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The Battle of Blood River, so called due to the colour of water in the Ncome River turning red from blood, (Afrikaans: Slag van Bloedrivier; Zulu: iMpi yaseNcome) was fought between 470 Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000 - 15,000 Zulu attackers on the bank of the Ncome River on 16 December 1838, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Casualties amounted to three thousand of king Dingane's soldiers dead, including two Zulu princes competing with prince Mpande for the Zulu throne. Three Trekker commando members were lightly wounded, including Pretorius himself.

In the sequel to the Battle of Blood River during January 1840, the Mpande-Pretorius alliance finally defeated Dingane in the Battle of Maqongqe. Dingane's commander in both battles, general Ndlela, was strangled to death by Dingane on account of high treason.

Prelude to the battle

The Trekkers - called Voortrekkers after 1880 - decided to dethrone Zulu chief Dingane kaSenzangakhona after the killing of chief Trekker leader Piet Retief, his entire entourage, as well as some of their woman and children living in temporary wagon encampments during 1838.

On 6 February 1838, two days after the signing of a negotiated land settlement deal between Retief and Dingane at UmGungundlovu, which included Trekker access to Port Natal in which Britain had imperial interest, Dingane invited Retief and his party into his royal residence for a beer drinking farewell. The accompanying request for the surrender of Trekker muskets at the entrance was deemed as normal protocol when appearing before the king. Whilst the Trekkers were being entertained by Dingane's dancing soldiers, Dingane suddenly accused the visiting party of witchcraft. Dingane's soldiers then proceeded to impale all Retief's men, lastly clubbing to death Retief, whilst leaving the Natal treaty in his handbag intact.

Immediately after the UmGungundlovu massacre, Dingane sent out impis to attack several Trekker encampments at night time, killing an estimated 500 men, women, children and servants, most notably at Blaukraans.

Help arrived from farmers in the Cape Colony, and the Trekkers in Natal subsequently requested the pro-independence Andries Pretorius to leave the Cape Colony, in order to dethrone chief Dingane.

Subsequent to the Battle of Blood River, the Dingane-Retief treaty was found on Retief's bodily remains, providing a driving force for an overt alliance between Zulu prince Mpande and Pretorius against Dingane.

War strategies of the generals

On November 26, 1838, Andries Pretorius was appointed as general of a wagon commando directed against Dingane at UmGungundlovu, which means "the secret conclave of the elephant". By December 1838, Zulu prince Mpande and 17,000 followers had already fled from Dingane, who was seeking to assassinate Mpande.In support of prince Mpande as Dingane's replacement, general Pretorius' strategy was to target Dingane only. For prince Mpande to oust king Dingane through military might, Pretorius had to first weaken Dingane's personal military power base in UmGungundlovu. Dingane's royal residence at UmGungundlovu was naturally protected against attack by hilly and rocky terrain all around, as well as an access route via Italeni passing through a narrow gorge called a defile.

Earlier on 9 April 1838, a Trekker horse commando without oxwagons, there-after called the "Flight Commando", had unsuccessfully attempted to penetrate the UmGungundlovu defence at nearby Italeni, resulting in the loss of several Trekker lives. Trekker leader Hendrik Potgieter had abandoned all hope of engaging Dingane in UmGungundlovu after losing the battle of Italeni, and subsequently had migrated with his group out of Natal. To approach UmGungundlovu via the Italeni defile with oxwagens as per the Pretorius commando, would force the wagons into an open column, instead of an enclosed laager as successfully employed defensively at Veglaer on August 12, 1838.

The military commander during Dingane's attack on Veglaer, was top general Ndlela kaSompisi. The highly experienced general Ndlela had served under Shaka, and was also prime minister and chief advisor under Dingane. Ndlela with his 10,000 troops had retreated from Veglaer, after three days and nights of fruitless attempts to penetrate the enclosed Trekker wagon laager.

General Ndlela personally protected prince Mpande - whom Pretorius later crowned as Zulu king during 1840 - from Dingane's repeated assassination plans. King Dingane desired to have his half brother Mpande, the only prince with children, eliminated as a threat to his throne. Prince Mpande was married to Msukilethe a daughter of general Ndlela.

General Ndlela, like Pretorius the promotor of prince Mpande, was responsible for Dingane's UmGungundlovu defence during the Trekker's second attack attempt under Pretorius in December 1838.

Given general Ndlela's previous defence and attack experience at Italeni and Veglaer during April 1838 and August 1838 repectively, Ndlela's tactical options were limited. Proven UmGungundlovu defence tactics were to attack Trekker commandos in the rocky and hilly terrain on the narrowing access route at Italeni, thereby neutralising the advantages mounted rifleman had over a spear-carrying foot soldiers. Ndlela had to let Pretorius come close to UmGungundlovu at Italeni, and lure the Trekkers into attack.

Ndlela was not to attack the Trekkers when they were in a defensive wagon laager position, especially not so during the day. The problem was for Pretorius - he had to somehow pray or find a way to make Dingane's soldiers attack him in a defensive laager position at a place of his choice, far away from UmGungundlovu and Italeni.

On 6 December 1838, 10 days before the Battle of Bloodrivier, Pretorius and his commando including Alexander Biggar as the translater, had a meeting with friendly Zulu chiefs at Danskraal, so named for the Zulu dancing that took place in the Zulu kraal which the Trekker commando visited.

