A Handful of Heroes, Rorke's Drift: Facts, Myths and Legends

By Katie Stossel

A compelling account of the courageous standoff between 150 British troops and more than 3,000 Zulu warriors during the Anglo-Zulu War.
 
Thanks to newly discovered letters and documents, A Handful of Heroes, Rorke’s Drift updates the history of the Defense of Rorke’s Drift, which will forever be one of the most celebrated British feats of arms. Remarkably after such prolonged historical scrutiny, the author’s research proves that there is yet more to discover about this famous incident of the Zulu War in 1879, and her superbly researched book reveals a number of myths that have distorted what happened during the gallant defense of the small Mission Station.
 
This fascinating and highly readable account goes on to examine in detail the famous Chard Report, which has long been relied on by historians and authors. Doubts emerge as to its accuracy, and evidence is provided which suggests the report’s author was coerced by a senior officer in order to protect the latter’s reputation. Likewise the letters of August Hammar, a young Swedish visitor to the Mission, put Reverend Otto Witt’s false account into perspective.
 
These and other revelations make A Handful of Heroes, Rorke’s Drift a fresh and important addition to the bibliography of this legendary Zulu War engagement.
 
“Though the book reviewed here should not be your first dip into the history of the Zulu War, it is an essential one. It provides readers with a wider understanding of the events and their aftermath . . . The author does the job here with style and grace.” —War History Online

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473864115

Book preview

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © Katie Stossel, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-47382-822-3

EPUB ISBN: 978-1-47386-411-5

PRC ISBN: 978-1-47386-410-8

The right of Katie Stossel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Contents

List of Plates

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword by Brian Best

Acknowledgements

Introduction

  1.  Prelude to Rorke’s Drift

  2.  The Defences at Rorke’s Drift

  3.  A Few Hours Before – the Battle of Isandlwana

  4.  The Battle For Rorke’s Drift

  5.  The Experiences of August Hammar and Reverend Otto Witt

  6.  Was He There? Bogus Rorke’s Drift Claimants

  7.  The Rorke’s Drift Awards

  8.  The Welsh Myth

  9.  Archaeology

10.  A Psychological Review of the Chard Report

11.  The Chard Reports and Scientific Analysis

12.  Sister Janet at Rorke’s Drift

13.  Rorke’s Drift Today

Appendices

  1.  Rorke’s Drift Victoria Crosses

  2.  The Main Requirements of the British Ultimatum to King Cetshwayo

  3.  Sergeant T. Cooper, 24th Regiment

  4.  Private George Thomas Langridge, 24th Regiment

  5.  An Account by Lieutenant Colonel F. Bourne OBE, DCM

  6.  The Zulu Cultural Village

  7.  ‘Wood Tells Me’ – the Quiet Assassination of John Chard’s Character

  8.  Chelmsford’s Report Reaches London

  9.  Lieutenant Higginson’s Report

10.  Punch

11.  Smoking Guns

Notes

List of Plates

Four authors at Fugitives’ Drift Lodge, Zululand: Dr Adrian Greaves, David Rattray, Ian Knight and Katie Stossel

Katie Stossel receiving the Prince Buthelezi Gold Medal for services to the Zulu people.

James Rorke’s grave and memorial at Rorke’s Drift.

Zulu memorial at Rorke’s Drift.

James Rorke’s house and store, with the northern defensive line.

Position of ‘final stand’ mealie bag redoubt at Rorke’s Drift and cattle kraal.

Inner defence wall over which Chard recovered the water cart at bayonet point.

James Rorke’s house and veranda.

Rorke’s Drift memorial.

Modern pathway at Rorke’s Drift.

Original map of ‘disputed territory’ at Rorke’s Drift.

Views of Rorke’s Drift and Fort Pine in the 1870s.

British Army graves on Zulu riverside at Rorke’s Drift (post-engagement fever cases).

A view of the Buffalo River from Fugitives’ Drift.

Coghill and Melvill memorial at Fugitives’ Drift.

British soldiers on campaign in Zululand.

