Anglo-Zulu War regret. The ensuing Battle of Isandlwana was the greatest victory that the Zulu kingdom would enjoy during the war. The British centre column was wrecked and its camp annihilated with heavy casualties as well as the loss of all its supplies, ammunition and transport. The defeat left Chelmsford no choice but to hastily retreat out of Zululand. In the battle's aftermath, a party of some 4,000 Zulu reserves mounted an unauthorised raid on the nearby British army border post of Rorke's Drift and were driven off after 10 hours of ferocious fighting. While the British central column under Chelmsford's command
South African Wars (1879–1915) On 11 December 1878, Frere's representative Sir Theophilus Shepstone informed the Zulu leader that he could either turn in the two men who led this raid into Natal and disarm his army, or face war. The disarmament conditions were deliberately impossible to fulfill, Cetshwayo refused them, and the British attacked the Zulu on 22 January 1879. The British attacked with only 1700 troops while the Zulu brought 24,000. The battle was almost a complete massacre of the British with only sixty Europeans surviving. Cetshwayo and his army were eventually defeated at oNdini on 4 July 1879. He escaped but was