Rorke's Drift

by Adrian Greaves

I have the honour to be

  Sir

  Your most obedient servant

  G. Bromhead

  Lieut. 2/24th Regt.

  Commanding B Company 2/24th Regt.

  Note: It was to this report that Lord Chelmsford added the names of Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard.

  Bromhead’s letters

  Both of the following Bromhead letters are unabridged:

  Bromhead’s letter to Lieutenant Goodwin-Austen

  Rorke’s Drift

  19th February 1879

  My Dear Austin, [sic]

  I can’t tell you how grieved I was to hear on the return of the Column on the 23rd of January that your brother had been left in that fateful camp. He had been attached to B Co at Freetown and we got on so jolly together that he told me he should ask the Col. to let him stay with the Company, but I am sorry to say it was not to be. The night before the Column transport crossed the river it came out in orders that B Company were to remain here and your brother was sent back to G Company and Griffiths who was Company Officer as usual was posted to the Company. Your brother who was knocked up from over work at the ponts, where he had been working day and night, to get troops across the river had to go sick, but still he march [sic] with the Column. I have not got over the dreadful news we received yet, in fact can hardly believe it. We had an awful night of it here as you may fancy. We heard the camp had been taken, and were also afraid that the Column had received a heavy blow, and the Zulus came at us in such force and with such fierce pluck. I thought we should never pull through it, but the Company behaved splendidly [word illegible] as our ammunition held out and we held them back till daylight. We were on the Natal side of the Buffalo but can do nothing as far as I can see until we are fitted up again. I hope they are going to send us out some more troops or you wont see many of us again. The Zulus are so strong we stand a poor chance against them, as it is we expect to be attacked any day.

  I hope the wound is better, and that you do not suffer from it.

  Yours sincerely,

  G. Bromhead

  Bromhead’s letter to his sister

  This was written towards the end of February and it received limited publicity in Britain:

  I fear you will be very anxious about me as no doubt we are rather in a fix. I am getting over the excitement of the fight and the sickness and fury at our loss. It is not so much the poor fellows being killed as the way the savages treat them. Having been left alone we have built a mud fort, which I think we ought to hold against any amount of Zulus, till we get help from England. I send you a paper with the report of the fight and the remarks of the General on the behaviour of my company which are flattering. If the Government gives all the steps [promotions] of the poor fellows killed I shall most probably get my company into the 1st Battalion who are to go home directly after the war is finished. I have not got over the wonder of there being one of us left. God was very good to us in giving us a little time to get up a defence, or the black fellows would have taken us by surprise, which they will find hard to do now.

  APPENDIX C

  Colonel Glyn’s Report

  Following the defeat at Isandlwana, Colonel Glyn was removed by Chelmsford from command of the Centre Column and appointed to command the strengthened garrison at Rorke’s Drift. Glyn was suffering severe depression following the loss of his regiment and he was fully aware that his isolation was deliberate – he was to be a scapegoat for the defeat at Isandlwana. He had no access to any information and he could not communicate beyond Rorke’s Drift. Glyn was tormented by the events at Isandlwana and, nearly one month after the event, he personally wrote a highly emotive report to place his regiment and officers in as good a light as possible. Glyn’s report is produced unaltered and unabridged.

  Colonel Glyn’s Report

  Rorke’s Drift,

  Buffalo River.

  February, 21st 1879.

  Sir,

  I have the honor to report that on the 22nd January last, when the camp of Isandlwanha was attacked by the enemy, the Queen’s Color of 1st Battalion 24th Regiment was in the camp - the Head Quarters and five companies of the regiment being there also.

  From all the information I have been since able to obtain, it would appear that when the enemy had got into the camp, and when there was no longer any hope left of saving it, the Adjutant of the 1/24th Regiment, Lt. Teignmouth Melville, departed from the camp on horseback carrying the Color with him in hope of being able to save it.

  The only road to Rorke’s Drift being already in possession of the enemy, Lt. Melville and the few others who still remained alive, struck across country for the Buffalo River, which it was necessary to cross to reach a point of safety. In taking this line, the only one possible ground had to be gone over, which, from its ruggedness and precipitous nature, would, under ordinary circumstances, it is reported, be deemed almost utterly impassable for mounted men.

