The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-05-15
HOW THE ZULUS FIGHT.
a Battle Charge Which Puts the
six Hundred to Shame.
re- Vincent Correspondence London Tele
-" praph1

fgt. Vincent Correspondence London Iele-
graph
The relief Of Col. Pearson has been accom-,
nIished by the column under Inc peI ss \!
command 81 Lord Chelmsford; Ai 1rd dl haan
sighted from Ekowe, camped az GiheimMI w
toward shutdown Oh the first OF April. Mucn
rain was falling about dusk and auIi In .,,e
NIGHT. and It had been signaled from tne EhoW y,
ch5,rch tower that the Zulus were drawing 10
s,ron the Generals position with very large
n,1mbera. Lord Chelmsford had taken every
.,oaaihla nrecautfon again surprise. Inc races
l,S I'M caiT1p were covered with lines Of sheIter
trenches, the guns posted at the angles aho
Iii nOsitions OF importance covered.
A little before o'clock Q. 10. large masses
oY Zulus began to show all over the NIL tops
n, orr vicinity on the northeastern SIDE 81 Inc
camp. The thickets In this direction seemed
on d sudden to swarm with Inc enemy; VINO,
with their usual tactics, were seen pouring 10
u stream of shields and black bodies, right
and left, so as gradually to enveiop this quar-
ter of our lager. AS soon as their order OF
battle was thus formed, they came down u q
most resolute style upon the side OF the cam p
curious war cry and brandishing their weap-
ons. The foremost portion OF the rifles were
living inside the trenches already mentioned,
and their supports behind them had q second
line OF shelter, as well as the laagered wagons,
from which to fire, and the Gatlings were sta
toned to the right.
Al the enemy drew out Of the grass and
thorn bushes into dense semi circle q At
yancing warriors, the whole front OF our
camp broke out into a sheet OF fierce lame
which ran from corner to corner without IN,
Permission. In rafting volleys OF q frightful
close range musketry. Nothing, It might be
Thought, could live before this terrible ana
perpetual roll of the breech loader, and yet the
gallant. though savage, foe crowded their way
onward through the hail of death. While
spreading now to the right, now to the left, as
III to find some break In the wall of fire, their
central swarms kept desperately pressing
forward past the fallen bodies OF their COM
rades Those behind sprang TO the front over
the corpses Of their fellows, only to sink TO
the ground themselves and to be succeeded BY
fresh desperadoes. 1t was impossible for men
70 perish with more magnificent contempt 81
death, but they could not quite reach even
our outer trenches. After again and again
charging up to within twenty or thirty
yards OF the muzzleB OF our Martini Henris-
despite the whitening tempest Of bullets
rained upon them, to say nothing OF the Cat
ling fire and the rockets these heroic say.
AGES gave the game up at last on this face OF
The camp. leaving the front of our defenses
piled with dead and wounded. From the first
appearance OF Cetywayo's army upon the
hill tops and amid the hollows till the last
fierce blows dealt on the flying savages the
affair did not last two hours. But 1t was
sharp work while 1t lasted. and though the
British loss In killed was only five, and In
killed and wounded together fifty for all con-
tingents, yet some 900 or 1000 Iulus lay dead
around us as the sun rose high. Their total
loss 10 estimated at 1900, with many more
wounded.