August Hammar, Otto Witt’s friend left at Rorke’s Drift during the engagement.

Royal Logistics Corp Museum curator with Surgeon Reynold’s Victoria Cross

Otto Witt

Sister Janet’s decorations and medals.

Sister Janet’s hut at Rorke’s Drift – from her scrapbook and drawn by Janet Wells.

Bead store at Rorke’s Drift.

Isandlwana from Fugitives’ Drift Lodge.

Prince Dabulamanzi, King Cetshwayo’s brother and leader of Zulus at Rorke’s Drift.

Sketch by Lieutenant Harford of Ardendorff.

Letter from Lieutenant Harford requesting help regarding two deserters, Stephenson and Higginson, from Rorke’s Drift.

New bridge at Rorke’s Drift.

August Hammar letter translation, 26 December 1878.

August Hammar letter translation, 6 January 1879.

Archaeologist Dr Lita Webley at Rorke’s Drift overseeing official excavations.

Rev. Mbatha and Dr Adrian Greaves at Rorke’s Drift.

Rorke’s Drift towards Isandlwana – watercolour by Lillian Rattray.

Coghill and Melvill memorial at Fugitives’ Drift – watercolour by Lillian Rattray.

List of Figures

1.  Principal components plot: Curling, Jones, Weallens and Woodgate

2.  Dendrogram: Curling, Jones, Weallens and Woodgate

3.  Principal components plot: Clery, Curling, Jones, Weallens and Woodgate

4.  Dendrogram: Clery, Curling, Jones, Weallens and Woodgate

5.  Principal components plot: Chard Reports and Clery

6.  Dendrogram: Chard Reports and Clery

7.  Principal components plot: Bourne, Chard Reports and Clery

8.  Loadings plot: Bourne, Chard Reports and Clery

9.  Dendrogram: Bourne, Chard Reports and Clery

List of Tables

1.  British forces engaged in the defence of the Mission at Rorke’s Drift

2.  Textual samples

3.  The 60 most frequently occurring function words used in the analyses

Foreword

by Brian Best

Chairman, The Victoria Cross Society

Military victories have long been defining moments in our nation’s history and Rorke’s Drift is a classic example which is well understood by both civilians and military alike. Today, Rorke’s Drift ranks as one of the most visited British battlefields in the world. Over the years, historians and researchers have studied the engagement between the British and Zulus at Rorke’s Drift, yet, in terms of military action and the half-dozen major battles that took place during the Anglo-Zulu War, few have acknowledged Rorke’s Drift for what it was – a short sharp minor engagement lasting just a few hours with barely a hundred soldiers engaged. As will be discussed, the military in South Africa initially took the event in their stride. The press and politicians at home then created an air of resentment and incredulity amongst the survivors’ fellow officers and soldiers when the survivors’ status was elevated to that of popular heroes.

The site of the action at Rorke’s Drift was originally a remote trading post established in 1849 by an Irishman, James Rorke, and is located on the border between Zululand and British Natal. Rorke died in October 1875 when, according to local legend, his supply of gin ran out and in a fit of rage he shot himself. The site was then purchased by Swedish missionaries to be used as a Mission. The incumbent Swedish missionary, Reverend Otto Witt, had converted Rorke’s bungalow into his own residence and turned the store into a school-cum-store. Two weeks before the British invasion of Zululand the British had commandeered the site, converting the building into a military store and Witt’s home into a temporary hospital for the invasion column’s thirty already sick and injured soldiers.

The day of 22 January 1879 witnessed the unbelievable and dreadful defeat of the main British invasion force advancing into Zululand by the Zulu army at Isandlwana. On the same day, the victorious Zulus moved to attack the isolated and insignificant British outpost located just 200 yards on the Natal side of the border at Rorke’s Drift. It was a small tempting target which the victorious Zulus could see less than 10 miles away. Britain’s well-founded international reputation and that of its army was suddenly at stake. Then, the morning’s disaster and fearful losses at Isandlwana were quickly offset for the British by the survival of the Rorke’s Drift garrison later that same day, when it was attacked by overwhelming Zulu forces. The astonishing survival of this hopelessly outnumbered force after an unsuccessful 12-hour siege, gave the desperate home government the perfect excuse to diminish the political and military fallout from Isandlwana.

