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Rorke's Drift was a mission station belonging to Otto De Witt lived there with his wife and young daughters. The army had commandeered the mission itself as a storage depot and also used the house as a hospital. Rorke's Drift was situated close to the Buffalo River and so was important to the Army supply line. The 3^rd column, which contained Lord Chelmsford had passed through it and camped on the other side of the river, in Zululand. On 20^th January 1879, the 3^rd column had marched to Isandhlwana leaving behind a young Lieutenant of the Royal Engineers, named John Rouse Merriott Chard, to supervise the protection of the river transport ponts. Major Spalding was in charge at Rorke's Drift.

At that point Durnford's men were still encamped close to Rorke's Drift. About 106 men, mostly from 2/24th Regiment defended the mission station. There were also about 33 sick and wounded in the hospital tended by Surgeon Reynolds.

On the morning of the 22^nd Durnford was ordered to move up to Isandhlwana with his men. A detachment of the Natal Native Contingent was left behind, under the charge of Captain Stephenson. There seemed to be no danger although gunfire could be heard coming from the direction of Isandhlwana. Major Spalding decided to go to Helpmakaar to hurry up some reinforcements. Aside from Stephenson, who was not regular army, he had to choose between Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard as to who was in command whilst he was away. Chard was senior.

Chard V.C.

At about 3.15pm Chard saw two riders approaching. One of them was Lieutenant Adendorff, of Lonsdale's Natal Native contingent. He told Chard about the massacre at Isandhlwana. The other rider was despatched to Helpmakaar with the news. Adendorff elected to stay. He is the only man who was at both Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift.

At first the shock of the news affected everybody's judgement. What do you do when an army has been wiped out and you have so few men? The defence of the ponts was discussed but abandoned as an idea. Back at Rorke's Drift more survivors arrived with news of the defeat, though none stayed. Some of the officers were for retreating into the hills to fight a rearguard action. Commissary Dalton said no, they could not move the sick or wounded in time and there was a danger that they would be caught in the open. Better, he said, to defend Rorke's Drift.

Rorke's Drift had no natural defences so the store was raided for mealy bags to build a wall. A circular redoubt was built in front of the store. The outer walls of the hospital were quite solid but the windows could be defended and loopholes were made in the walls with pickaxes. Those among the hospital patients, who were not too sick, were given a rifle. Hurriedly a perimeter wall was built. It was never entirely completed at the hospital end. Chard was worried that he had too few men too defend this perimeter so he later instructed a dividing wall to be constructed from biscuit boxes. The outer perimeter wall also included two wagons as part of it.

At 4.20pm more mounted men were sighted but they only stopped to warn the garrison that the Zulus were coming, then rode to Helpmakaar. This caused panic among Stephenson's native contingent and they all fled leaving the defence of Rorke's Drift to 8 officers and 131 men, including the sick and wounded.

THE ATTACK!

At about 4.30pm the Zulus were sighted advancing from the south. The defenders fired on them and eventually, as at Isandhlwana, the charge was halted because of the casualties caused by this firepower. The Zulus took what shelter they could. The Zulus moved around to the hospital. Other Zulus occupied rocks and caves in the Oscarberg hills to fire onto the mission station. This was to cause problems for the defenders and caused a number of casualties.

The Zulus had failed to take the south wall but they were gradually creeping round to the north wall. The hospital was also a weakness and eventually the Zulus got inside it.

THE DEFENCE OF THE HOSPITAL

One thing helped the defenders of the hospital when the Zulus breached it. That was the design. The main entrance did not connect to all of the rooms and access to some rooms entailed going outside and entering through another door. The outer walls were solid but luckily the inner walls were mud brick. The Zulus entered some of the rooms killing some of the patients. Three defendants, Privates John Williams, Joseph Williams and Horrigan were trapped in one of these rooms that had no other way out. One would use a pickaxe to knock a hole into another room whilst the others fought off the Zulus. They managed to make a hole large enough to get through and move some of the patients. Unfortunately Joseph Williams and Horrigan were killed.

John Williams met up with Hook who had been in another. The ordeal began again with one making a hole with the pickaxe and the other holding off the Zulus. Again, they had to evacuate patients. Then they did it again, finally meeting up with Robert and William Jones and yet more patients. Together they all started to get the patients out of a window in the hospital. During this time the Zulus set the hospital on fire

RETREAT

Meanwhile, outside it was proving impossible to hold the entire perimeter. The Zulu guns firing from the Oscarberg hills were causing problems. Chard ordered the defenders to retreat to the inner perimeter. This left the hospital isolated. When the patients and men emerged from the window they found that they had to make their way across an undefended stretch of ground. Some patients were killed by Zulus as they tried to get to safety.

Luckily the Zulus were never able to occupy the ground between the hospital and the biscuit boxes. As darkness fell the burning hospital lit up the night and helped the defenders. The Zulus crept around the north wall and tried to get in via a cattle kraal towards the east. They made some headway but were eventually driven back.

Hook V.C.

Finally, between 2 and 4pm, the Zulus began to melt away. They had been denied another victory and a grateful government would issue an unprecedented nine Victoria crosses by way of a thank you.