Anonymous E-mail from Time2000xt about Charlie ?????

I received this e-mail from time200xt. Never heard of it, Can't reply because its keeps bouncing back with a massage,saying meassge cannot be delivered. Damon or Demond.

Anyway its about the Zulu war. Does anyone know where it comes from and who Charlie is.




My darling Mother,
You see by the heading of this letter that we are still at the same place but it is now dignified by the name of Fort instead of mealy bags. We have now strong high walls to protect us from the foe; I don’t think however as they will be required for this purpose. We have not been honoured with their presence anyhow. Poor old Mums, what a state you must have been in on first hearing the news from here especially if the names were not published at the same time. I have written twice since to you; so I hope you will know in a day or two if you have not already that I am all right.

I am still as right as a trivet. I must say it is uncommonly slow here, but we get plenty to eat & drink which is a great thing. The other night we had two fellows to dine with us, making a party of it; we had spinach [?] and giblet soup, salmon (tinned) cutlets, Beef Rissoles & ROAST GOOSE, we were to have pudding but it didn’t come off somehow. We drank beer & brandy. Tonight we are to have our first pudding, having hit upon some raisins in a box one of our fellows left here. I have sent in a list of the articles that I lost with their prices, & make the amount of my loss about £35; how much of this I shall receive I don’t know. I have managed to get together all I want for the present from the sales of the kits of some of the poor fellows who were killed. I have no news whatever to tell you; we occasionally hear of the other two columns, they are both entrenched I believe & seem to be having some fighting, & also to be having considerably the best of it. We shan’t advance until reinforcements arrive from England; what the 24th do in the meanwhile or what they will do then no-one knows. We may remain here until the next advance into Zululand & we may move to more civilised parts. That is going home immediately.

The other day some of the fellows here went out on a reconnoitring expedition & found the Queen’s Colour of the 1st Bn in the river . The Adjutant had galloped off with it, but the poor fellow was killed by the river . I don’t remember what I told you about the fight before or what the numbers were on either side. Between 15 and 20 thousand Zulus attacked about 800 of our fellows left in camp. It is almost certain that even with these odds against them, our fellows could have held their own, anyhow until the return of the remainder of the column, had it not been for want of ammunition & then not being in any way entrenched. They were actually marched out to attack the Zulus in skirmishing order, that is extended. Whilst standing their ground, they kept the Black devils off, & it is said that if they had only stood five minutes more, the Zulu leader was going to call his men off; but immediately [the order was] given to fall back for more ammunition, the Zulus rushed in & scattered as our men were, they had no chance.

The Zulus have no idea of falling back & reforming. I believe, falling back with them means full retreat, so they imagined, I suppose, that we were retreating.
The Zulus were killed by hundreds. It’s impossible to say how many, especially as they carried away wagon loads of dead. Somewhere between 2 & 5 thousand, I should think. At the fight here it is supposed that our 120 heroes were [word crossed through] attacked by 5000, & killed about 2000 of them.
The Colonial papers here are lavish in their praises of this little band, & so they ought to be for they saved the Colony.

I hope we shall receive large reinforcements from England. I have heard that the General has only asked for 3 Regts; the papers say 6 and a Brigade of Cavalry. I should like to see 10 Infantry Regts & 4 or 5 of Cavalry ordered out, then we might finish the whole thing in about a couple of months.

An awful misfortune has happened. We finished the last piece of bacon this morning, so we shall have to eat ration beef (tough old ox) for [the next] week or two I expect, unless a blessed wagon appears. I will write again shortly darling. Good Bye for the present. Best love to all at home,

Your affectionate son
Charlie

Old H.
Interesting but can’t help never seen it before, It says.

Quote :

“You see by the heading of this letter that we are still at the same place”

Have you missed off, the name of the place, from where Charlie is writing.

hi olh2,

i quickly went through ' THE RED SOLDIER by FRANK EMERY, and the "ZULU WAR JOURNAL COL HENRY HARFORD"
( known as charlie harford) , sorry to say , drew a blank.

cheers 90th.

I’m not sure they would have delicacies like,

Quote :

“The other night we had two fellows to dine with us, making a party of it; we had spinach [?] And giblet soup, salmon (tinned) cutlets, Beef Rissoles & ROAST GOOSE,”

Would they !!!

hi 24th.

they sometimes did have luxury items, but few and far between, i have read that xmas dinner 1878, was a fairly luxurious affair, especially for the officers, but fantastic for the enlisted men, as compared to their usual fare.

cheers 90th.

I don’t think it would be a Christmas dinner. As he is saying

“The other day some of the fellows here went out on a reconnoitring expedition & found the Queen’s Colour of the 1st Bn in the river . The Adjutant had galloped off with it, but the poor fellow was killed”

So he is referring to Melville, What Date were the colors found?

Old H. Does it say when he was. on the e-mail

The full story of this letter and others can be found at the following web site

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

90th Thanks very much, I hate mysteries. I had actually received a second letter this morning, of which is on the website you have posted. So does anyone know Keith Smith?
I don’t know anyone in South Africa.

hi oh2.

keith smith is an author, and is australian, he lives in sydney. he has written 2 books on the zulu war that i know off, i think both are available from the ROYAL REGT WALES, online shop.

hi john ,
he isnt talking about xmas dinner, neither was i, saying he was refering to a xmas dinner, i was using xmas dinner of 1878 as an example, as i have read somewhere that it was the best meal they had eaten in a long time. the colour pole was found in the river by HENRY HARFORD on FEB 4TH.

cheers 90th.

Old H.
You can find some of Mr Smith's posts on the R.D.V.C. Here is a link to his books [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

S.D