  During a distance of about six (6) miles, Lt. Melville and his companions were closely pursued or more properly speaking, accompanied, by a large number of the enemy, who, from their well-known agility in getting over rough ground, were able to keep up with our people though the latter were mounted. So that the enemy kept up a constant fire on them, and sometimes even got close enough to assegai the men and horses.

  Lt. Melville reached the bank of the Buffalo and at once plunged in, horse and all. But being encumbered with the Color, which is an awkward thing to carry even on foot, and the river being full and running rapidly, he appears to have got separated from his horse, when he was about half way across. He still however held on resolutely to the Color, and was being carried down stream when he was washed against a large rock in the middle of the river. Lt. Higginson of the Natal Native Contingent, who had also lost his horse in the river, was clinging to this rock, and Lt. Melville called to him to lay hold of the Color. This Lt. Higginson did, but the current was so strong that both officers, with the Color, were again washed away into still water.

  In the meantime Lt. Coghill 1/24th Regiment, my Orderly Officer who had been left in camp that morning when the main body of the force moved out, on account of a severe injury to his knee which rendered him unable to move without assistance, had also succeeded in gaining the rivers bank in company with Lt. Melville. He too had plunged at once into the river, and his horse had carried him safely across but on looking round for Lt. Melville and seeing him struggling to save the Color in the river, he at once turned his horse and rode back into the stream again to Lt. Melville’s assistance.

  It would appear that now the enemy had assembled in considerable force along their own bank, and had opened a heavy fire on our people directing it more especially on Lt. Melville who wore a red patrol jacket, so that when Lt. Coghill got into the river again his horse was almost immediately killed by a bullet. Lt. Coghill was thus cast loose in the stream also, and notwithstanding the exertions of both these gallant officers, the Color was carried off from them, and they themselves gained the bank in a state of extreme exhaustion.

  It would appear that they now attempted to move up the hill from the river bank towards Helpmakaar, but must have been too much exhausted to go on, as they were seen to sit down to rest again. This, I sorely regret to say, was the last time these two most gallant officers were seen alive.

  It was not for some days after the 22nd that I could gather any information as to the probable fate of these officers. But immediately I discovered in what direction those who had escaped from Isandlwanha had crossed the Buffalo I sent, under Major Black 2/24 Regt. a mounted party who volunteered for this service, to search for any trace that could be found of them. This search was successful and both bodies were found where they were last seen, as above illustrated. Several dead bodies of the enemy were found about them, so that they must have sold their lives dearly at the last.

  As it was considered that the dead weight of the Color would cause it to sink in the river, it was hoped that a diligent search in the locality where the
bodies of these officers were found might lead to its recovery. So Major Black again proceeded on the 4th inst. to prosecute this search. His energetic efforts were, I am glad to say, crowned with success, and the Color with the ornaments, case etc., belonging to it, were found, though in different places, in the river bed.

  I cannot conclude this report without drawing the attention of H.E., the Lt. General Commanding, in the most impressive manner which words can command, to the noble and heroic conduct of Lt. Adjutant Melville, who did not hesitate to encumber himself with the Color of the Regiment, in his resolve to save it, at a time when the camp was in the hands of the enemy, and its gallant defenders killed to the last man in its defence, and when there appeared but little prospect that any exertions Lt. Melville [two words illegible] would enable him to save even his own life. Also later on to the noble perseverance with which when struggling between life and death in the river, his chief thoughts to the last were bent on the saving of the Color.

  Similarly would I draw His Excellency’s attention to the equally noble and gallant conduct of Lt. Coghill, who did not hesitate for an instant to return, unsolicited, and ride again into the river, under a heavy fire of the enemy, to the assistance of his friend; though at the time he was wholly incapacitated from walking and but too well aware that any accident that might separate him from his horse must be fatal to him.

  In conclusion, I would add that both these officers gave up their lives in the truly noble task of endeavouring to save from the enemy’s hands the Queen’s Color of their Regiment, and greatly though their sad end is to be deplored, their deaths could not have been more noble or more full of honor.

  I have the honor to be

  Sir

  Your obedient Servant

  Commanding 3 Column

  (As printed in the London Gazette on 4 April 1879)

  APPENDIX D

  Surgeon Reynolds’s Report

  During the 1870s the British Medical Association was an extremely powerful body that enjoyed great influence in Parliament. When the BMA realized that one of their members, Surgeon Reynolds, had taken part in the defence of Rorke’s Drift and had performed a number of serious operations in darkness while under attack, they urgently sought and then published his report. It was first published in the Supplement to the BMA Yearbook 1878–9.