For a few months, carefully orchestrated reports by those in power overwhelmed the nation’s imagination, encouraging the national press with a steady flow of glowing accounts of the small and heavily outnumbered unit of British redcoats desperately fighting for their lives – and of their survival against all odds. Regardless of the high-profile newspaper accounts of the engagement, however, the Zulu War never appealed to the public, who widely disapproved of it, especially when it was learned that Britain had invaded the small friendly country of Zululand on the fabricated pretext that the Zulus were about to attack British-controlled Natal – which they were not. The Anglo-Zulu war was a short-lived affair lasting just six months and involving only a relatively small number of British troops, but the successful and overpowering British re-invasion of Zululand a few months later in May swiftly crushed the Zulu army and destroyed their nation’s political structure. Nevertheless, the succession of hard-to-believe defeats sustained by the British at the hands of the ill-equipped Zulus during this short South African campaign emboldened Britain’s enemies, especially the neighbouring Boers, who were still bitter at the recent British annexation of their country, the Transvaal. The Boers secretly began forming groups known as ‘commandos’, and arming themselves with the latest European rifles. By the end of 1879 though, events in South Africa were dwindling to a distant memory for the British, whose foreign policy was fast becoming overshadowed by the recurrence of armed violence in Afghanistan.

At first glance it is difficult to see why the modern perception of Rorke’s Drift is one of such national pride. After all, the incident was the consequence of a small, insignificant and peaceful nation making a brave stand against being invaded by the world’s most powerful Empire. Today, the British Army celebrate each anniversary of Rorke’s Drift as a great victory in military history, yet any greater awareness of what actually happened at this engagement is relatively recent. For example, when in March 1914 General Sir Reginald Hart VC unveiled the 24th regimental obelisk on the Isandlwana battlefield, where the Zulu army destroyed the British invasion force before moving on to attack Rorke’s Drift, he omitted any mention of Rorke’s Drift when writing of the battle of Isandlwana:

The terrible disaster that overwhelmed the old 24th regiment will always be remembered not so much as a disaster, but as an example of heroism like that of Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans who fell at the pass of Thermopylae.

There can be no higher praise. Yet curiously, and except in passing, Rorke’s Drift was not unduly acknowledged in any contemporary works dealing with the Anglo-Zulu war, even though Queen Victoria appreciated that the role of public opinion had become ever more important in sustaining support for such adventures. The official ratcheting-up of publicity that accompanied the generous distribution of decorations and medals after Rorke’s Drift only temporarily kept public opinion on board.¹ Queen Victoria wrote in her diaries that she was well aware of what the press were saying about the issues of the day and commented perspicaciously of Rorke’s Drift ‘this was another event that would be eulogised in some quarters’.²

Even in Victorian times the British invasion of Zululand must have ranked among the most ruthless treatment that any nation had the misfortune to suffer. In modern times, it is no longer fashionable to take pride in the pointless invasion and destruction of a comparatively unsophisticated and harmless country, especially with an invasion so brutally conducted. Yet today, the defence of Rorke’s Drift is widely considered as one of the greatest episodes of British military history – although it was all but forgotten until 1964, when the film ZULU and Donald Morris’s remarkable book The Washing of the Spears, simultaneously excited interest in it across the land. The book and film respectively portrayed a scenario beloved by the British, of red-coated soldiers in darkest Africa, a scenario that became, myths and all, the epic and the legend. Numerous books about Rorke’s Drift followed but, in my humble opinion, most were hurriedly researched, some lacked references or were largely repeats of previous accounts. Before 1964, the public were in the dark about the Zulu War, and ZULU was able to promulgate many myths, including that of heroic Welsh soldiers and the incorrect identity of the regiment involved. On balance, The Washing of the Spears was a remarkably well-researched book, written in the 1960s by an American intelligence officer from his desk in Berlin without his having ever visited South Africa – he did so years after its publication. For its part, ZULU remains a wonderfully made film which successfully achieved its aim – to entertain cinema audiences rather than educate them with the true facts. Sadly, many now treat the film as an educational resource.