With the intelligence received at Danskraal, Pretorius became confident enough to personally propose a vow, which demanded the celebration, by the commando and their posterity, of the coming victory over Dingane. The so called covenant included that a church would be built in honour of God, should the commando somehow be successful and reach UmGungundlovu alive in order to diminish the power of Dingane. Building a church in Trekker emigrant context was symbol for establishing a settled state, like the Republic of Natalia, which was established during 1840, when the Dingane-Retief treaty was implemented under king Mpande.

After the meeting with friendly Zulu chiefs at Danskraal, Pretorius let the commando relax and do their washing for a few days at Wasbank till 9 December 1838. From Wasbank they slowly moved closer to the site of the Battle of Blood River on a daily basis, practicing laager defence tactics every evening for a week long. Then, by halting his advance towards UmGungundlovu on 15 December 1838, 40 km before reaching the defile at Italeni, Pretorius had eliminated the Italeni terrain trap.

Battle

On 15 December 1838, after the Trekker wagons crossed the Buffalo River, 50 km away from their target UmGungundlovu via the risky Italeni access route, an advance scouting party including Pretorius brought the good news of large Zulu forces arriving nearby. While Cilliers wanted to ride out in attack, Pretorius declined the opportunity to engage Dingane's soldiers far away from their base and Italeni. Instead Pretorius built a fortified wagon laager on terrain of his own chosing, in the hope that general Ndlela would attack it like Veglaer.

As site for the overnight wagon camp, Pretorius chose a defensable area right next to a hippo pool in the Ncome River, which provided excellent rear protection. The open area to the front provided no cover for an attacking force, and a deep dry riverbed protected one of the wagon laager flanks. As usual, the ox wagons were drawn into a protective enclosure or laager. Movable wooden barriers that could be opened quickly were fastened between each wagon to prevent intruders, and two cannons were positioned.

Mist settled over the wagon site that evening. According to Afrikaner traditions, the Zulu were fearful to attack in the night due to superstitions about the lamps which the Boers hung on sjamboks [whip-stocks] around the laager. Those traditions may likewise be classified superstitious, as a rational reason for the Zulu force not attacking that night would be that general Ndlela needed only to wait until the wagon commando had to move out of its defensive position within a week, or until it rained - rendering the muskets useless. Mackenzie speculated that the Zulu held back until what they perceived as the necessary numbers had arrived.

During the night of 15 December, 6 Zulu regiments or 6,000 Zulu soldiers led by Dambuza (Nzobo) crossed the Ncome river and started massing around the encampment, whilst the elite forces of senior general Ndlela did not cross the river. Ndlela thereby split Dingane's army in two.

On 16 December, dawn broke on a clear day, revealing that " 'all of Zululand sat there' ," said one Trekker eyewitness. General Ndlela and his crack troops consisting of the Black and White Shields remained on the other side of the river though, observing Dambuza's men at the laager from a safe position across the hippo pool. According to the South African Department of Art and Culture:

In ceremonies which lasted about three days, izinyanga zempi, specialist war doctors, prepared izinteleze medicines which made warriors invincible in the face of their opponents.

This could explain why Dambuza's forces were just sitting on the ground close to the wagon laager, when the Trekker's opened fire during the day.

Only Dambuza's regiments repeatedly stormed the laager unsuccessfully. The attackers were hindered by a change introduced during Shaka's rule, which replaced most of the longer throwing spears with short stabbing spears. The stabbing spear provided obvious advantages in close combat over its longer cousin. A Zulu eyewitness said that their first charge was mowed down like grass by the single-shot Boer muskets. The Trekkers brought the full power of the firepower they had by having their own woman and children and servants reload other muskets, allowing a single rifleman and a band of servants to fire approximately a shot every 5 seconds. Buckshot was used to maximise casualties. Mackenzie claims that 200 indigenous servants looked after the horses and cattle and helped load muskets but no definite proof or witness of servants helping to reload is available. Writing in the popular Afrikaans magazine, Die Huisgenoot, a Dr. D.J. Kotze said that this group comprised 59 "non-white" helpers and three English settlers with their black "followers".

After two hours and four waves of attack, with the intermittant lulls providing crucial re-loading and resting opportunities for the Trekkers, Pretorius ordered a group of horsemen to leave the encampment and engage the Zulu in order to disintegrate their formations. The Zulu withstood the charge for some time, but rapid losses led them to scatter. The Trekkers pursued their fleeing enemies and hunted them down for three hours. Cilliers noted later that " we left the Kafirs lying on the ground as thick almost as pumpkins upon the field that has borne a plentiful crop."

Bantjes recorded that about 3,000 dead Zulu had been counted, and three Trekkers were wounded. During the chase, Pretorius was wounded in his left hand by an assegaai (Zulu spear).

Of the 3,000 dead Zulus, 2 were princes, leaving Ndlela's favourite prince Mpande as front runner in the subsequent battle for the Zulu crown.

Four days after the Battle of Blood River, the Trekker commando arrived at Dingane's great kraal Mgungundlovu (near present day Eshowe), only to find it deserted and ablaze. The bones of Retief and his men were found and buried where a memorial exists today.

Text from Wikipedia