle of Rorke's Drift
Part of the Anglo-Zulu War
Date 22 January – 23 January 1879 Location Rorke's Drift, South Africa Result British victory
Belligerents
Britain	Zulu Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
John Chard Gonville Bromhead	Prince Dabulamanzi
Strength
139	4,000–5,000
Casualties and losses
17 killed, 14 wounded	Approximately 600-700 dead.

Rorke's Drift was a mission station in Natal, South Africa, situated near a natural ford (drift) on the Buffalo River at 28°20′57″S 30°32′3″E. During the Anglo-Zulu War, the defence of Rorke's Drift (22 January-23 January 1879) immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana earlier in the day. One hundred and thirty-nine British soldiers successfully defended their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors. The overwhelming Zulu attack on Rorke's Drift came a hair's breadth away from defeating the tiny British garrison. The successful defence of the outpost is held as one of history's finest defences.

The prelude

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 22nd, Major Spalding, still unaware of the disaster at Isandlwana, left the mission station in order to ascertain the whereabouts of No.1 company the 24th Regiment of Foot (Warwickshire Regiment, later The South Wales Borderers)[1] due two days earlier, while Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers rode down to the drift itself in order to inspect the work being carried out there. At roughly 3:30 two officers of the Natal Native Contingent - Lieutenants Vane and Adendorff - came upon the drift bearing the news of Isandlwana and that one wing of a Zulu impi, under the command of the king's son, Prince Dabulamanzi, was bearing down on the mission station. Further news arrived in the form of a note from Captain Essex, but it bore no news of the approaching Zulu force. While the exact origin of the decision to stay and fight is unknown, the three officers at the station—Lieutenant Chard and Lieutenant Bromhead, and Acting Assistant Commissary Dalton - soon decided that this was the only acceptable course; a British column, especially one burdened with carts full of wounded, would be easily overtaken by a Zulu force, and in open country, the British would be swamped by the numerically superior Zulus, a fact pointed out by Dalton.

The approaching Zulu force was vastly larger; the uDloko, uThulwana and inDlu-yengwe regiments mustered more than 4,000 warriors, none of them drained by the battle at Isandlwana. Contrary to popular belief, the Zulu force also contained a large number of firearms, though most were flintlock muskets, inferior to the British Martini-Henry.

Once the British officers decided to stay, Chard and Bromhead directed their men to make preparations to defend the mission station. A defensive perimeter was constructed out of two-foot (0.6 m) high biscuit boxes weighing almost a hundred pounds (45 kg) and mealie bags (see Lt. Chard's Map) which encompassed the storehouse, the hospital, the Witt homestead, and a stout stone kraal. The inclusion of the hospital had made the perimeter dangerously large and Chard ordered the construction of a second line of boxes through the middle in order to facilitate a withdrawal if the need arose. The buildings were fortified, with makeshift loopholes knocked in the walls and doors facing out of the perimeter barricaded with spare furniture. In all, Chard had roughly 100 healthy men (not counting the wounded) available to him, drawn from 'B' Company of the 2/24th, Stephenson's detachment of the Natal Native Contingent (NNC) and mounted natives under Lieutenant Vause - a force sufficient, in Chard's estimation, to fend off the Zulus.

The battle

At 4:00, Surgeon James Reynolds, Otto Witt - the Swedish missionary who ran the mission at Rorke's Drift - and army chaplain Padre George Smith came scampering down from Oscarberg, a hill overlooking the station, with the news that the Zulus were fording the river and were "no more than five minutes away." Soon after, one of the mounted natives under Vause reported that the Zulus were about a minute away. At this point, the natives broke. Having already seen the slaughter at Isandlwana, they - and Vause - deserted. Upon seeing their comrades flee, Stephenson's NNC contingent leapt as one over the barricades and followed. Outraged that Stephenson and his European NCOs were following their charges, a few British soldiers fired after them, killing Corporal Bill Anderson, who was shot in the head.