For three years until 1964, Rorke’s Drift author Dr Adrian Greaves, was an army officer with the Welch Regiment and during his service he heard no mention of the Zulu War or Rorke’s Drift, yet today his regiment’s modern equivalent, the Royal Welsh, annually holds a ‘Rorke’s Drift Day’ to celebrate the South African achievements of the Warwickshire Regiment, the real participants at Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana.

Old beliefs and legends can be very enduring once they have lodged themselves in the national psyche, and especially when they have remained unchallenged for so long. The phenomenon of widespread acceptance of the mythology surrounding the events of 22 January 1879 only changed in 2002, when Greaves’s meticulously researched work, Rorke’s Drift, was published. Based on ten years of intense investigation, mostly on location, this experienced former detective, familiar with sifting sound evidence from the dubious or unsubstantiated, had diligently contacted participants’ families in his quest for fresh sources. He discovered material still in their possession including letters, diaries, photographs and reports which had lain unseen since the event. In one notable instance, following a chance meeting with Lieutenant Harford’s descendants, he was given four suitcases of Harford’s Zulu War material to research, most of it unknown to researchers and including the officer’s eye-witness account of the pre-defence of Rorke’s Drift. During the years since 2002, Greaves and Katie Stossel have discovered more significant new material in the form of scrapbooks, photographs and handwritten personal journals, including that collected and preserved in scrapbooks by a young English nurse in Zululand, Nurse Janet Wells of the Stafford House Committee. Such primary source material answers many aspects of the defence previously queried by Greaves and respected Zulu War authors such as Ian Knight and David Payne.

Katie Stossel’s new book uses this fresh material to neatly bring the whole story up to date. She is well used to studying and lecturing about the Anglo-Zulu War; her previous book, which I co-authored, Sister Janet – Nurse and Heroine of the Anglo-Zulu War, stands alone as the most thorough account of nursing during this campaign. It was towards the end of 1879 that the already decorated 19-year-old nurse, Janet Wells, completed her Zulu War service at Rorke’s Drift before returning to England.³ In order to conduct her research as accurately as possible, Katie Stossel spent time with Sister Janet Wells’ relatives in the UK and at Fugitives’ Drift Lodge in South Africa, and she assisted the BBC with the making of a programme about the nurses’ Zulu War decoration, the Royal Red Cross, also known as the nurses’ VC. While in South Africa she carefully explored the locations across Zululand visited by Sister Janet, accompanied by such luminaries as David Payne, Adrian Greaves, Ian Knight and the late David Rattray.

Her new work examines the lead-up to the engagement at Rorke’s Drift; she considers the human perspective and analyses the recent discovery of unseen letters and accounts which collectively add to our knowledge of what actually happened, as opposed to the subjective assessments of the mythological version of events based primarily on the ‘Chard Report’, which she examines in detail. Katie Stossel reviews and dispels a number of long-standing myths and examines the phenomenon of claims by some soldiers who falsely alleged they had been present. While contemporary accounts of the fighting at Rorke’s Drift are reasonably well known as the actual fighting lasted just a few hours, less is known of the activities of the Zulu attackers and how they came to be on the Natal side of the border. This book reviews the low Zulu casualty numbers in the light of a widespread presumption among authors of overwhelming firepower available to the British defenders; the long-held belief of armed superiority seriously conflicts with the discoveries made by Dr Lita Webley, the official South African archaeologist in charge of excavations at Rorke’s Drift. Katie Stossel’s assessment of the harsh treatment of Zulu wounded and prisoners, as meted out by the survivors of Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana, enables a better understanding of the deadly treatment of Zulu combatants by the British military throughout the remainder of the war.

