1 July 1879, skirmish at Fort Evelyn?

Hello all



It seems that on July 1, 1879, the Lieut.Scott Douglas

and a man or Nco of the2/21 st Foot had been killed at Fort Evelyn ...

Anyone know it, what happened ? AZulu attack ? And that was another victim ...

Cheers

Pascal

"Lieutenant Scott-Douglas, accompanying his Regiment, left Queenstown for Zululand in February 1879, and arriving at Durban on March the 29th. Proceeding to the front, he was appointed chief of the signalling staff of the 2nd Division of the Field Force, and, applying himself ardently to his difficult and important duties, he succeeded in a short time in establishing a line of communication. By means of flags and the heliograph, from the most advanced post to the rearmost. On the morning of June 30th, he was employed with his signalling party at Entonganeni; before noon a mist came on which obscured the sun and prevented the working of the heliograph, and shortly afterwards an important message arrived which Lord Chelmsford was desirous to have forwarded to Sir Garnet Wolseley. Lieutenant Scott-Douglas, with his signalling party and an escort, immediately set out to carry it to Fort Evelyn, twenty Miles distant; but finding the condition of the horses to be so bad as to preclude the possibility of escape in the event of the enemy being met with in force. He decided not to risk the safety of so large a party, and rode on with only his orderly, Corporal Cotter of the 17th Lancers. Upon his arrival at the fort the officer who commanded it, observing the fatigued condition of the horses and the unsettled appearance of the weather, urged him to pass the night there; but knowing, by the nature of the messages he had forwarded, that the army was to march for Ulundi at daybreak on the following morning, he preferred to return. The start for Entonganeni was made at 3 p.m., and about an hour afterwards a dense fog came on and shrouded the surrounding country. The track, at all times difficult to follow, branches off towards the deserted mission-station of KwaMagwasa; in the obscurity the two horsemen accidentally took the wrong path, and it was not until after they arrived at the mission-station that they discovered their mistake. Hard by this spot, where they dismounted to refresh their horses, they were observed and surprised by a body of some five hundred Zulus, who were marching to join Cetshwayo at Ulundi. Lieutenant Scott-Douglas was able to discharge five chambers of his revolver, and then fell pierced to the heart by an assegai. His body was found some days afterwards by Brigadier-General Wood, lying near to that of Corporal Cotter, who had also stood his ground most gallantly: the two were buried, with military honours, side by side, in marked graves by crosses and sheltered by a luxuriant growth of the wild cactus.
'Of the soldierlike, manly bearing and social virtues of Lieutenant Scott-Douglas,' wrote Colonel Collingwood, 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers, 'I, his commanding officer, cannot speak too highly. He was the ideal type of an officer and a gentleman in the highest sense in which that term can be applied."

Congratulations and thank you Impi

This is not the fort was attacked!

Beings attacked by Zulu 500 when it is two, it really is not ideal, they have therefore to be spotted and if their horses were out of state, we see the result ...

In any case, your post is super interesting ...

Cheers

Pascal

Here's some more...

https://www.1879zuluwar.com/t1385-lost-and-killed

Many thanks Impi

But kIilled the 30 June 1879 ?

No it's the 1 st July , no ?

Cheers

Pascal

Impi , from what I read on the link that you posted, they would not have died on July 1, but in the afternoon of June 30 ... In fact, we find in the text -"(On the morning 30th of June " ...

Which was that the Zulu were 500 ?

There are testimonies Zulu ?...

Cheers

Pascal

Hi Pascal, the versions do vary. Mackinnon and Shadbolt state the 30th June as the date the pair went missing, but press reports based on official dispatches stated 1st July. Bertram Mitford went for a date of 1st July as going missing and being killed on the 3rd July. The "500 Zulus" comes from the Native Horse, searching for the missing men on the 3rd July, exchanging shots with about 500 Zulus in the vicinity of where the bodies were later found.

Hi Special Artist

As well, these are not theses "500" Zulus who killed these guys ...

Since the time, historians are unable to know when people get killed, what misery

Cheers

Pascal