The Story of the Zulu Campaign

DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO HER IMPERIAL MAJESTY
THE EMPRESS EUGÉNIE.
WITH MAP.
LONDON: Gilbert and Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square.
TO HER IMPERIAL MAJESTY
THE EMPRESS EUGÉNIE
THIS RECORD OF THE ZULU WAR IS, BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION, HUMBLY DEDICATED, AS A POOR TRIBUTE AND OFFERING .
In Memoriam.
Worthy of the Race of Guzman, and of the soldier of Lodi and Arcola, while recalling memories of him who gave to the gods of the Tiber the gift most precious to Rome—Human Valour—Prince Louis Napoleon's name will live in the hearts of all his English comrades, as a type of pure chivalry, of knightly generosity, and as a rainbow of Hope over two great western powers, for centuries at war, but now allied in friendship.

Some apology or explanation may be deemed requisite, for delaying the publication of this Story of the Zulu War for more than a year after its conclusion. The little book itself was written very shortly after the capture of the king, Cetywayo, and the tardiness of its appearance has been, to a certain extent, intentional on my part.
Although it may seem ungracious and, perhaps, ungrateful to cavil at the war criticisms and descriptions which, by every post and telegram, adorn the pages of contemporaneous journalism, I would submit that the practice of writing ex cathedrâ on war topics the day after an engagement, is too early to allow us to examine motives as well as facts, so that we may form conclusions to which we can only justly arrive, when Time, the corrector, where our judgments err, has softened prejudice and exposed partisan feeling. The worst and most valueless criticisms on Waterloo were given to the world immediately after the fight of Mont St. Jean. The most unreliable, and indeed erroneous, opinions in regard to the splendid errors of Inkerman and Balaklava, appeared before the Crimean war was ended, and many a hero, elevated by the verdict of contemporaneous eulogy to a temporary pedestal in the Temple of Fame, has since been dethroned by the calmer and more honest judgment of a later generation. When the Emperor Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers, he, perhaps, intentionally, paid us a compliment; for peace, commerce, and prosperity, have, as a rule, I venture to hold, been more regarded in our islands than projects of violence, warfare, or conquest; and this with us has ever been an honourable characteristic of the Spirit of our present Age.