  The British Medical Association Report of the Defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879

  [Unabridged]

  On January the 22nd at about 12.30 p.m. we were surprised at Rorke’s Drift by hearing big guns in our neighbourhood, and almost immediately I commenced climbing up the hill of Oscarberg in company with the Missionary Met [Witt] and Mr. Smith, Army Chaplain. We expected to get a view of what was happening, but on looking across the Buffalo River from the top, we discovered that Isandlana [sic] Mountain (five miles away) shut from our view the scene of action. The reports of three more big guns were distinctly audible after we completed the ascent, there being, I should say, a quarter of an hour’s interval between each of them.

  At 1.30 a large body of natives marched over the slope of Isandlana, in our direction, their purpose evidently being to examine ravines and ruined kraals for hiding fugitives. These men we took for our own Native Contingent. Soon afterwards appeared four horsemen on the Natal side of the river, galloping in the direction of our post, one of them was a regular soldier, and feeling they might possibly be messengers for additional medical assistance, I hurried down to the hospital and got there as they rode up. They looked awfully scared and I was at once startled to find one of them riding Surgeon-Major Shepard’s pony. They shouted frantically, “the camp at Isandlana has been taken by the enemy and all our men in it massacred” that no power could stand against the enormous number of the Zulus, and the only chance for us all was by immediate flight. Lieutenant Bromhead, Acting Commissary Dalton, and myself forthwith consulted together, Lieutenant Chard not having as yet joined us from the pontoon, and we quickly decided that with barricades well placed around our present position a stand could best be made where we were. In other words, removing the sick and wounded would have been embarrassing to our movement, and desertion of them was never thought of.

  Just at this period, Mr. Dalton’s energies were invaluable. Without the smallest delay, which would have been so fatal for us, he called upon the men (all eager for doing) to carry the mealie sacks here and there for defences, and it was charming to find in a short time how comparatively protected we had made ourselves. Lieutenant Chard arrived as this work was in progress and gave many useful orders as regards the lines of defence. He approved also of the hospital being taken in, and between the hospital orderlies, convalescent patients (8 or 10) and myself, we loop-holed the building and made a continuation of the commissariat defences round it. The hospital, however, occupied a wretched position having a garden and shrubbery close by, which afterwards proved so favourable to the enemy; but comparing our prospects with that of the Isandlana affair, we felt that the mealie barriers might afford us a moderately fair chance. The patients, I must mention, were retained in the hospital, although situated at our weak end, as every part of the commissariat house was crowded with stores, and we did not consider either building would betaken unless with the fall of the whole place.

  When our plans of temporary defence were nearly completed, I was relieved by seeing Mr. Met and Mr. Smith safely inside the laager. They had just then returned from the hill, where they remained up to a late moment, continuing to believe the natives I before alluded to were our own men, instead of which they were the very Zulus who fought against us later on at Rorke’s Drift. Mr. Smith was at this time looking for his horse and told me afterwards he should have to remain as his Kafir groom had bolted, and apparently taken with him the horse. Mr. Met was making preparations to ride away.

  About 3.30 p.m. the enemy made their first appearance in a large crowd on the hospital side of our post, coming on in skirmishing order at a slow slinging run. We opened fire on them from the hospital at 600 yards, and although the bullets ploughed through their midst and knocked over many, there was no check or alteration made in their approach. They seemed quite regardless of the danger, and, what struck me as most strange, they had no war cry, nor did they at this time fire a single shot in return. As they got nearer they became more scattered, but the large bulk of them rushed for the hospital and the garden in front of it. My attention being altogether directed for a while to these points, I cannot state with authority, whether the Zulus, whom I shortly afterwards saw in a larger number on the opposite or north side of our fort, got there by extending this body or if they came independently from the other direction, thereby carrying our their reputed mode of attack in a bull’s horn fashion.

