An Illustrated Tour of the 1879 Anglo-Zulu Battlefields

Adrian Greaves

Ιαν 2024 · Pen and Sword Military

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In 1878 southern Africa’s two most senior figures, army commander General Lord Chelmsford and the High Commissioner Sir Henry Bartle-Frere created a false threat of a Zulu invasion of British Natal. In an astonishing act of over-confidence and without any government permission, Frere and Chelmsford invaded Zululand with five independent columns of troops. Both leaders ignored the serious implications of their two recently failed expeditions against the Zulus’ neighbouring King Sekhukhune and his Pedi people. The Zulu war lasted only six months and witnessed two separate British invasions of Zululand – one catastrophic, one successful. This book gives the reader a general overview of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879 with descriptive text, location photographs and illuminating map overviews of the twelve main battles including Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift. The author’s unique maps are based on his own lecture notes and ‘battlefield map handouts’ as a Zulu War battlefield guide for over 25 years. These maps were avidly collected by his many groups and other guides; they clearly explain each battlefield’s layout and sequence of events but also included many little known details of each fierce and bloody engagement. At the suggestion of the Anglo Zulu War Historical Society, these maps are now reproduced in book form. While volumes have been written on the subject, this work gives us an even better insight into these gruelling and complex battles.

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Dr Adrian Greaves FRGS, a former soldier and senior police officer, has devoted the last 20 years of his life to studying the Anglo-Zulu War. He is the founder of the Anglo Zulu War Historical Society, the author of numerous works including the bestselling Rorke’s Drift ( ) to which this book is a worthy companion. His books, The Curling Letters of the Zulu War, Redcoats and Zulus, Sister Janet, Who’s Who in the Anglo-Zulu War (2 volumes with Ian Knight) and David Rattray’s Guidebook to the Anglo-Zulu War Battlefield (Editor) have all been published by Pen and Sword Books Ltd.