At a stroke, the defending force had been reduced by more than half - 140 men, of which only the 80 of 'B' Company could be considered a cohesive unit and 30 of whom were incapacitated. Chard immediately realised the need to shorten the perimeter, and gave orders for a new line bisecting the post to be constructed, with the hospital being evacuated. As the natives disappeared, Private Fredrick Hitch, posted as lookout atop the storehouse, reported a Zulu column of four to six thousand approaching. Almost immediately after the Zulu vanguard, 600 men appeared from behind Oscarberg and attacked the south wall which joined the hospital and the storehouse. In what is the best-known phrase from the battle, Sergeant Henry Gallagher yelled "Here they come, as thick as grass and as black as thunder!"

Immediately, a hot fire was opened at 500 yd, and while at first ragged, the British fire soon steadied, piling up the Zulu dead. The majority of the attacking force swept around the wall, while a few took cover, from where they were either pinned by continuing British fire or retreated to the terraces of Oscarberg, where they began a harassing fire of their own. As this occurred, a large force swept onto the hospital and northwest wall, and those on the barricades - including Dalton and Bromhead - were soon engaged in fierce hand to hand fighting. The British wall was too high for the Zulus to scale, so they resorted to crouching under the wall, trying to get hold of the defenders' rifles, slashing at British soldiers with assegai or firing their weapons through the wall. At places, they clambered over each others' bodies to drive the British off the walls, but a "peculiar aversion to the bayonet" defeated these breaches.

Zulu fire, both from those under the wall and around Oscarberg, began to find its mark. Corporal Schiess was shot in the leg, and then lost his hat to a Zulu shot; Commissary Dalton, leaning over the parapet to shoot a Zulu, was wounded in the shoulder by a bullet and dragged out of the line to have his wound dressed; Keefe, 'B' Company's drummer, suffered a skin wound to the head; Corporal Scammel, of the NNC, was shot in the back, and Private Byrne, attempting to help him, was killed by a shot to the head, as was 'Old King' Cole, another private in 'B' Company. The fire from the mountain only grew worse; Privates Scanlon, Fagan and Chick were slain.

It became clear to Chard that the front wall, under almost constant Zulu attack, could not be held, and at 6 o'clock Chard pulled his men back into the yard, abandoning the front two rooms of the hospital in the process. The hospital was becoming untenable; the loopholes had become a liability, as rifles poked through were grabbed at by the Zulus - but if the holes were left empty the enterprising warriors stuck their own weapons through to fire into the rooms.

As it became clear that the front of the building was being abandoned, John Williams began to hack his way through the wall dividing the central room and the back of the hospital. As he made a passable hole the door into the central room came under furious attack from the Zulus, and Williams only had time to drag two bedridden patients out before the door gave way, pitting Joseph Williams against the Zulus. Williams managed to kill several before being overwhelmed. The remaining men in the room, Private Horrigan, Adams, and two more patients, were stabbed to death by the rampaging Zulus. Williams then dragged his patients into one of the corner rooms, where he linked up with Private Hook and another nine patients.

The previous scene was played out again; Williams hacked at the wall to the next room with his pick-axe, as Hook held off the Zulus. A firefight erupted as the Zulus fired through the door and Hook returned the compliment - but not without a bullet smashing into his helmet and stunning him. Williams made the hole big enough to get into the next room, occupied only by Private Waters, and dragged the patients through. The last man out was Hook, who killed the Zulus who had knocked down the door before diving through the hole. Williams once again went to work, spurred by the knowledge that the roof was now on fire, as Hook defended the hole and Waters continued to fire through the loophole. After fifty minutes, the hole was large enough to drag the patients through, and the men - save Private Waters, who hid in the wardrobe - were in the last room, being defended by a pair of privates going by the name Jones. From here, the patients clambered out a window and then ran across the yard to the barricade. Of the eleven patients, nine survived the trip, as did all the able-bodied men.

The evacuation of the hospital completed the shortening of the perimeter. As night fell, the Zulu attacks grew stronger as the snipers on Oscarberg - now devoid of targets - joined the attack. The cattle kraal came under renewed assault and was evacuated by ten o'clock, leaving the remaining men in a small bastion around the storehouse. Throughout the night, the Zulus kept up a constant assault against the British positions; Zulu attacks only began to slacken after midnight, and finally ended by two o'clock, instead being replaced by a constant harassing fire from the Zulu firearms and assegai - a fire that in turn only ended at four o'clock. Chard's force had lost fifteen dead, eight more - including Dalton - seriously wounded, and virtually every man had some kind of minor wound. They were all exhausted, having fought for the better part of ten hours, and were running low on ammunition as well.

