Battle of Blood River The Battle of Blood River ( ; ) is the name given for the battle fought between 470 Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius , and an estimated 10 , 000 – 15 , 000 Zulu attackers on the bank of the Ncome River on 16 December 1838 , in what is today KwaZulu - Natal , South Africa . Casualties amounted to three thousand of king Dingane ' s soldiers dead , including two Zulu princes competing with prince Mpande for the Zulu throne . Three Trekker commando members were lightly wounded , including Pretorius himself . In the sequel to the Battle of Blood River in January 1840 , prince Mpande finally defeated Dingane in the Battle of Maqongqe , and was subsequently crowned as new king of the Zulus by his alliance partner Andries Pretorius . After these two battles of succession , Dingane ' s prime minister and commander in both the Battle of Maqonqe and the Battle of Blood River , general Ndlela , was strangled to death by Dingane on account of high treason . General Ndlela had been the personal protector of prince Mpande , who after the Battles of Blood River and Maqongqe , became king and founder of the Zulu dynasty . Background . The Trekkers — called Voortrekkers after 1880 — decided to dethrone Zulu chief Dingane kaSenzangakhona after the betrayal murder of chief Trekker leader Piet Retief , his entire entourage , and some of their women and children living in temporary wagon encampments during 1838 . On 6 February 1838 , two days after the signing of a negotiated land settlement deal between Retief and Dingane at UmGungundlovu , which included Trekker access to Port Natal in which Britain had imperial interest , Dingane invited Retief and his party into his royal residence for a beer - drinking farewell . The accompanying request for the surrender of Trekker muskets at the entrance was taken as normal protocol when appearing before the king . While the Trekkers were being entertained by Dingane ' s dancing soldiers , Dingane suddenly accused the visiting party of witchcraft . Dingane ' s soldiers then proceeded to impale all Retief ' s men , lastly clubbing to death Retief , while leaving the Natal treaty in his handbag intact . Immediately after the UmGungundlovu massacre , Dingane sent out his impis ( regiments ) to attack several Trekker encampments at night time , killing an estimated 500 men , women , children , and servants , most notably at Blaukraans . Help arrived from farmers in the Cape Colony , and the Trekkers in Natal subsequently requested the pro - independence Andries Pretorius to leave the Cape Colony , in order to dethrone chief Dingane . After the Battle of Blood River , the Dingane - Retief treaty was found on Retief ' s bodily remains , providing a driving force for an overt alliance against Dingane between Zulu prince Mpande and Pretorius . Prelude . War strategies of the generals . On 26 November 1838 , Andries Pretorius was appointed as general of a wagon commando directed against Dingane at UmGungundlovu , which means " the secret conclave of the elephant " . By December 1838 , Zulu prince Mpande and 17 , 000 followers had already fled from Dingane , who was seeking to assassinate Mpande . In support of prince Mpande as Dingane ' s replacement , Pretorius ' strategy was to target Dingane only . To allow prince Mpande to oust king Dingane through military might , Pretorius had first to weaken Dingane ' s personal military power base in UmGungundlovu . Dingane ' s royal residence at UmGungundlovu was naturally protected against attack by hilly and rocky terrain all around , as well as an access route via Italeni passing through a narrow gorge called a defile . Earlier on 9 April 1838 , a Trekker horse commando without ox wagons , thereafter called the " Flight Commando " , had unsuccessfully attempted to penetrate the UmGungundlovu defence at nearby Italeni , resulting in the loss of several Trekker lives . Trekker leader Hendrik Potgieter had abandoned all hope of engaging Dingane in UmGungundlovu after losing the battle of Italeni , and subsequently had migrated with his group out of Natal . To approach UmGungundlovu via the Italeni defile with ox wagons would force the wagons into an open column , instead of an enclosed laager as successfully employed defensively at Veglaer on 12 August 1838 . The military commander during Dingane ' s attack on Veglaer , was Ndlela kaSompisi . The highly experienced general Ndlela had served under Shaka , and was also prime minister and