The SAMS Lyceum of Martial and Societal Antediluvian Chronicles An addendum to The SAMS Sporran April 2012 Due to the length of this month’s article there will be no American History Section. Scottish History ​The Battle at Rorke’s Drift It was the summer between my junior and senior year and my friend Don and I decided to “take in a movie.” So we walked to downtown Hamilton (One might refer to it as the local shopping center. But it was way more than that. It was THE shopping district for the whole area and everybody went there. It was a distance of about a mile. Which really didn’t mean much to us at that time because we walked everywhere. Don said the movie was called Zulu. “What's it ​ ​ about? I asked.” “It's supposed to be a good war movie” was his response. We bought our tickets and found some ‘good’ seats. Now this is a phrase you’ll likely never hear again in your lifetime; “Remember where we came in.” An hour or two later it would be followed by, “Is this where we came in?” Way back then, when you bought your ticket it entitled you to stay in the movie theatre as long as you wanted. They showed the same movie all day long with newsreels and cartoons in between showings. So you might arrive somewhere in the middle of the movie and after the movie ended, you stayed to watch the beginning of the movie. It could give you interesting insights into how movies were made and how characters and the plot developed. Like everybody else our age, we stayed there all day long. First of all it was air conditioned and our houses weren’t. It was a chance for us to meet our friends, pick up on all the latest news from around the neighborhoods other than our own and maybe even meet a few girls. Oh yeah, we could watch a movie too. This Zulu turned out to be a great movie, absorbing plot, ​ ​ very good character development and cinematography that just happened to be about a war. During that day Don and I got an intensive lesson in the art of warfare, not to mention the art of making a motion picture. What struck me first was the uniforms of the British soldiers, especially their helmets. I really wanted one, not the soldier, the helmet. (I finally have one now, 50 years later! The colour guard at our post wears them.) The movie was about a small band of about 150 Welsh guards defending a place called Rorke’s Drift against thousands of Zulu warriors. Which leads me to the topic of this particular missive. The war Don referred to in this case was in Natal Province on the southeast coast of Africa near Madagascar. Rorke’s Drift (ford) was located on the Buffalo River, the boundary between British Natal and the Zulu Kingdom. There were several very small incidents involving Zulu warriors and “runaways” that occurred in British Natal. These gave the British an excuse to annex the Kingdom. In early January AD1879 the British sent three ‘expeditionary forces under the command of Lord Chelmsford into The Zulu kingdom. Naturally, the Zulu’s wanted them to leave and began to prepare a defense of their country. That idea was summed up very clearly in the movie when a soldier at Rorke’s Drift asked Colour Sergeant Bourne why the Zulus were attacking them, “Why us?” he asked. His brisk but cogent response was “Because we’re ‘ere’lad, nobody else. Just us.” The British Army had requisitioned the hospital and chapel at Rorke’s Drift to serve as a supply station and field hospital. Rorke’s Drift was defended by B Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot,(2nd Warwickshire) and commanded by Lt. Gonville Bromhead. On 22 January AD1879, the Zulu’s responded. An “impi” (army) of about 22,000 Zulu warriors attacked the Number Three British column encamped at Isandlwana. The Zulu’s armed only with their traditional assegai (iron spears) and cow-hide shields completely routed and massacred the heavily armed British force of about 1,500 troopers. Earlier in the week officer, Lt John Chard, from the Royal Engineers was sent from Isandlwana to Rorke’s Drift to reinforce the pontoon bridge over the Buffalo River that the central column, then camped at Isandlwana, needed to forge. He was working on the bridge and Lt. Bromhead was out hunting. Around noon on the 22nd Lieutenant Gert Adendorff and another trooper from the Natal Mounted Police– arrived bearing the news that their central column of British ‘regulars’ had been defeated and massacred in the Battle of Isandlwana by the ​ ​ Zulu warriors and that a part of the Zulu army about 3 - 4000 warriors ( the reserves) was approaching the station. Ardendorff stayed