Due to a series of merciless raids on farmsteads along the frontier with Zululand, including one on the beBeers family farmstead, Colonel Hebler's soon to be father-in-law. Lord Chelmsford has been decided that the BootellWezi are responsible and an example is to be made of them. A full battalion of Red-coated infantry with a squadron of cavalry and a section of artillery are to cross the Buffalo river and burn the Krall of Chief N'grogga and to disperse any hostile Zulu forces that they encounter. Chief N'grogga is only expected to have less than full Ibutho of infantry with him.
As the Queen's Birthday is only four days away the Battalion is expected to be back by then for a dress uinform Parade, as members of the Press will be there all care is to be taken to keep friendly casualties to a minimum to ensure the hospitals are not crowded.
British security had been very lax and N'grogga had heard of the coming of the British a full 3 days before they actually left, he sent messengers to the tribes of the Map-halala, Mkhumbane and Ndwandwe, as they were the nearest that could reach him before the British arrived, they were come to N'grogg's Krall and they would all move to the Buffalo river, where N'grogga had planned to oppose the British crossing. Unknown to N'grogga the British force traveled much faster than he expected and they arrived at his Krall just before the reinforcements from the Map-halala, Mkhumbane and Ndwandwe, he immediately sent orders that they fall upon the flanks of the invaders while his troops would delay them. Unfortunately for the Zulu none of the messengers reached any of the Zulu reinforcements and all came to N'grogga's Krall which allowed the British to line the valley floor with a solid wall of rifles.
These two shots show the first of the Zulu being pushed back by the cavalry.the above picture is from a birds eye view
And the position of someone skulking behind the British line
The Zulu are heartened when the left of the British line suddenly breaks and runs to the rear.
Fortunately it quickly rallies and moves forward once again, just in time, the center unit is in full unrecoverable rout unfortunately the Zulu in front of the gaping hole in the British line is pinned and cannot move, the British right swings around to bring the maximum number of rifles to bear and quickly disperse the zulu in the middle of the line.
With the Zulu dispersed the Britons move to the Krall and burn it to the ground also taking away many of N'goggas's cattle.
Deep in the Veldt N'grogga vows revenge agianst the redcoats and next time his men will have more rifles, he is even now preaching and training and re-equiping, for the next battle.