ZULULAND AT WAR 1879 - Limited Edition of 1000 Copies

This is volume ten of the Brenthurst Press first series.

Publisher's light blue cloth binding. Book and jacket in fine condition.

300 pages, frontispiece, 4 maps, 70 plates - some in colour.

'For over a hundred years the Anglo-Zulu War has remained a source of great interest and controversy. On 22nd January 1879 Queen Victoria's proud redcoats were soundly defeated by King Cetshwayo's well-trained and courageous Zulu soldiers at Isandlwana. Some hours later the tide was partly turned with the heroic British defence by the tiny garrison of Rorke's Drift. However, British prestige and honour was again shattered when the young Prince Imperial of France, Louis Napoleon, was killed whilst out on a mapping expedition in Zululand. Lord Chelmsford, commander of the British forces in southern Africa, was superseded by the ambitious general Sir Garnet Wolseley, but not before Chelmsford had led his men to victory at Ulundi. It was left to Wolseley to capture Cetshwayo and to end hostilities.

Inadequacies of the British Army had been revealed in the Crimean War and reforms had supposedly been introduced to remedy the defects, but the Anglo-Zulu War showed clearly that many shortcomings still remained, especially in the sphere of transport and supply. The letters in this volume, all previously unpublished, reveal this struggle for change and the opposing conservative and reforming elements within the army. Written mostly by officers serving in Zululand, the texts are freely expressed, without fear of censorship. Most are addressed to the chief of the intelligence department; others are by members of the British Royal Family to the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Bartle Frere. New facts emerge in these frank and often highly critical letters, while also published are the proceedings of the court martial which took place as a result of the death of the Prince Imperial and which were subject to an embargo for a hundred years.'