The Anglo-Zulu War should never have happened and it was not planned by the home government. It took place because the senior military officer in South Africa, General Lord Chelmsford, and senior civilian official, Sir Henry Bartle-Frere, jointly believed their unauthorized war against King Cetshwayo would be won before news of their invasion could reach Britain. Hostilities commenced at midnight on 10 January 1879, following the expiry of the totally impossible three-week British ultimatum to the Zulu king to dismantle his military system. It was an unreasonable and unwarranted demand, as the Zulu army had seen no action for decades, was not a regular army, and warriors from across the country only assembled together at Ulundi once each year, so were untrained for battle. Ignoring advice from his various intelligence sources, Chelmsford was so confident of his army’s invincibility that he carelessly timed his ultimatum to expire exactly with the Zulus’ annual assembly of their army and all its chiefs and officers at Ulundi – what folly! Had he chosen a month either side for his invasion, the Zulu army would have been dispersed across Zululand and impossible to recall.

In preparation for the invasion, Chelmsford moved his army during Christmas of 1878 to the Rorke’s Drift river border, between British-controlled Natal and Zululand, with the intention of massing his force ready to attack Zululand. Faced with the British build-up of hostile forces on his border, the naïve Zulu king’s tactic was to attempt to deter the British from invading by assembling the larger part of his numerically superior but untrained army several miles back from the border. King Cetshwayo presumed that Chelmsford would respond to the massive Zulu presence and be intimidated by this tactic, but Chelmsford ignored his incoming intelligence reports in the belief the Zulus would avoid confrontation – telling his officers that his biggest problem would be to get the Zulus to fight.

On 11 January 1879, Chelmsford forded the Buffalo River at Rorke’s Drift at the head of his main column, made up of 4,709 officers and men, 220 wagons, 82 carts, 49 horses, 67 mules and 1,507 oxen. His invasion was unopposed and had a twofold objective: the destruction of the Zulu seat of power at Ulundi 65 miles away to the east, and of its army, wrongly presumed by the British to be somewhere in between. Instead, just before midday on 22 January, the Zulu army of some 35,000 warriors unexpectedly emerged en masse from the rim of the Nqutu Plateau overlooking the undefended rear and flank of the British camp at Isandlwana and attacked. To paraphrase an ancient Greek saying, ‘Africa is the land of surprises’ – which the British invaders were about to discover. In vastly overwhelming numbers, the Zulus appeared on the flank of their base camp and then crushed the hastily assembled line of defenders, killing them all before laying waste to the massive tented camp. The Zulu reserve, which had not been required in the battle, then moved on to attack the tiny British garrison which was within sight at nearby Rorke’s Drift, less than 10 miles away. Miraculously, the garrison held out overnight until they were relieved next morning.

Following the unsuccessful Zulu attack on Rorke’s Drift, the account of the incident was swiftly relayed back to Britain as being a great victory, mainly to offset the utter disaster earlier in the day at Isandlwana. The published account of the engagement was largely based upon the report of Lieutenant Chard of the Royal Engineers, one of two junior officers present throughout the short encounter. Katie Stossel examines this officer’s report in some detail and considers how it came to be written in the first place, and why senior military officers and politicians deemed it to be so accurate and truthful that it was presented to Queen Victoria and later became the official account of the battle.

