First Invasion (Anglo-Zulu War)
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Was a British military campaign against the Zulu Kingdom during the Anglo-Zulu War.
Chronology
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January 1879: In January 1879 a British force under Lieutenant General Frederick Augustus Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford invaded Zululand, without authorization by the British Government. The exact date of the invasion was 11 January 1879. Chelmsford crossed the Buffalo River at Rorke's Drift.
January 1879: The centre column was led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pulleine and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Durnford. Isandlwana was the site of a major battle during the Anglo-Zulu War, where British forces suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Zulu army in January 1879.
January 1879: Meanwhile, the left flank column at Utrecht, under Colonel Evelyn Wood, had originally been charged with occupying the Zulu tribes of north-west Zululand and preventing them from interfering with the British central column's advance on Ulundi. To this end Wood set up camp at Tinta's Kraal, just 10 miles south of Hlobane Mountain.
March 1879: The British constructed an entrenched camp in Eshowe in an effort to defend the territory against the Zulu forces.
January 1879: The Battle of Isandlwana was the greatest victory that the Zulu kingdom would enjoy during the war. The British centre column was wrecked and its camp annihilated with heavy casualties as well as the loss of all its supplies, ammunition and transport. The defeat left the British forces no choice but to hastily retreat out of Zululand.
April 1879: The Zulu burned down Eshowe.
