Rorke's Drift.

Hastings Standard, Issue 474, 12 November 1897, Page 4

Rorke's Drift.

The death of Lieut.-Colonel Chard, which was announced in our cablegrams, will revive recollections of a famous exhibition of British courage and endurance. The deceased officer was in command of the little band of brave fellows who held Eorke's Drift during the Zulu War against an advancing horde of the victorious enemy. It was in the afternoon of January 22, 1879, just after the disaster at Isandula that he received orders from the officer in charge of the Third Column to hold the post at the Drift " at all costs," and he at once set about making preparations for his desperate task. His available force amounted to only 139 men, and although he was joined, before the arrival of the enemy, by a detachment of Durnford's Horse and the Natal Native Contingent, he lost the assistance of these allies directly the van of the Zulu army made it.; appearance in the immediate neighborhood of the fort. They precipitately retired across the ford on to Grey Town and Hepmakaar, where they spread the report that Cetewayo's warriors had annihilated the obstinate Englishmen. Lieutenant Chard n ever wavered for a moment (says the Canterbury Times) in his determination to hold the place against the overwhelming odds by which he was opposed, and when the Zulus reached the Drift less than an hour after the first alarm, he had entrenched his tiny force behind a wall of stores and biscuit boxes. It is estimated that between three thousand and four thousand warriors, many of them well armed from the booty secured at Isandula, were thrown against the encampment, and from half past four in the afternoon until four o'clock next morning the defenders had to resist a succession of assaults. All through the long night there was no pause in the fighting; the enemy swarmed on every side, and early in the evening succeeded in firing the hospital, where four men of the 24th Regiment held the doorway against the Zulus with bayonets while the sick and dying were removed. At four o'clock the enemy drew off, but three hours later were about to resume the attack, when the main -body of the British force arrived on the scene, and the assailants finally retired. In recognition of their splendid services, Lieutenant Chard and his second in command, Lieutenant Broomhead, were advanced to the rank of Major and decorated with the Victoria Cross, while the chaplain—who was, perhaps, the greatest hero of them all—and a number of the rank and file received the latter distinction.