Major Clery says:[124] “About 1.30 A.M. on the 22nd, a messenger brought me a note from Major Dartnell to say that the enemy was in greater numbers than when he last reported, and that he did not think it prudent to attack unless reinforced by two or three companies of the 24th Regiment. The General ordered the 2nd Battalion 24th Regiment, the Mounted Infantry, and four guns, to be under arms at once to march.” The Natal Native Pioneers, about 50 strong, accompanied the force, which “marched out from the camp as soon as there was light enough to see the road.” Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine, 1-24th Regiment, was instructed to take “command of the camp during the absence of Colonel Glyn”—the force left with him consisting of 5 companies 1-24th and 1 company 2-24th Regiment; 2 guns Royal Artillery; about 20 Mounted Infantry and Volunteers; 30 Natal Carbineers, 31 Mounted Police, and 4 companies Natal Native Contingent. An order was also despatched to Colonel Durnford (at Rorke’s Drift) to move up to Isandhlwana. Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine’s instructions for the defence of the camp were, briefly, to draw in his “line of defence” and “infantry outposts,” but to keep his cavalry vedettes “still far advanced.”[125] We may here note that the only country searched was that direct to the front and right front—the direction of the waggon-track—although it is stated “the Lieut.-General had himself noticed mounted men in one direction (our left front) on the 21st, and in this direction he had intended to make a reconnaissance.” (P. P. [C. 2260] p. 99).
After the departure of the advance column nothing unusual occurred in camp until between seven and eight o’clock, when it was reported from the advanced picquet (on the Ingqutu range of hills, about 1500 yards to the north) that a body of the enemy could be seen approaching from the north-east: and various small bodies were afterwards seen. Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine got his men under arms, and sent a written message off to head-quarters that a Zulu force had appeared on the hills on his left front. This was received “between 9.30 and 10 A.M.”
Colonel Durnford received the General’s order when on an expedition into Natal to obtain waggons, but at once returned to Rorke’s Drift, and marched for Isandhlwana. Lieutenant Chard, R.E., who had ridden to camp for orders, “met Colonel Durnford about a quarter of a mile from the camp at the head of his mounted men” about 10.30 A.M., and told him the troops were in column outside the camp, and Zulus showing “on the crest of the distant hills,” “several parties” working round so far to the left that he “was afraid they might be going to make a dash at the Drift.” He took orders to Major Russell to hurry up with the rocket battery, to detach a company of Sikali men to protect the baggage, and for all to “look out to the left.”
Colonel Durnford reached the camp, and received all the information Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine could afford, finding the situation to be:—Lonsdale’s natives on outpost duty on the hills to the left, the guns in position on the left of the camp, and the infantry under arms. The oxen were driven into camp and—Mr. Brickhill says—tied to the yokes, but not inspanned. Constant reports were coming in from the hills to the left—“The enemy are in force behind the hills.” “The enemy are in three columns.” “One column is moving to the left rear, and one towards the General.” “The enemy are retiring in every direction.” The enemy’s force was given at 400 to 600.
On hearing these reports, Colonel Durnford sent one troop Natal Native Horse to reinforce his baggage guard; two troops to the hills to the left (under Captains G. Shepstone and Barton)—one to move along the crest of the range, one to search the valley beyond—and determined himself to go out to the front “and prevent the one column joining the ‘impi,’ which was supposed at that time to be engaged with the troops under the General;” he asked Lieut.-Colonel Pulleine for two companies of the 24th, to which Colonel Pulleine replied, “that two companies could ill be spared, but that if Colonel Durnford ordered them, of course they should go.” On consideration, Colonel Durnford decided only to take his own men,[126] and moved out with his remaining two troops Natal Native Horse, followed by Major Russell’s rocket battery, with its escort of a company of Native Contingent, under Captain Nourse.
A company 1-24th, under Lieutenant Cavaye, was sent out as a picquet to the hills about 1200 yards north of the camp, and the remainder of the troops dismissed to their private parades, where the men were to lie down in readiness to turn out if required. At this time there was no expectation of an attack during the day, and no idea had been formed regarding the probable strength of the enemy.[127]
The two troops sent on the hills to the left “to ascertain the enemy’s movements,” had proceeded “about five miles from the camp,” when “the Zulu army came forward, advancing straight on towards the camp.” Captain Shepstone ordered a retreat on the camp, and himself rode in with the warning that the “whole Zulu army was advancing to attack it.”[128] Captain Shepstone met Captain Gardner on reaching the camp, and both officers then went to Colonel Pulleine, but, says Captain Gardner, the enemy were “already on the hill on our left in large numbers.”
Colonel Durnford, having despatched his two troops to the left, had moved out to the front at a canter, followed at a foot’s pace by the rocket battery, etc. About five miles out, a trooper rode down from the hills on the left, and reported an immense “impi” behind the hills, and almost immediately the Zulus appeared in force in front and on the left, in skirmishing order, ten or twelve deep, with supports close behind. They opened fire at about 800 yards, and advanced very rapidly. Colonel Durnford retired a little way—to a donga—and extended his men, then fell back, keeping up a steady fire, for about two miles,[129] when he came upon the remains of the rocket battery, which (it appeared) had turned to the left on hearing firing on the hills, been cut off, and broken up. Fighting was still going on here, but the Zulus were speedily driven back.
Colonel Durnford retired slowly on the camp, disputing every yard of ground, until he reached a donga about 800 yards in front of the right of the camp; there, prolonging the line of the camp troops, and the right being reinforced by between thirty and forty mounted men, under Captain Bradstreet, a stand was made.
“This gully,” Mr. Brickhill, interpreter to No. 3 Column, says, “the mounted force held most tenaciously, every shot appearing to take effect,” and with the havoc caused by the guns, “a thousand Zulu dead must have laid between the conical hill and the gully. They lay just like peppercorns upon the plain.”