rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic - The Road To Isandlwana by R.W.F. Droogleever

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:26 pm

Only just started this one (bit late at is turns out!) but I have a question on plate 33 captioned " The 1st NNC on parade, January 1879. Colonel Durnford is on the white horse." As the entire regiment pictured seems to be in uniform with various amounts of kit and each armed with a rifle I was wondering which regiment is actually portrayed and when the photo might have taken and who the gentleman on the white horse really is (center of photo, not the chap on light coulored horse off to the right). (Through two pairs of reading specs and a magnifying glass he does seem to bear a faint resemblence to the Col.).

Thanks

Michael

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:49 am

Michael,

I did challenge the caption with Robin when I proofread his book back in 1992. My argument was that the N.N.C. soldiers are all in uniform and all carrying firearms, making me conclude that the photograph was taken much later in the campaign than the purported 'January 1879'.

As you can see Robin didn't listen to my opinion - maybe he had advance warning of the 'Elizabeth Hogan' site, as I am totally 'unfamiliar with' anything to do with the Anglo-Zulu War.

John Y.

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:35 pm

Michael B.

This photo has been the subject of another query of late, perhaps only in my mind because it touches on a subject which I have studied closely recently. It also appears in Barthorp, 'The Zulu War, A Pictorial History', in which the caption reads 'The reorganised Natal Native Contingent with the First Division'. This is much more likely and probably shows the 4th Battalion under Captain barton and the 5th under Commandant W. Nettleton. As John says, they are uniformed and fully armed, which did not occur until pril/May 1879.
KIS

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:46 pm

Michael B.

PS! See also Ian Knight's 'NAM Book of the Zulu War', pl. 44, with the caption: ' An unidentified unit of the Natal Native Contingent - probably the reorgainsed 4th of 5th Battalion - photographed nea the coast during the second invasion. The men have been rearmed with firearms and issued with old British uniforms.' See also the Narrative, p. 170. The photo also appears in Wilkinson-Latham, 'Uniforms and Weapons of the Zulu War', pp. 64f, where the caption reads 'Native Contingent, Lower Tugela, 1879.'

My own view is that the two battalions are shown, because of the quite low numbers in them at that time. A total of 720 for the 4th and 898 for the 5th was reported on April 21st.
KIS

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:59 pm

John, given the subject of the book perhaps RWF was so keen to include a photo of Durnford 'in action' (more or less) that he allowed it to cloud his judgement. (Given Ms. Hogan's hopelessly skewed bell-curve of A-ZW competence that she evidences I wonder if lesser mortals such as myself will even be permitted to access her site.) (Not that I particularly care.)

Keith, I thought the shot looked familiar! Barthorp and Morris being the only two A-ZW specific books I had read prior to the purchase of my M-H reawakwening my interest and fortuitously leading me to this site. Interesting that a more appropriate caption appeared in 1980. (The over-sight will, of course, not effect my thinking as to the textual content of the book, many Victorian era photographs being notoriously difficult to pin down.)

Thank you both,

MAB

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:00 pm

Fellows...

I can't tell from the picture in "Road to Isandhlwana " but do any wear the "red rags" around their heads? In "Brave Men's Blood", page 41, Mr. Knight shows Major Bengough's 2/21 st NNC with their own weapons and shields as well as the red rags. I'm not sure if ALL those in the NNC wore those "red rags" though.