  However it was, we found ourselves quickly surrounded by the enemy with their strong force holding the garden and shrubbery. From all sides, but especially the latter places, they poured on us a continuous fire, to which our men replied as quickly as they could reload their rifles; again and again the Zulus pressed forward, and retreated, until at last they forced themselves so daringly and in such numbers as to climb over the mealie sacks in front the hospital, and drive the defenders from there behind an entrenchment of biscuit boxes, hastily formed with much judgement and forethought by Lieutenant Chard, R.E. I discovered afterwards that this officer, when planning our defences, reckoned on the assistance of the Basutos who deserted at the last moment.

  It followed from this, that our men at first had to be distributed over so large an area in proportion to our numbers as dangerously to weaken anyone point and render it unequal to repel a determined rush, I am convinced, but for this entrenchment, our fort could not have held out five minutes longer.

  A heavy fire from behind it was resumed with renewed confidence and with little confusion or delay, checking successfully the natives, and permitting a semi-flank fire from another part of the laagarto play on them destructively. At this time too, the loopholes in the hospital were made great use of, so that the
combined fire had the desired effect of keeping the Zulus at bay. It was, however, only temporary as after a short respite they came on again with redoubled vigour. Some of them gained the hospital verandah and there got hand-to-hand with our men defending the doors. Once they were driven back from here, to find shelter again in the garden, but others soon pressed forward in their stead, and having occupied the verandah in larger numbers than before, pushed their way right into the hospital, where confusion on our side naturally followed. Everyone tried to escape as best he could, and, owing to the rooms not communicating with one another, the difficulties were insurmountable.

  Private Hook, 2/24th Regiment, who was acting hospital cook, and Private Connolly, 2/24th Regiment, a patient in hospital, made their way into the open at the back of the hospital by breaking a hole in the wall with a pickaxe and then through the small window looking into what may be styled the neutral ground. Those who madly tried to get off by leaving the front of the hospital were all killed with the exception of Gunner Howard. He gained, with most extraordinary luck, a detached rear [position?] without being noticed by the enemy, and after dusk the Zulus still being close about him, he left this retreat to hide himself in the long grass 400 or 500 yards away. He did not rejoin us until daylight the following morning when it was no longer dangerous to move about.

  Private Hunter, Natal Mounted Police, was the only one killed of those who made an escape through the small window. He was shot dead while crossing over to the biscuit boxes after his exit through the window, by a fire from the enemy from behind mealie sacks.

  The only men actually killed in the hospital were three, excluding a Kafir under treatment for compound fracture of femur. Their names were Sergeant Maxfield, Private Jenkins, both unable to assist in their escape (being debilitated by fever), and Private Adams, who was well able to move about but could not be persuaded to leave his temporary refuge in a small room, and face the danger of an attempt at escape to the laager. During this partial success of the enemy, very heavy firing was being made on our fort from all sides, and it was in this period we lost a large majority of our killed and wounded. The engagement continued more or less until about 7 o’clock p.m. and then, when we were beginning to consider our situation rather hopeless, the fire from our opponents appreciably slackened, giving us sometime for reflection. Lieutenant Chard here again shined in resource. Anticipating the Zulus making one more united dash for the fort and possibly gaining an entrance, he converted an immense stack of mealies standing in the middle of our enclosure and originally cone fashioned, into a comparatively safe place for a last retreat. I would explain that the top of the cone was removed and a number of sacks were taken out from the heart of what remained, forming a sheltered space, sufficient to accommodate about 40 men, and in a position to make good shooting. Mr. Dunne, Commissariat officer, assisted in this work. Just as it was completed, smoke from the hospital appeared and shortly burst into flames. The light given by it, however, proved advantageous to us (it being now nightfall), a matter which the Zulus themselves must have recognised, as no further attack was made from that quarter. During the whole night following, the enemy carried on desultory firing, and several feigned attacks were made, with much shouting of their war cry, but nothing of a continued or determined effort was again attempted by them. After 6 o’clock a.m. we found, after careful reconnoitring, that all the Zulus, with exception of a couple of stragglers, had left our immediate vicinity, and soon afterwards a large body of men were seen, at a distance in Zululand, marching towards us. For a long time, and even after redcoats were distinguished through our field-glasses, we believed them to be the enemy, some of them perhaps dressed in the kits of those who had fallen at Isandlana. Indeed, we could not think otherwise, as the Basuto officer who escaped with his men from Isandlana and retreated on our post the day before reported that the General’s party had been broken up into small lots, each trying to get back into the Colony by any route.