and sent the trooper to warn another British outpost at Helpmakaar. Lt. Chard immediately began building defensive positions. When Lt. Bromhead returned there was a brief discussion about their situation. Lt. Chard’s commission predated Lt. Bromhead’s by several months, making him the officer commanding. A fortuitous event as he immediately set all of the soldiers erecting additional defensive emplacements. Both Chard and Bromhead resolved to stay and fight. At which time both lieutenants are alleged to have said a most famous of quotes, When the Reverend Mr. Whitt (who used Rorke’s Drift as his church and hospital) says “You’ll all be killed, like those this morning, and now the sick in their beds, all of you.” Lt. Chard replies, “I don’t think so, Mr.Whitt. The [British] Army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day.” and Lt. Bromhead adds, “Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast.” Rorke’s Drift consisted of an outhouse, hospital building, storehouse, and a small masonry cattle kraal. Behind the storehouse was a cookhouse, and a large stock pen. Since Rorke’s Drift was serving as a supply depot it had a vast amount of “mealie bags” (bags of maize-corn) which made for excellent barricades. They were supplemented by biscuit boxes and crates of tinned meat. An outside perimeter was a waist-high barricade composed of mealie bags and overturned wagons. The buildings were also loop-holed for defence. He also ordered the construction of a “redoubt with interior firing steps” (A circular defensive position about 6-7 feet in height. The firing steps allowed the soldiers inside to hide their presence for the approaching enemy. When ordered they would step-up and give covering fire over the heads of their counterparts as they retreated to positions outside the redoubt. Additionally, Chard instructed his men to build an interior wall near the redoubt as “a fall back position’ using the biscuit boxes and crates of tinned meat. The station at Rorke’s Drift was now a strong defensive fortress. The compound at Rorke’s Drift ​ Colour Sergeant Bourne (3rd in command) issued each man 70 rounds of ammunition for his single-shot, Model 1871 Martini-Henry rifle. The nine-pound rifle was capable of firing 12 rounds per minute and had an effective range of 400 yards. The rifle also came with a sword-style bayonet useful for close-quarters combat. Bourne had more than 20,000 bullets in reserve. (At the battle's end there were a mere 900 rounds remaining.) As soon as the soldiers received their ammunition, the men began fortifying the perimeter. In the hospital there were 39 British soldiers. There was also a member of the Natal ​ ​ Mounted Police, Corporal Christian Ferdinand Schiess; 2nd/3rd Natal Native Contingent. Arms and ammunition were sent to the hospital and only a handful of these were unable to take up arms; they were classified as “excused duty”. The “walking wounded” began to create firing loopholes in the walls of the hospital. At about 3:30 pm, a volunteer cavalry troop of about 100 Natal Native Horse under the command of Lieutenant Alfred Henderson arrived at the station after having retreated in good order from Isandlwana. They volunteered to picket the far side of the Oscarberg, the large hill that overlooked the station and from behind which the Zulus were expected to approach. At about 4:20 pm, a brief skirmish ensued with the vanguard of the main Zulu force engaging Lieutenant Henderson's NNH troopers, stationed behind the Oscarberg. However, weary from the battle at Isandlwana and the retreat to Rorke's Drift as well as being short of ammunition for their carbines, Henderson's men departed for Helpmekaar. Henderson himself reported to Lieutenant Chard the enemy were close and that "his men would not obey his orders. They want to die on their own farms.” he added. The Zulu’s attacking Rorke’s Drift had been held in reserve in the Battle at Isandlwana Although, Cetshwayo, the Zulu king, hd ordered them specifically not to attack Rorke’s Drift ​ they were anxious to prove their bravery in battle.They were armed with the traditional spear and shield and some of the warriors had old muskets they purchased from merchants. However, most Zulu’s depreciated their use in combat. The soldiers had worked all afternoon and so that when the Zulu’s finally arrived, most of the barricades had been completed. The Zulu warriors had left their morning encampment at around 8 am, and by the time they reached Rorke's Drift at 4:30 pm, they had fast-marched some 20 miles (32 km).