| First Division, Major-General Crealock: | ||
| Imperial and irregular troops | 6508 | |
| Native Contingent (151 mounted) | 2707 | |
| Second Division, Major-General Newdigate: | ||
| Imperial and irregular troops | 6867 | |
| Natives (243 mounted) | 3371 | |
| Flying Column, Brigadier-General Wood: | ||
| Imperial and irregular troops | 2285 | |
| Natives (75 mounted) | 807 | |
| Making a total strength of 22,545 men available for the conquest of Zululand. | ||
On the 14th May, Lord Chelmsford reported: “The troops are in position, and are only waiting for sufficient supplies and transport to advance.”—(P. P. [C. 2374] p. 97).
The transport difficulties naturally increased with the increasing force. The colony did not eagerly press forward to the rescue, and although transport for service in the colony could be obtained, that for trans-frontier work was not procurable in any quantity on any terms.
The colonial view somewhat appeared to be, “No government has power, either legally or morally, to force any man to perform acts detrimental to his own interest.” No doubt the colony felt itself more secure whilst the troops remained within its borders, and naturally was not anxious to assist in their departure; and it may have thought the war “was an Imperial concern, brought about by an Imperial functionary;” and therefore the Empire should be left “to worry out the affair for itself;” as remarked by a colonial paper at the time.
On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the necessities of the troops, during this campaign, taxed the resources of the colonists to the utmost. If some profited in a mercantile point of view, and were unpatriotic enough to try to make every penny they could out of the army intended for their protection, there were others who acted in a very different spirit. The sacrifice and loss of both life and property through the Zulu war has been as great, in proportion, to Natal as to the mother country; and if the former was weak and wicked—or perhaps only thoughtless—enough to wish for war, she has now received a lesson which will prevent her ever making so great a mistake again. While upon the one side we hear stories of transport riders and others who lost no opportunity of fleecing at every turn both Government and military in their necessity, on the other hand we have equally well-authenticated accounts of strict honesty, and even generosity, on the part of other Natalians. One story is told of a transport rider who had earned the sum of £1500, which was to be paid by instalments of £500 each: after he had received two of these the officer who paid him was removed, and his successor, unaware of previous payments, handed over to the transport rider’s messenger the whole £1500. The honest fellow at once returned the £1000 overpaid.
It is also a well-known fact that many of the principal tradesmen permitted their shopmen to join the volunteer corps to which they belonged, still continuing to pay them their respective salaries during their absence.
The colony was not revelling in a shower of gold, as some at home imagine: a few individuals, doubtless, thought to “make hay while the sun shines,” but to the population at large the war was certainly not advantageous. For some months fresh provisions were almost at famine prices, or even unattainable by private persons.
Many farmers were with the army, either as volunteers or with the transport train; others again had sold their waggons and oxen, and thus had no means of bringing in their produce. The market supply was consequently very small, and generally at once bought up for the garrisons.
Transport difficulties, we have said, increased with the increasing force. The 9000 Imperial troops sent as reinforcements had to be fed, and their food conveyed to where they were stationed. Three or four thousand horses and mules also had to be fed in a country from which grass was disappearing, and in which supplies of forage were small. The larger part of the troops and horses were sent up-country—some two hundred miles from the coast—where winter grass-fires might be expected, and nature’s stores were certain soon to be exhausted; and thus arose the terrible strain in the transport resources of the country.