The Zulu Kingdom won a decisive victory at Isandlwana on 22 January 18791, when an army of some 20,000 warriors overwhelmed a British camp and killed around 1,300 British and colonial troops2 in a few hours. It was one of the worst defeats a modern industrial army ever suffered against a pre-industrial foe, and it stunned the British Empire.
On 22 January 1879, beneath the sphinx-shaped crag of Isandlwana, a Zulu army of some 20,000 fell on a British camp and destroyed it. Around 1,300 British and colonial troops were killed in a few hours, cut down by warriors armed mostly with spears and cowhide shields. It was one of the worst defeats a modern, industrial army ever suffered at the hands of a pre-industrial foe, and it stunned the British Empire.
An empire invades Zululand
In January 1879 a British column under Lord Chelmsford invaded the independent Zulu kingdom3, confident that modern rifles and artillery would make short work of a spear-armed enemy. The column made camp below the hill of Isandlwana without entrenching it4. Chelmsford then split his force5, marching off with part of it to chase what he thought was the main Zulu army, leaving the camp lightly held.
The horns of the buffalo
The real Zulu army, around 20,000 strong4, lay hidden nearby. Discovered by a British patrol, it attacked at once in its classic formation: the chest to pin the enemy in front5, the two horns to sweep around each flank, and the loins in reserve. The Zulu regiments crossed the open ground under rifle fire and closed on the thin British firing line.
The line is overrun
For a time British firepower held the Zulu back, but the firing line was stretched too thin and too far from the camp4, and, by many accounts, its ammunition ran short at the crucial moment. As the horns curled around the flanks and rear, the line broke into isolated groups. The Zulu overran the camp, and most of the defenders were killed where they stood; only some sixty Europeans, most of them mounted, and a number of African auxiliaries escaped.
Aftermath and Rorke's Drift
Around 1,300 of the roughly 1,800 men in the camp died.2 The disaster shocked Britain and forced a much larger, more careful campaign that eventually conquered Zululand later in 1879. On the same day, a small garrison famously held the mission station at Rorke's Drift1 against a Zulu detachment, a defensive stand that Britain celebrated to offset the scale of the Isandlwana catastrophe.