As dawn broke, the British could see that the Zulus were gone; all that remained were the vast piles of dead - over 370 bodies were counted. Patrols were dispatched to scout the battlefield, recover rifles, and look for survivors. At roughly 7am, an impi of Zulus suddenly appeared, and the weary redcoats manned their positions once again. But no attack materialized. The Zulus were utterly spent, having been on the move for six days prior to the battle and having not eaten properly for two. In their ranks were hundreds of wounded, and they were several days march from any supplies. Soon after their appearance, the Zulus left the way they had come.

Around 8am, another force appeared, and the redcoats abandoned their makeshift breakfast of rum, tea and biscuits to man their positions once again. This was no Zulu force, however; Lord Chelmsford and his column had arrived. The battle was over.

Victoria Crosses

File:Zulusmall.jpg

Artistic depiction of the Battle of Rorke's Drift.

Main article: List of Zulu War Victoria Cross recipients

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the British defenders, the most ever received in a single action by one regiment, seven to soldiers of the 24th. This high number may be interpreted as a reaction to the earlier British defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana, although at Isandlwana the British killed more than twice the number of the enemy as they lost. The extolling of the victory at Rorke's Drift took the public's attention away from the great defeat at Isandlwana and the fact that Lord Chelmsford had disobeyed orders by entering Zululand.

Dalton was not originally named among the VC recipients, eventually receiving his medal in January 1880, after an outcry when a number of accounts credited him, rather than Chard or Bromhead, for initiating the defence.

• Corporal William Wilson Allen
• Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead
• Lieutenant John Rouse Merriott Chard
• Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton
• Private Frederick Hitch
• Private Alfred Henry Hook
• Private Robert Jones
• Private William Jones
• Surgeon Major James Henry Reynolds
• Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess
• Private John Williams

Also, five men were awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. They were:

• Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne
• Private John William Roy, The only Scottish defender at Rorkes Drift
• Second Corporal Michael McMahon, His medal was later withdrawn for desertion
• Second Corporal Francis Attwood Army Service Corps
• Wheeler John Cantwell Royal Horse Artillery

Depictions and dramatisations

The events surrounding the assault on Rorke's Drift were first dramatised by military painters, notably Elizabeth Butler and Alphonse de Neuville. Their work was vastly popular in their day among the citizens of the British empire, but virtually forgotten by the time the film Zulu was released in 1964. In 1979 the Battle of Isandlwana was dramatised in the film Zulu Dawn. The battle was given a chapter in military historian Victor Davis Hanson's book Carnage and Culture as one of several landmark battles demonstrating the superior effectiveness of western military practices. In 1990 the game developer Impressions Games released a videogame based on the historical battle.

Post battle

After the end of the battle, the surviving defenders were left without shelter and medical care. As a result, diseases such as typhoid and cholera spread. Worthy of note is Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess, the only non-British VC winner, who died in poverty five years later on a ship to England and was buried at sea. His only possession was his Victoria Cross, which is now on display in the Regimental Museum beside others that were awarded for Rorke's Drift.

See also

• Military history of South Africa
• Padre George Smith
• Zulu (film)

References

• Military Heritage discussed Rorke's Drift and the politics of the Victoria Cross (Roy Morris Jr., Military Heritage, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, p. 8).
• Greaves, Adrian, Rorke's Drift, Cassell, London, 2002.
• Morris, Donald R. The Washing of the Spears: A History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879
• Knight, Ian, Rorke's Drift 1879, "Pinned Like Rats in a Hole"; Osprey Campaign Series #41, Osprey Publishing 1996
• Snook, Lt Col Mike, 'Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke's Drift'. Greenhill Books, London, 2006. ISBN 1-85367-659-4

External links

• Extensive information about the action at Rorke's Drift.
• Excellent minute by minute detail.
• Lt. Chard's Map
• Travellers Impressions
• Rorke's Drift Victoria Cross remembrance site