By shaking the Rorke’s Drift tree, as Katie Stossel has done so well, a number of unexpected incidents have come to light, giving a wider insight into the whole event. It is still difficult to be totally positive about who took part and who was not even there. A number of fascinating documents and contemporary rolls exist that clarify aspects of who was present, and while some individual cases are now clear-cut – like August Hammar’s presence being mistaken for that of the Reverend Otto Witt – the participation of others remains unclear, such as the colonial officer Gert Adendorff, and Private David Jenkins and Sergeant Cooper of the 24th Regiment. Then, too, there are numerous examples of soldiers who subsequently jumped on the bandwagon, falsely claiming ‘I was there’ to gain favour with family and friends on their return home. Katie Stossel probes and clarifies a number of uncertainties still surrounding Rorke’s Drift, such as the origin of previously hidden British graves on the Zulu side of the river and other recently discovered battlefield cairns, and she considers the questionable actions of personalities like Commandant Hamilton-Browne. She attempts to identify the two soldiers’ bodies found with Lieutenants Coghill and Melvill near to Rorke’s Drift, who were killed while trying to save the regimental colour from Isandlwana, and she considers why the presence and deaths of the two soldiers were omitted from all official reports, while the two officers who died were the subject of laudatory comment and honourable citations, including the Victoria Cross. She relates the remarkable story of August Hammar, a young Swedish national whose recently discovered letters posted from Rorke’s Drift prior to the Zulu attack are investigated, along with his later distinguished life. Not surprisingly, she examines the time spent at Rorke’s Drift by Nurse Janet Wells whose orders, post hostilities, were to get the sickly garrison fit for their tough cross-country march back across the 150 miles to Durban. She completes the account by summarizing how the Anglo-Zulu War and its aftermath at Rorke’s Drift have continued to have an effect on this otherwise insignificant riverside community, in an isolated but beautiful part of Zululand.

Brian Best

Chairman, The Victoria Cross Society

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Anglo-Zulu war historians Dr Adrian Greaves and Ian Knight for their invaluable advice throughout this project and for their help in providing their own material to aid my research. I especially wish to thank Dr Richard Forsyth of the University of Leeds, UK, for his expert analysis and the specialist computer software used, and The College of New Jersey students, Chris Millelot and Claudia Beard, for their help in textual preparation.

I also gratefully acknowledge the generous support provided by the Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society and the Anglo-Zulu War Research Society who made their voluminous research available to me.

I owe a special debt to Dr David Payne who generously gave me full access to his considerable collection of documentation relating to Charles Harford, which clarified much of my understanding of events at Rorke’s Drift. David also read through and edited my draft which prevented a clutch of ‘howlers’ creeping into the text.

I would also like to pay tribute to the late David Rattray, who was so helpful to me and many other authors. He spent his life working to better the lot of the Zulus at Rorke’s Drift especially in the field of education and employment. He and his wife Nicky were such warm welcoming hosts at the Fugitives’ Drift Lodge. His early and violent death caused great sadness, not only to his family but the many friends and visitors who met him at Rorke’s Drift.

In the final analysis, I accept I have jumped to a number of conclusions but I have done so on the basis of good primary sources. I have explained my reasoning and quoted my sources so that others can research further. Whilst I acknowledge the help given me, the book’s interpretations are mine and mine alone.

Finally, I would like to thank Brigadier Henry Wilson of Pen & Sword for giving me the opportunity of writing this book.

Introduction

Setting the Scene

The Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 revealed much about the origin and everyday life of soldiers in South Africa, and the politics of the region. Contemporary newspapers also proved to be a remarkable source of information about conditions and events back home, and what was happening in other parts of the world.

The year 1879 was a tough period for the British Army in South Africa, still smarting from its defeat following the aborted Sekhukhune campaign of the previous year which was inexorably followed by further defeats at the hands of the Zulu army.⁴ It was also a difficult year for the British soldiers’ families at home. Across the British Isles it had rained most days that year, one which still holds the unenviable distinction of the heaviest and most prolonged rainfall on record and which produced the most catastrophic harvest that century. Many of the events of 1879 have a familiar ring even today: there were problems with flooding, a manufacturing sector under increasing pressure from abroad and the ever-present ‘far-off minor war’ for the government of the day to deal with. As if that wasn’t enough, there was rising dissent from politicians on all sides of the political spectrum against the sitting government.

For the working class in the 1870s life was always hard. With as many as half the working population still employed in agriculture, the constant storms through 1879 caused serious unemployment throughout the agricultural industry and many young men had no alternative but to move into the towns and cities to seek work. The situation had become so dire for many that they gave up on Britain and emigration became a real option, taken in the hope of better times. Irish workers had faced similar conditions for