Zulu Scouting On The Day Of The Battle At Isandlwana |
Mike Snook
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Coll,
Well done for raising a topic which is just far too tempting to sit out - you have enticed me in! (Did you decoy me?!) I think you raise a really interesting subject. Like you, I began from the premise that the impi must have had lookouts posted and must have seen Lord C leave the camp. But when one reverse engineers it - and accepts that the Undi Corps were genuinely surprised to bump into Lord C on the morning of the 23rd - then plainly the impi did not see his departure. How can this be? (Much head scratching). First and most obviously - it was damn near still dark on the plain when Lord C set out - orders were specifically given that the flying column (as I call it) was to be roused in silence - no lights, no bugles etc. But on the other hand the column would have been visible in daylight as it made its fairly tortuous way across the plain. The answer, I believe, lies in not what the Zulus would have wanted to do (i.e.. 'surveill' the battlepsace) - but what British dispositions allowed them to do. In order to see from the area of Ngwebeni, to the other side of the plain, you have to come up to a high point on the escarpment - or to other points commanded by the escarpment - and of course the NC vedette posts were deployed along the edge of the escarpment, and as far afield as Nyezi Hill. In other words the vantage points were denied to the Zulu by the physical presence of the British lookouts. I think also that Nstingwayo had a bit of a fright the previous afternoon when Browne's IMI patrol came damned close to discovering the impi (Oft missed fact - Browne exhanged shots on the afternoon of the 21st with what must have been scouts/screen troops). So, to cut a long story sideways, surprising though it might appear, I can persuade myself that Nstingwayo might well have been completely unaware of Lord C's early morning departure. I think his main concerns were security (keeping hidden), discipline (stopping the wild youth going off at half-cock) and real estate (as described in my book). I think you make a very fair point about lookouts on Mabaso Ridge - and indeed I can readily imagine a few lads doubling downhill shouting the alarm just as Charlie Raw was in the final stages of his approach. Well done on Durnford's Horse. Spot on. Regards as ever Mike |
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Zulu Scouting On The Day Of The Battle At Isandlwana |
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