As soon as the wounded had been attended to, the force advanced to the banks of the stream near Ulundi, whilst the cavalry swept the country beyond. Ulundi was fired at 11.40 A.M., and the adjacent kraals shortly afterwards. At 2 P.M., the return march to the camp commenced. Every military kraal in the valley that had not previously been destroyed was in flames; and not a sign of the Zulu army was to be perceived.
The British force engaged consisted of 4062 Europeans and 1103 natives, with 12 guns and 2 Gatlings. The loss: killed, 2 officers (Captain Wyatt-Edgell, 17th Lancers, and the Hon. W. Drummond, in charge of the Intelligence Department), 13 non-commissioned officers and men, and 3 natives; wounded, 19 officers, 59 non-commissioned officers and men, and 7 natives.
The Zulu force is estimated variously; some put it at 12,000, some at 20,000. Being scattered over a large extent of country, and some of the regiments engaged having already suffered heavily, it is not easy to arrive at a reliable conclusion. It is probable that the correct number lay between 15,000 and 20,000.
As regards the Zulu loss, Lord Chelmsford says: “It is impossible to estimate with any correctness the loss of the enemy, owing to the extent of country over which they attacked and retreated; but it could not have been less, I consider, than 1000 killed.”—(Despatch, 4th July).
Using the same reasoning on the 6th, Lord Chelmsford says: “But judging by the reports of those engaged, it cannot be placed at a less number than 1500 killed.”
From the statements of prisoners it would seem that the attacking force was about 15,000 strong, 5000 being in reserve. At a meeting of the Zulu Council on the 2nd July, it appears that it was resolved by the King to send in the royal coronation white cattle as a peace-offering; but as they were being driven towards the English camp on the 2nd, they were turned back at Nodwengo by the Umcityu Regiment, who refused to let them pass, saying, as they could not fulfil all the demands, it was useless to give up the cattle, and therefore they would fight. The king was then at Ulundi; he said that “as the Inkandampemvu (Umcityu) Regiment would not let the cattle go in as a peace-offering, and as we wished to fight, the white army being now at his home, we could fight, but we were to fight the white men in the open, and attack before the Nodwengo and Ulundi kraals, where we were on the day of the fight.... The army is now thoroughly beaten, and as it was beaten in the open, it will not reassemble and fight again. No force is watching the lower column, and none has been sent there. How could there be, when all were ordered to be here to-day? We mustered here by the king’s orders at the beginning of this moon, about ten days ago. We have not been called out before.”
The natives belonging to the British force were exceedingly struck at the idea of their being brought into the square, whilst the soldiers formed “a laager” of their bodies round them.
The special correspondent of The Daily News, Mr. Archibald Forbes, performed a very gallant act after the battle of Ulundi. Finding that no despatch was being sent off by the General to announce the victory, he determined to take the news himself, and, “taking his life in his hand,” set out alone to ride right through the Zulu country. This he did, riding the whole night, having frequently to dismount and actually feel his way—the tracks of the waggons on the upward route.
Next day, after a ride of nearly a hundred miles, he reached Landtmann’s Drift (in fifteen hours), and was enabled to telegraph to Sir Garnet Wolseley the news of the victory of the 4th.