chief advisor under Dingane . Ndlela with his 10 , 000 troops had retreated from Veglaer , after three days and nights of fruitless attempts to penetrate the enclosed Trekker wagon laager . General Ndlela personally protected prince Mpande — whom Pretorius later crowned as Zulu king in 1840 — from Dingane ' s repeated assassination plans . King Dingane desired to have his half brother Mpande , the only prince with children , eliminated as a threat to his throne . Prince Mpande was married to Msukilethe , a daughter of general Ndlela . General Ndlela , like Pretorius the promotor of prince Mpande , was responsible for Dingane ' s UmGungundlovu defence during the Trekkers ' second attack attempt under Pretorius in December 1838 . Given general Ndlela ' s previous defence and attack experience at Italeni and Veglaer during April 1838 and August 1838 respectively , Ndlela ' s tactical options were limited . Proven UmGungundlovu defence tactics were to attack Trekker commandos in the rocky and hilly terrain on the narrowing access route at Italeni , thereby neutralising the advantages mounted riflemen had over spear - carrying foot soldiers . Ndlela had to let Pretorius come close to UmGungundlovu at Italeni , and lure the Trekkers into attack . Ndlela was not to attack the Trekkers when they were in a defensive wagon laager position , especially not during the day . The problem for Pretorius was that he had somehow to find a way to make Dingane ' s soldiers attack him in a defensive laager position at a place of his choice , far away from UmGungundlovu and Italeni . On 6 December 1838 , 10 days before the Battle of Blood River , Pretorius and his commando including Alexander Biggar as translator had a meeting with friendly Zulu chiefs at Danskraal , so named for the Zulu dancing that took place in the Zulu kraal that the Trekker commando visited . With the intelligence received at Danskraal , Pretorius became confident enough to propose a vow , which demanded the celebration , by the commando and their posterity , of the coming victory over Dingane . The so - called covenant included that a church would be built in honour of God , should the commando somehow be successful and reach UmGungundlovu alive in order to diminish the power of Dingane . Building a church in Trekker emigrant context was symbol for establishing a settled state , like the Republic of Natalia , which was established during 1840 , when the Dingane - Retief treaty was implemented under king Mpande . After the meeting with friendly Zulu chiefs at Danskraal , Pretorius let the commando relax and do their washing for a few days at Wasbank till 9 December 1838 . From Wasbank they slowly and daily moved closer to the site of the Battle of Blood River , practicing laager defence tactics every evening for a week long . Then , by halting his advance towards UmGungundlovu on 15 December 1838 , 40 km before reaching the defile at Italeni , Pretorius had eliminated the Italeni terrain trap . Battle . On 15 December 1838 , after the Trekker wagons crossed the Buffalo River , away from their target UmGungundlovu via the risky Italeni access route , an advance scouting party including Pretorius brought news of large Zulu forces arriving nearby . While Cilliers wanted to ride out in attack , Pretorius declined the opportunity to engage Dingane ' s soldiers far away from their base and Italeni . Instead Pretorius built a fortified Wagon Laager on terrain of his own choosing , in the hope that general Ndlela would attack it like Veglaer . As the site for the overnight wagon camp , Pretorius chose a defensible area next to a hippo pool in the Ncome River that provided excellent rear protection . The open area to the front provided no cover for an attacking force , and a deep dry river bed protected one of the wagon laager flanks . As usual , the ox wagons were drawn into a protective enclosure or " laager " . Movable wooden barriers that could be opened quickly were fastened between each wagon to prevent intruders , and two cannon were positioned . Mist settled over the wagon site that evening . According to Afrikaner traditions , the Zulu were afraid to attack in the night due to superstitions about the lamps which the Boers hung on " sjamboks " [ whip - stocks ] around the laager . Whether or not there is any truth in this , historian S . P . Mackenzie has speculated that the Zulu held back until what they perceived as the necessary numbers had arrived . During the night of 15 December , 6 Zulu regiments or 6 , 000 Zulu soldiers led by Dambuza ( Nzobo ) crossed the Ncome river and started massing around the encampment , while the elite forces of senior general Ndlela did not cross the river . Ndlela thereby split Dingane ' s army in two . On 16 December , dawn broke on a clear day , revealing that " ' all of Zululand sat there ' " , said one Trekker eyewitness . But General Ndlela and his crack troops , the Black and White Shields , remained on the other side of the river , observing Dambuza ' s men at the laager from a safe position across the hippo pool . According to the South African Department of Art and Culture : " In ceremonies that lasted about three days , " izinyanga zempi " , specialist war doctors , prepared " izinteleze " medicines which made warriors invincible in the face of their opponents . " This could explain why Dambuza ' s forces were sitting on the ground close to the wagon laager when the Trekkers opened fire during the day . Only Dambuza ' s regiments repeatedly stormed the " laager " unsuccessfully . The attackers were hindered by a change introduced during Shaka ' s rule that replaced most of the longer throwing spears with short stabbing spears . In close combat the stabbing spear provided obvious advantages over its longer cousin . A Zulu eyewitness said that their first charge was mown down like grass by the single - shot Boer muskets . The Trekkers brought to bear their full firepower by having their women , children and servants reload other muskets , allowing a single shooter and a band of servants to fire a shot approximately every 5 seconds . Buckshot was used to maximise casualties . Mackenzie claims that 200 indigenous servants looked after the horses and cattle and helped load muskets but no definite proof or witness of servants helping to reload is available . Writing in the popular Afrikaans magazine , " Die Huisgenoot " , a Dr . D . J . Kotze said that this group consisted of 59 " non - white " helpers and three English settlers with their black " followers " . After two hours and four waves of attack , with the intermittent lulls providing crucial reloading and resting opportunities for the Trekkers , Pretorius ordered a group of horsemen to leave the encampment and engage the Zulu in order to disintegrate their formations . The Zulu withstood the charge for some time , but rapid losses led them to scatter . The Trekkers pursued their fleeing enemies and hunted them down for three hours . Cilliers noted later that " we left the Kafirs lying on the ground as thick almost as pumpkins upon the field that has borne a plentiful crop . " Bantjes recorded that about 3 , 000 dead Zulu had been counted , and three Trekkers were wounded . During the chase , Pretorius was wounded in his left hand by an " assegaai " ( Zulu spear ) . Of the 3 , 000 dead Zulus , two were princes , leaving Ndlela ' s favourite prince Mpande as frontrunner in the subsequent battle for the Zulu crown . Four days after the Battle of Blood River , the Trekker commando arrived at Dingane ' s great kraal Mgungundlovu ( near present day Eshowe ) , only to find it deserted and ablaze . The bones of Retief and his men were found and buried where a memorial stands today . Afterwards the clash was commemorated as having occurred at Blood River ( " Bloedrivier " ) . 16 December is a public holiday in South Africa ; before 1994 it was known as " the Day of the Vow " , " the Day of the Covenant " and " Dingaan ' s Day " ; but today it is " the Day of Reconciliation " . Aftermath . With UmGungundlovu as Dingane ' s political power base destroyed , and Dingane ' s military might weakened due to the disastrous Battle of Blood River , prince Mpande openly joined into the military alliance with Pretorius . The Zulu civil war erupted into the open . Following Battle of Maqongqe in January 1840 , the forces of Mpande did not wait for Pretorius ' cavalry to arrive , and attacked the remaining regiments of Dingane , who were again under the command of general Ndlela , as at the previous Battle of Blood River . Again Dingane ' s general Ndlela strayed from normal fighting tactics against Mpande , sending in his regiments to fight one at time , instead of together in ox horn formation . After Maquongqe Dingane had to flee Natal completely , but before he did so , he had general Ndlela slowly strangled by cow hide for high treason , on the grounds that he had fought for , instead of against Mpande , with the same disastrous result