Battle of Isandlwana

On 22 January 1879 the main British camp beneath Isandlwana was attacked by the principal Zulu army during the opening invasion of the Zulu kingdom. Lord Chelmsford had taken a substantial part of his force away from the camp, leaving troops under Henry Pulleine and later Anthony Durnford to confront a much larger Zulu force.

Zulu regiments enveloped the extended British firing line and eventually broke into the camp. More than a thousand British and colonial troops were killed, making Isandlwana one of the most serious defeats suffered by the British Army in the Victorian imperial wars. The Zulu army also suffered heavy casualties.

The battle became central to later arguments about British command failures, ammunition, deployment and Zulu tactics. Ian Knight’s The Sun Turned Black and Zulu Rising are detailed studies of Isandlwana and its immediate connection with the defence of Rorke’s Drift.