The Battle of Rorke's Drift was fought from 22 to 23 January 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War, when a small British Army contingent of 139 troops from the 24th Regiment of Foot held out against the repeated assaults of a 4,000-strong Zulu army under Prince Dabulamanzi kaMpande at the outpost of Rorke's Drift, South Africa. The battle, which occurred on the same day as the disastrous Battle of Isandlwana, entered into British military legend as an example of incredible bravery in the face of unlikely odds.
Background[]
In January 1879, at the start of the Anglo-Zulu War, the British general Lord Chelmsford took an army of 4,000 troops and invaded Zululand, leaving behind a small garrison at Otto Witt's Swedish Lutheran mission at Rorke's Drift in Natal. Chelmsford made the mistake of dividing his small force in half in order to pursue Zulu scouts; the 1,700 troops of the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot under Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pulleine were massacred by the Zulu chief Cetshwayo's numerically-superior army at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, with almost none of the British soldiers surviving the disaster.
Following the victory at Isandlwana, Cetshwayo's brother, Prince Dabulamanzi kaMpande, ignored his brother's instructions to not invade Natal, taking an army of 4,000 warriors and marching on Rorke's Drift. The 139-strong British garrison, commanded by Lieutenants John Chard and Gonville Bromhead, converted the mission into a makeshift outpost, creating mealy bag walls and turning over wagons to provide themselves with cover. Lieutenant Chard resolved to hold out until reinforcements could arrive, although he knew that the odds were against his force; less than 150 British and Natalian native troops faced two Zulu impis who had just destroyed the majority of their command at Isandlwana.
Battle[]
When the Zulu army arrived, Prince Dabulamanzi sent a sizable force of warriors forwards to test the British firewpoer at the cost of their lives. The British unleashed several rifle volleys against the slowly-approaching Zulus, who chanted and marched rather than charge the British and overwhelm them. The British repelled this first wave, but the Zulus gradually launched piecemeal attacks on the outpost over the course of ten hours from 22 to 23 January. Zulu warriors using rifles captured from the dead at Isandlwana fired on the British from a hilltop, while wave after wave of spear and club-wielding Zulus charged the British soldiers at the walls of the outpost. On a few occasions, the Zulus managed to penetrate the outer defenses and set fire to the hospital, but the British repelled them in hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting, while Henry Hook and John Williams evacuated the sick through a hole in the wall. The British finally managed to push the Zulus back for the night, and they recovered from the first day of battle as they slept on the meal-bag walls and filled their silver cups with water from a bucket being passed around to the thirsty and tired soldiers.
The dead Zulus at Rorke's Drift
The next day, the Zulu warriors approached again, chanting a war song to intimidate the British. The predominantly-Welsh soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot responded by singing "Men of Harlech", a traditional Welsh military song, but the singing was cut short when the Zulus charged the British positions once again. This time, the British used their tactic of volley fire, wherein two rows of British soldiers alternated between firing and reloading, with the soldiers who were reloading from their last volley moving up in front of the firing line, kneeling, and preparing to shoot once the fire line moved to reload. The British thus gradually advanced and pushed back the Zulus, and the British soldiers, who had the cover of mealy bags, fired volley after volley onto the Zulu warriors, whose "horn" formation created advantageous killzones for British riflemen. Ultimately, the final Zulu attack petered out, and the British officers counted their casualties and took a roll call. When the Zulus showed up a final time, the demoralized and tired British were prepared to meet their doom, but the Zulu warriors instead saluted the British soldiers' bravery with another song before departing, having spotted a British relief column en route to Rorke's Drift. The British had lost 17 dead and 15 wounded, while the Zulus lost over 351 dead and 500 wounded; many of the Zulu prisoners were killed as revenge for Isandlwana.
Aftermath[]
11 Victoria Crosses were won by the defenders of the Rorke's Drift mission station: Cpl. Ferdinand Schiess, Cpl. William Allen, Pvt. Frederick Hitch, Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton, Pvt. John Williams, Pvt. Robert Jones, Pvt. William Jones, Pvt. Henry Hook, Surgeon-Major James Henry Reynolds, Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, and Lieutenant John Chard. The arrival of Lord Chelmsford's relief column saved the Rorke's Drift defenders from another Zulu attack, and the British government dispatched reinforcements to South Africa after the humiliating loss at Isandlwana. In July, the British stormed and captured the Zulu capital of Ulindi, forcing Cetshwayo to surrender to the British, thus ending the war.