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Chapter 3 MOBILIZATION (continued) – THE SECOND AND THIRD REGIMENTS The Second Regiment – No. 1 Column The No. 1 Column was to advance from the lower Thukela towards the Zulu ‘capital’ of Ulundi. The 2nd Regiment was attached to it and accounted for 2 000 of its 3 800 men.1 According to General Orders on December 18th the 2nd Regiment was to assemble in three days time at the Nonoti River.2 It took three weeks instead of three days to complete the regiment.3 On the 21st, the appointed time, only 101 of Mqawe’s men from the Inanda Division had arrived at the camp. Captain Hart, 31st Foot, the regiment’s staff officer, arrived at the camp on the 22nd with 140 of Deliwayo’s men, whom he had collected at Stanger. (He was particularly struckbythemen’svariousandstrikinghairdressings.) There was no enthusiasm for war and there was a real fear of the Zulu power among the coastal people; but there was no denying their duty to the Supreme Chief. The Resident Magistrate of the Lower Tugela Division was sure coercion had been used, but his counterpartintheInandaDivisionwassureithadnot.4 The Acting Secretary for Native Affairs had reckoned on the chiefs Deliwayo, Macebo, Musi and Ziphuku furnishing 200, 200, 500 and 100 men, respectively, to make 1 000 for the 1st Battalion, and on the chiefs Mqawe, Sotondose and Dikwayo furnishing 500, 400 and 100, for the 2nd Battalion. Mqawe, Dikwayo and Deliwayo and Ziphuku made up their allocations, but Musi could get only two-thirds , Macebo half, and Sotondose less than half their allocations. Perhaps Sotondose’s difficulty owed to many of his people living on white settlers’ farms. In any case, four other chiefs (Gudu, Kamanga, Manaba, and Mlungwana) were ordered to send men to the 2nd Battalion to make up for the shortfall. To cover Macebo’s and Musi’s shortfalls the chiefs Mgcangca and Tatalambu were ordered to send men to the 1st Battalion. By the end of the year the regiment had 1 106 men. By January 10th 1 975. On the 16th, as the column prepared to advance into Zululand, the regiment numbered 2 022, actually exceeding the paper strength assigned to it.5 The camp was on a hill in a loop of the Nonoti, surrounded by some thick but scattered bush. Here the men became acquainted with the British military regimen. They were issued with red puggarees and blue and grey blankets. The men of the 1st Battalion wore the puggarees over the right shoulder and under the left arm; those of the 2nd wore them round the head. The blue blankets were for the 1st, the grey for the 2nd Battalion. They also got enough to eat. One in ten men received a rifle, but the rifles were old muzzle-loaders and many of them had weak mainsprings. There was some rifle practice, but it was hampered by a lack of ammunition. Every morning they learned how to change front and to wheel. In the afternoon, when the battalions paraded, they practised the same movements on a larger scale. They also did some entrenching. It was not really difficult. Captain Hart wrote home on New Year’s Eve: ‘They are the most intellegent blacks, and best black soldiers – so far as I can tell without yet having seen them fight – I have ever seen.’ He complimented them on their quickness in drill and attack, but, as he observed, after all the Native Contingent would be on the flanks of the attacking British and would follow up their success by a charge and pursuit to turn the enemy retreat into a rout.6 The Lieutenant General inspected the Nonoti camp on December 29th. The 1st Battalion was drawn up along the road to the camp to receive him when his carriage arrived just after 7 a.m. He alighted and walked between the lines, accompanied by several staff officers and Major Graves, commandant of the regiment. After he had passed the men formed in twos and followed him to camp, singing a war song. At the top of the hill he addressed the officers and non-commissioned officers, urging them particularly to keep the men from committing acts of cruelty, burning huts and attacking women and children. Then he inspected the 2nd Battalion. He returned to his carriage and continued on to column headquarters at Fort Pearson, on the lower Thukela.7 The 2nd Regiment differed from the 1st Regiment in several important respects...

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