Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-03-20
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THE DISASTER At THE CAPE.
HOW THE FIGHTING WAS DONE BY THE
GALLANT RED-COATS.

GALLANT RED-COATS.
LONDON, February 22-At the risk of tel
ling twice-told tale, 1 venture to return to
the gallant incident of the Zulu War My ex-
cuse is that the details keep coming to Lon
don in fragments, and that the story is not yet
complete, nor will it he until the newspaper
correspondents letters and the Cape journals
come in 1t is worth while in the interval,
dealing with the bare telegraphic facts, to put
the narrative into consecutive shape. On the
21st of January, the main body of the British
advance, under Lord Chelmsford, penetrated
considerable distance into Zululand, over
twenty miles beyond Rorke's Drift, near which
a camp had been established, with convoy,
consisting of 102 wagons, 400 oxen, two
guns, 400 shot and shell, 200 rifles, $50, 600
rounds Of ammunition, and rocket trough,
the whole valued at 100000. Ten miles be-
yond Rorke's Drift, Lord Chelmsford left the
convoy guard and advanced with the remain
| der of his forces some ten or twelve miles fur
ther into Zululand, ''to look for the enemy"
who, it afterward turned out, were at the same
time 10000 strong. Lord Chelmsford being
we'll out of the way, they fell upon the convoy.
The British fought hard, and retreated grad
ually upon the camp and it's valuable stores,
thus getting the support of all their immediate
forces. The Zulus fell fast before the deadly
rifle; but they carried out their courageous
tactics with a bravery which will not be for
gotten when the historian comes to tell their
story. To hurry aall encounter to the death
struggle, hand to hand, is the Zula idea. They
advance in a body, the men in the rear rush.
ing into the gaps made in front by the enemy's
fire. Then the men, with short knives and
shields, sling back their rifles and leap upon
the foe. Those who are armed with spears
break them off short and convert them into
| short swords. This is what happened at 1san
dula and the camp at Rorke's Drift. The
overwhelming numbers of the Zulus, taking
the troops at a moment when there seems to
have been no opportunity of availing them
selves of intrenchments OF barricades, enabled
them to overpower the Red-coats. The Brit
| ish, both officers and men, fought and fell
where they stood, each of them, however,
Staying his two or three to one in the unequal
| fight. The colors of the regiment and the
stores fell to the victors, who thus came into
possession of valuable weapons and ammuni-
tion which they could also show to possible
alias as an inducement to join them. Not less
| than 81 British officers and $40 men lay dead
| in the sacked camp before the Zuus carried off
the spoils In the meanwhile, Lord Chelms-
ford was still ''looking for the enemy!' When
| it was all over, the news reached him and he
fastened back, to discover that the force he
had left in his rear had been annihilated. The
Zulus had not held the camp, but had carried
off literally everything that made it camp.
1t was an awful scene of slaughter There
was not living soul in it. There were no
wounded to tend and succor. Quarter had
neither been asked nor given. Black and
white lay together in the death-grip. Both
| had fought with equal courage and despera-
| ton. The sturdy Englishman had met in the
| athletic Zulu foeman worthy Of his steel.
The underrated savage had shown himself a
creature upon whom drill and discipline may
be as effective in the direction of natural cour-
age as on Europeans. Lord Chelmsford en-
| camped among the dead, making disposition
to meet any renewed attack. Some ten miles
away, while the flower of his army is being
literally massacred, he is also quietly awaiting
morning in the shambles, while further in his
rear another desperate fight is going on. In
that inquiry which he is instituting touching
the affair, the British public will expect some
explanation from him touching the question
| how it is British general is found advancing
into the heart of an enemy's territory while
that enemy's army is allowed to congregate on
his rear and destroy his base of operations.
HEROES FOR THE VICTORIA CROSS.
Some dozen miles from the camp at Rorke's
Drift proper, a small commissariat post had
been stationed, near the Tugela river, and not
far from the frontier towns Of Helpmakaar
and Greytown. Here, without any intrenched
system of defence, utterly unprepared to re-
sist anything like a serious attack, and never
dreaming of danger, there were handful of
volunteers, some men of the Twenty-fOurth
and some civilians, about eighty, all told.
They were under the command of couple OF
Young lieutenants Bromhead, of the Twenty
fourth, and Chard, of the Royal engineers
They knew nothing of the bitter business that
had been going on at the camp. Their first i'll
timatiOn of trouble arose from seeing fugtives
making for the river, and, in the distance, ma
tives in pursuit. Seeing danger, the young
lieutenants called their men to arms and COM
menced to turn their commissariat stores to
account. They had a vast quantity OF meal
in bags and a large store of biscuits in tins
These, under the young engineers direction,
they hastily formed into a barricade, with
loop-holes for the rifles. Meanwhile, the out
look saw several of the fugitives fall under
the Zulu fire, more particularly Lieut.. Coghill,
while crossing the river, the officers intention
being to warn GreytOwn and Helpmakaar of
the danger they were in from Zulu advance
Coghill and some half dozen or more had got
| away from the camp, charged with the duty OF
The little post at Rorke's Drift appears to
have been altogether forgotten, except by the
| Zulu army, for the natives who had pursued
Coghill turned out to be the vanguard of an
other portion of the victorious force which
had captured the Chelmsford convoy. 1t was
sunset on the 22d, just as his Lordshlp was
beginning to realize what had happened at the
camp, and utterly unconscious of the situation
of the post at the Drift, that between 5000
and 1000 Of the enemy appeared before Chard
and Bromhead's breastworks of meal-bags and
biscuit-ti Waiting calmly for their ad-
vance, the little garrison poured into them
volley that staggered them. The fire was re-
peated, and the Zulus, swarming over their
| dead, charged for the most vulnerable part OF
the barricade, entered it, and were hurled
back at the point of the bayonet. Again and
again they returned to the breach, which was
closed up with their dead. The garrison
fought like devils. They dubbed their rifles,
they used their bayonets, the young lieuten-
ants fought with their swords. After each
repulse the men returned to their rifle prac-
| tice, keeping up deadly fire. At the rear OF
the barricade was small wooden hospital.
| There were five patients in it and servant
of Colonel Harness. The Zulus fired the hos
pital, and the inmates were buCned to death,
| except Harness Servant, who crept ont and
escaped in the bush. The light of the flames
helped the garrison to see the foe, and en-
abled them to avenge over and over again the
poor fellows in the hospital. All through
the night the unequal contest went on,
the Zulus more than once coming up TO the
breastworkS and seiZing the rifle barrels Whlch
flung among them a constant and deadly
hail of bullets. Some of them got inside the
impromptu fortress six different times, but
they were slaughtered to man. Assistant