The Defence of Rorke's Drift having fought in the battle from Lady Butler's sketch of him taken at Portsmouth among the other survivors; his name has subsequently been added to the roll of those who fought at Rorke's Drift. The Defence of Rorke's Drift The Defence of Rorke's Drift is an 1880 painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler depicting the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift which took place during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1877 to 1879. The battle and the men who fought in it were made famous in the 1964 film "Zulu". The Battle of Rorke's Drift caused a wave of patriotic fever in
Battle of Isandlwana Battle of Isandlwana The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo–Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zululand in South Africa, a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of about 1,800 British, colonial and native troops and perhaps 400 civilians. The Zulus were equipped mainly with the traditional assegai iron spears and cow-hide shields, but also had a number of muskets and old rifles. The British and colonial