for Dingane as at Ncome - Blood River . Afterwards Pretorius approved and attended the crowning of Zulu king Mpande in Pietermaritzburg . They agreed on the Tugela river as the border between Zululand and the Republic of Natalia . Thanks to general Ndlela ka Sompisi , king Mpande became the founder of the contemporary Zulu dynasty to this day . The dynasty was meant to end the unstable transfer of ruling Zulu power via the assassinations of kings and the purging of princes , which Ndlela himself had experienced , whilst serving in the highest positions in both the Shaka and Dingane regimes . For the above specifically — the implementation of a more stable way of Zulu ruler succession through Mpande as the root of Zulu dynasty — and for his genius in general , a monument was erected for Ndlela ka Sompisi in Zululand , the inauguration of which was attended by Jacob Zuma and S ' bu Joel Ndebele . Legacy . Popular Afrikaner interpretations of the Battle of Blood River ( bolstered by sympathetic English historians such as G . M . Theal ) played a central role in fostering ethnic nationalism among white Afrikaners . They claimed that the Battle demonstrated God ' s intervention , and hence their divine right to exist as an independent people . The claim in the official guidebook of the Voortrekker Monument ( unveiled during the centenary celebrations of the Great Trek on 16 December 1949 ) that Afrikaners were a nation of heroes exemplifies the conclusions drawn from such events . In time , the Afrikaner came to consider the site and the commemoration of the day as sacred . The conflict between Dingane and the Trekkers continued for one more year after the Battle of Blood River . The idea of a decisive victory may have been planted in Pretorius ' mind by a Zulu prisoner , who said that most of Dingane ' s warriors had either been killed or had fled . The same prisoner led some of the Trekker party into a trap at the White Umfolozi River , eleven days after the battle at Ncome River . This time the Zulu were victorious . Only when Dingane ' s brother , Mpande , openly joined the Trekker side with his sizeable army was Dingane finally defeated in January 1840 . Historian S . P . Mackenzie doubts the reported number of Zulu deaths . He compares Zulu casualties at Ncome to battles at Italeni , Isandlwana , and Rorke ' s Drift . Mackenzie acknowledges that the casualty count was not impossible . Yet , in a similar victory on 15 October 1836 by Trekkers under Hendrik Potgieter over some 9 , 000 Matabele , the latter suffered only 350 casualties . In 1879 , 600 British soldiers with breech - loading rifles causing 2 , 000 Zulu casualties , perhaps 1 , 000 killed over three hours before being overrun . 200 indigenous people helped the Afrikaners . Ncome / Blood River monument . A church , called " the Church of the Vow " , was built in the Natal town of Pietermaritzburg in 1841 , where Pretorius settled on the farm " Welverdient " ( English : " Rightly earned " ) , a gift from the Trekkers . A monument was erected on the site of the battle in 1947 , consisting of an ox wagon executed in granite by the sculptor Coert Steynberg . In 1971 a laager of 64 ox wagons cast in bronze ( by Unifront Foundry in Edenvale — Fanie de Klerk and Jack Cowlard ) was erected , and unveiled on 16 December 1972 . The Ncome monument on the east side of the river commemorates the fallen Zulu warriors . While the Blood River Memorial is associated with Afrikaner nationalism , the Ncome monument was intended as a symbol of reconciliation , but has become connected with Zulu nationalism . At the 16 December 1998 inauguration of the most recent version of the monument , the Zulu politician and then Minister of Home Affairs , Mangosuthu Buthelezi , apologized to the Afrikaner nation for the death of Piet Retief and the subsequent suffering . At the same time Buthelezi also noted the suffering of the Zulu under British Colonial and Afrikaner rule during apartheid . He stressed that South Africans needed to consider the day as " a new covenant which binds us to the shared commitment of building a new country . " Today two complexes mark the battle site : the Ncome Monument and Museum Complex east of the Ncome River , and the Blood River Monument and Museum Complex to the west . Ndlela monument . President Zuma attended the official inauguration of the Ndlela monument in Eshowe , Kwazulu - Natal . Ndlela is remembered for saving prince Mpande from Dingane ' s elimination plans .