wn.
One such group led by Piet Retief had heard of the beautiful lands of Natal from hunters and traders operating out of the small trading post of Port Natal. These Voortrekkers crossed over the Drakensberg mountains and sought to settle in Natal with tragic consequences. Retief and some 80 of his men who went to the Zulu King Dingaan to seek permission to settle were brutally murdered and their families set upon by the Zulu. Matters finally came to a head on the 16th December 1838 when the Zulu army attacked a Voortrekker Commando on the banks of the Ncome River with disastrous results. The Zulu Army was decimated and the water in the river ran red with their blood Dingaan was forced to flee and his half brother Mpande was enthroned by the Trekkers. Peace for a short time came to Natal but only until the British decided to extend their sovereignty over the new territory bringing about clashes between themselves and the Trekkers many of whom moved back over the Drakensberg.
ESTABLISHMENT OF NEWCASTLE
During the years 1849-1851 some 5000 odd British settlers arrived in the colony settling the Buffalo Border region and up into Northern Natal. The Colony was suddenly transformed. Permanent structures were built, land was fenced off and wagon roads were carved out. With roads came the Post Chaise and regular stops sprang up to service the travellers. One such stop was Post Halt II on the banks of the Ncandu River. In 1854 a Dr Sutherland, who was to become the Surveyor General of the Colony, found himself and his new wife, trapped by the swollen river. So for the next two weeks he spent his time setting out the township that he was later to register as Newcastle after the then Secretary for the Colonies. Strategically situated where the main road split to lead up into the Orange Free State and the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal), the town was to grow rapidly.
In 1876 with the threat of trouble from the new Zulu Kingdom of Cetshwayo and the pending annexation of the Transvaal by the British the colonial authorities decided to establish a fort at Newcastle. Major Amiel and some 200 men of the 80th Staffordshire Regiment arrived in Newcastle and built the Fort now known as Fort Amiel on the high ground overlooking the drift. The fort has been rebuilt and serves as a museum. It was from Fort Amiel that Shepstone accompanied by 14 men of the Natal Mounted police set out for Pretoria and the annexation of the Transvaal in early 1877 and the fort became an important commissariat for the troops operating in the Transvaal.
By 1878 Cetshwayo had recreated the amaButho system of Shaka and could raise an army of 50 000 men. Many of whom who had never had an opportunity to “wash their spears in the blood of their enemies” and claim wives. The potential threat to the colony was great and the colonial authorities felt the only answer was to get Cetshwayo to disband his army or be disarmed.
On the 12th January three British columns crossed into Zululand. The Central Column led by General Lord Chelmsford crossed at Rorke’s Drift. With him were the men of the Newcastle Mounted Rifles. Then came Isandlwana. Wednesday 22nd January the Zulu Army defending their country, wiped out the British camp at Isandlwana slaughtering some 1400 Imperial troops and native levies. In that fatal hour and half “half the women of Newcastle became widows”. Chelmsford was forced to retreat to Natal. Panic spread through the colony and towns were rapidly fortified. In Newcastle the present armoury became the central laager of the townsfolk. The British were able to regroup and with reinforcements from the UK soon overcame the Zulu Army.
Then in 1880 the Burghers of the Transvaal, dissatisfied with British occupation of their country and the lack of response by the British to their appeals for the return of their country, finally took matters into their own hands. A British column moving from Lydenburg to Pretoria was stopped in its tracks at Bronkhorst Spruit and the British garrisons in the Transvaal were invested. General Sir George Pomeroy Colley Govern