Colonel Woolls-Sampson at this stage received orders to proceed to Pietermaritzburg to confer with the Acting Commandant (Major-General Sir John Dartnell, K.C.B.)[222] and the Government. Major C.N.H. Rodwell, N.C., now assumed the duties of Chief Staff Officer, with the local rank of Lieut.-Colonel.
McKenzie left with his forces at 7 a.m. on the 3rd June, with the object of making an extensive drive in an easterly direction. Mansel, with N.P. and T.M.R., proceeded from his camp to the vicinity of Komo Hill. The guns and pompoms took up positions covering the general advance of the former column. Colonel McKenzie, accompanied by General Stephenson and his bodyguard of N.C., moved round open ground on the north to a position some three miles in a direct line from Bomvana ridge. The Z.M.R. occupied a kopje about one mile west of where it was proposed the drive should cease. Here they were subsequently joined by the O.C. Troops and General Stephenson, N.C. being strengthened by a troop temporarily detached from the Z.M.R.
R.H., D.L.I., and N.D.M.R., together with the Native levies, after crossing the head of the Mome valley, lined up along the edge of the bush, where instructions were given to the officers to drive the bush in line, with one European to every three levies, thus 1 *** 1 *** 1 *** 1. The objective pointed out was a knoll, which could be seen over the bush and beside the Nkandhla-Eshowe road. The N.D.M.R. took the left, D.L.I. the centre, and R.H. the right. As regards R.H., A and D squadrons were on the left, C in the centre, E and B on the right. Royston himself was on the right.
The idea was that, on the march through the bush, R.H. were to join forces with Mansel's men, who would move on the right from Cetshwayo's grave, whilst the left of the line was protected by McKenzie and the men posted near him on the open tops of the overlooking ridges.
After proceeding through the forest for about two miles over extremely broken country, the centre of the R.H. section of the line found that the spruit Royston had directed the right of the line to rest on was joined by another flowing down from the left front.
On C squadron, in command of Capt. E.G. Clerk, reaching the spruit referred to, a number of tracks of Natives were observed, so fresh as to appear to have been caused but a few minutes before. Following these, the men, still in fair line, came in contact with a party of thirty to forty rebels. A number of these were killed as they endeavoured to escape. Shortly after, it was discovered that touch had been completely lost with the two squadrons on the left, and that Royston with B and E had swung away more to the right and were at that time on the far side of a very high and narrow kopje. Four rebels were chased by men of C up this hill and would have escaped altogether had not the attention of men on the hill been attracted. The latter moved along the crest and shot the fugitives. Corporal Alexander, C squadron, killed later in the day, did some very accurate shooting at some Natives who were, as they thought, securely hidden on their side of the same kopje, sniping at members of C squadron in the valley below. These were shot by him at a range of about 500 yards.
After what remained of C had moved on, six amadhlangala (war-huts) beside the spruit were destroyed. Here a quantity of goods looted from Davis's waggon on the 29th May was found. About a mile and a half further on, the men emerged, about 1.30 p.m., on to an open ridge, where some forty-five men of the squadrons on C's right, together with some Native levies, were come upon. Here Clerk found instructions had just come from Colonel McKenzie through Colonel W.S. Shepstone to move on, as Royston, with the remainder of the right wing, was said to be in advance on the right. There was, however, ground for doubting the intelligence, as firing could be faintly heard away on the right and slightly to the rear. At this time, it was not known to C where the R.H. squadrons on the left, much less the D.L.I. and the N.D.M.R., had got to. After a few minutes' halt, Clerk gave the word to move forward. London, supported by Lieuts. Fryer and Midgley and others of R.H. were put on the right, with the main body of levies, whilst Clerk, supported by Lieut. Stewart and Sergt.-Major Webber, took the extreme left. Lieut. Shepstone, who was with a portion of the levies and some of R.H. on the left, soon completely detached himself. Many Native footprints were seen; indeed, there was every sign of a large body of the enemy being close in advance. Six cattle that were come upon was a further indication. "I passed the word down the line," says Clerk,[223] "to keep a sharp look-out, explaining that I knew we were close on the enemy. At this time, a number of the levies had moved from their proper position and were bunched up near me, close on my right. The nearest European was Corpl. Alexander, about ten yards off on my right. Hawkins was next to him, then Holmes, Flynn, Corpl. Woolnough (A squad), Act.