On the morning of January 22nd, 1879 over 1,300 British and Colonial troops were slaughtered at Isandlwana in Zululand by a force of over 20,000 Zulus. A mounted company of Natal Native Contingent managed to escape and raced pell-mell back to the Natal border.
On the border between Zululand and the British colony of Natal lies the Buffalo River. The river could be crossed at places by fords called "drifts".
The company crossed the Buffalo at what would later be called Fugitive's Drift, and headed for the small British outpost garrisoned at another drift nearby called Rorke's Drift.
Rorke's Drift was a mission station and a former trading post. Now it was garrisoned by 150 men of B Company, 2nd Battalion of the 24th (Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot, along with a 100 man native contingent,
Besides bringing news of the disaster at Isandlwana, the Natal Contingent had even more alarming news.
A Zulu force of between 4,000 to 5,000 warriors was bearing down on Rorke's Drift.
The three British officers at the station, Lieutenant John Chard (an officer of engineers who had been temporarily placed in command of the outpost), Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead (Commander of Company B), and Acting Assistant Commissary James Dalton decided that the best course of action should be to stay and defend the outpost.
They reasoned that if they tried to leave, the Zulus would catch up to them out in the open and slaughter them. At the Drift, they had a chance.
Both Chard and Bromhead also reasoned that with the Natal Contingent (225-250 men) plus the original 150 man British garrison, plus another 100 mounted Natal natives, there were enough men to hold off the Zulus until relieved if they could fortify Rorke's Drift.
This they proceeded to do.
A defensive perimeter was constructed out of biscuit boxes, and mealie bags. This perimeter encompassed a hospital, a storeroom and a stone kraal.
Chard was concerned that the perimeter might be too large for the available forces to defend, so he ordered another line of bags and boxes set up in the middle of the compound in case of emergency.
In the hospital, men used bayonets to carve firing positions in the walls.
At around 4:00 that afternoon, Surgeon James Reynolds, Otto Witt -- the Swedish missionary who ran the mission at Rorke's Drift -- and army chaplain Padre George Smith came down from Oscarberg (the name of the hill overlooking the station) and reported that the Zulus were fording the river at Fugitive's Drift to the southeast and were only minutes away.
Upon hearing this both the Natal Native Contingent and the mounted natives leaped the barricades and deserted, leaving the 150 man British B Company to defend Rorke's Drift alone.
In fact, of the 150 man force, only 96 men of Company B were a cohesive force. There were 35 men in the hospital -- all but 9 able to defend themselves. The rest were a part of Chard's engineer force, and commissary personnel.
They were alone.
Almost as soon as the Natal Contingent and the natives left, the vanguard of around 600 Zulus arrived and attacked the south wall which joined the hospital and the storehouse.
Heavy gunfire erupted from the defenders killing a number of Zulus. Some of these Zulus retreated up to the slopes of Oscarberg, where those with rifles and muskets opened a harassing fire down on the defenders.
Meanwhile, a larger Zulu force swept onto the hospital and northwest wall and engaged in some hand to hand fighting with the defenders including Bromhead. The wall was too high for the Zulus to climb, so they resorted to grabbing at the British rifles as they were aimed down at them, trying to pull the defenders down where they could be speared.
At places the Zulus would try to climb over each other's bodies trying to drive the British from the wall.
This ended up not working well for them as they had an aversion to the British bayonets.
Meanwhile the Zulu fire from the Oscarberg was starting to cause some British casualties.
Chard realized that the front wall, which was under constant attack could not be held. He ordered his men to pull back into the yard abandoning the front two rooms of the hospital in the process.
The hospital itself was becoming untenable. The loopholes that were carved out were now becoming a liability. The Zulus were grabbing the rifles of the men and pulling them out. Any empty loophole was fired into by the Zulus who had guns.
The Zulus started to hack there way into the hospital, which now had to be abandoned room by room.
Once the hospital was abandoned, Chard was able to complete the shortening of his perimeter.
The Zulus kept up the attack far into the night with ever increasing ferocity. The perimeter kept shrinking until at 2:00am the next morning all that was left was a small bastion around the storehouse.
The attacks then tapered off except for the continued harassing fire from the Oscarberg.
Chard and Bromhead realized that they were in serious trouble.
They were all exhausted by 10 hours of continuous fighting, and were running low on ammunition. At the beginning of the day, they had 20,000 rounds. Now they had 900.
But as dawn broke, it became apparent that the Zulus had gone. All that remained were the bodies -- over 370 of them. Patrols were sent out to collect weapons and look for survivors.
At 7:00am the Zulus returned and the British wearily manned their positions again expecting another onslaught.
No attack came.
The Impis of the Zulu army had been on the move for six days and had not eaten properly for at least two. There were several hundred wounded in their ranks and they were far from their supplies.
Almost as soon as they re-appeared, they left.
Around 8:00am another force appeared, and the British yet again manned their positions.
But this time the force consisted of the vanguard of Lord Chelmsford's relief column.
The British lost 17 killed and 14 wounded in their successful defense. The Zulus suffered 351 killed and an unknown number of wounded.
A total of 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, including Chard and Bromhead. 5 Distinguished Conduct Medals were also awarded.