-Sergt. Fraser, Harding, Wilkinson, Bouck, Nesbit and others. After passing the word of warning, we moved about 200 yards and had just crossed a small donga, when I thought I noticed something move on my left. On searching the bush, we failed to find anybody, though we noticed that the Natives' tracks were very numerous and fresh. We moved forward till the left was about twenty yards across the donga, the right not having yet crossed it, when a Native stepped out of a thick bush, between forty to fifty paces away on our left front. He was armed with, I think, a breech-loader. He fired the charge, striking close to the third man's feet (Hawkins). This appeared to be the signal, as immediately on the report, the forest on our left and left front seemed to be alive with the enemy. It looked like an overturned hive more than anything else. They must have been lying down till the shot was fired. They yelled 'Usutu!' and something like 'Zuzu!' and charged at us, one horn swinging round on our left and the other towards our right and breaking. I turned to call to the men, only to find that the Native levies were running for their lives, not directly back the way we had come, but down the line, straight down to our right. This served to break our line a lot and create a gap between the 7th and 8th men. Seeing that there was no chance of making a stand where we were, I shouted to the men to move back and rally in the donga lower down. Knowing that unless the centre were checked in some way, the enemy would cut us up before we could get back to the donga, I emptied my carbine (magazine) into the main lot at about twenty yards distance and about seventy from where I was afterwards lying. This served to check them for a minute or two and I took advantage of it to run after the men. While doing so, I slipped another cartridge into the breech of my carbine and had just succeeded in doing so, when I ran into another lot of the enemy who had charged between the donga and myself (i.e. between where I first fired on the enemy and the position at which we rallied), as if to partly surround the party in the donga. I thereupon fired five shots at them with my revolver as I ran towards my men. The enemy broke, and left, as I thought, a clear line to the donga, where I could hear Fraser's voice calling out, 'Here we are, Sir!' Just then a Native rose from the low bush in front of me, i.e. between me and where I heard Fraser's voice. He had a stabbing-assegai and some sort of weapon—it seemed like an old muzzle-loading gun. He raised the assegai, but as he did so, I snapped at him the last shot in my revolver and he fell. As he fell, another Native appeared suddenly on my left—I think he had been behind a small tree. He was within stabbing distance before I noticed him, my attention having been engaged with the other man. I had no time to aim my carbine, merely being able to swing it up and parry his thrust. I narrowly escaped being wounded, for the assegai just grazed the right eyelid (I thought my eye was out, as the blood flowed over my cheek and almost blinded me). Catching my foot in something I fell, but the slope of the ground being very steep, I succeeded in throwing myself right over. I turned over purposely and, in so doing, again faced my adversary. Swinging my carbine forward, I pulled the trigger, not, however, with the ordinary finger, for which there was no time, but with my little finger which happened to be in position at that instant. The shot struck the man in the chest and he fell forward past me on my left about seven yards from the east edge of the donga. I remarked that this man had bound round his forehead a broad band of Turkey-red, as well as a stiff peak of red over the centre of the forehead.[224] The first of the other two had a narrow strip of red cloth round his forehead. I also noticed that a great number of the remainder of the enemy had Turkey-red round their heads. Recovering my footing, I ran down and leaped into the donga, where I found Fraser, Woolnough, Alexander, Holmes, Flynn and Hawkins. The rebels seemed to surround us immediately and I had succeeded in firing only about two shots when Alexander staggered forward crying out, 'Oh, my God, pull this out, pull this out!' referring to an assegai which had been driven into the middle of his back. Someone pulled the assegai out and he sank down and died immediately. This assegai had been thrown from a distance of about ten yards up the donga by one of the enemy who was there. Almost immediately afterwards, Hawkins staggered forward and sank against the east bank just on my right, with two assegais in his back. He remained in a crouching position and, from the peculiar sound, I knew his lung had been injured. Once he cried to someone to shoot him and put him out of his misery. Just as he fell, I felt a shock through my left upper arm, which caused my hand to lose its power; owing to this, I dropped my carbine. Stooping quickly to pick it up, I found that my left hand was useless and that I could not grasp anything. The little finger only retained its normal power. I seated myself on a root which was jutting slightly out of the bank and, raising the carbine with my right hand, succeeded in loading it by gripping it between my knees. I then fired it by lifting it with the right hand and pulling the trigger with the little finger of my left. I continued doing this until loss of blood compelled me to abandon the carbine in favour of my revolver, which I had to load in the same way, i.e. between my knees.
"Shortly after I was wounded, I heard Holmes say, 'Ah! I've got it!'; he went on to explain that a bullet had gone through his thigh. He, however, continued firing, merely relieving himself by leaning against a tree which grew from the bank of the donga. Woolnough had already been wounded in the ankle, and was lying close by the bank on the eastern side of the donga. Flynn had blood streaming from wounds on the face, but Fraser, though in a very exposed position (with a white shirt on), suffered no injury whatever. All this time we were crying: 'Rally here, Royston's,' thinking it possible that the men further down the donga might succeed in forcing their way to us, or that Colonel Royston might be within hearing and come to our assistance. I also shouted out, 'Give it to them, boys!' intending that the enemy should hear, as I supposed a few of them might know English. I knew that the men lower down were busily engaged from the firing I could hear, and occasionally I could hear Sergt.-Major Webber's voice encouraging our men.