The battle that formed Durban

LAST week marked an important date in Durban’s military historical tapestry – the 180th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Congella.

From a military history perspective, the Congella battle site was named after a former Zulu barracks (known as an ikhanda), called “kwaKhangela amaNkengane” (“place of watching over vagabonds”). This was established by King Shaka kaSenzangakhona (ca 1787-1828) to keep a watchful eye on the nearby British traders at Port Natal.

The battle of Congella began on May 23, 1842, between British troops from the Cape Colony and the Afrikaner Boer forces of the Natalia Republiek. It ended in a British victory after the successful and heroic ride of Dick King to Grahamstown for reinforcements.

From 1836, many Voortrekkers left the Cape Colony overland in ox wagons to escape British rule, and were looking for land to farm. Some had crossed the Drakensberg Mountains and settled in the area known as Natalia.

After the defeat of the Zulu king Dingane kaSenzangakhona (ca 17951840) at the Battle of Blood River, the Boer Natalia Republiek was founded. The capital was established in Pietermaritzburg, and Durban was considered part of it.

The Boers in the Natalia Republiek had resumed their farming lifestyles, but the Zulu inhabitants had misgivings about the newcomers, and war soon followed.

The sovereignty of the Natalia Republiek had never been recognised by the British government, and its burghers were still regarded as subjects of the Crown. The Cape government became aware of the unofficial Boer Republiek, the attacks on British subjects at Port Natal, and continued conflict with the Zulu kingdom.

In March 1842, the Cape Governor sent a small force under Captain Thomas Charlton Smith to occupy Port Natal (since most of the residents were English), to take the Natalia Republiek from the Boers and to resolve and settle disputes with the Zulu.

On receipt of orders from Maj-Gen Sir George Napier, Smith left his post at

Fort Mngazi – the furthest-flung British garrison on the Cape Colony Frontier – for Port Natal. His force comprised 263 officers and men, an 18-pounder howitzer and two 6-pounder field guns, and included elements of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Sappers and Miners, Cape Mounted Rifles and two companies of his own regiment, the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot.

This was an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1689. It amalgamated with the 108th (Madras Infantry) Regiment of Foot in 1881 to form the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

On April 1, 1842, Smith crossed the uMzimvubu River (an isiXhosa name meaning “place of the hippopotamus”) into Natalia.

When Smith was near the uMkhomazi River (in isiZulu, there is an association with umkhomkazi, a whale cow), he ignored protests made by the Boers. On May 4, 1842, he reached Robert Newton Dunn’s (1796-1847) farm “Sea View” – about 10km from Durban harbour.

Smith instructed his men to set up their tents and position the wagons in laager formation at Fort Port Natal (now known as the Old Fort, Durban).

In the meantime, realising the gravity of the situation at Port Natal, Cmdt-Gen Andries W Pretorius (17981853), of the Boers, started assembling a commando force of the Natalia Republiek at his laager at Congella – the village of “Kongela” was thereby

strongly defended upon the arrival of the British forces. Pretorius had 364 volunteers under his command. Negotiations between Smith and Pretorius were unsuccessful.

At 11pm on the moonlit night of May 23, 1842, Smith set out for the Boer fort at Congella with 139 officers and men (of which 109 were from the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot), supported by the two field guns.

He decided to take a circuitous route along the beach, where the tide was rising, to attack the well-defended village of “Kongela”, which was 5km from the British camp.

The British forces had to skirt a dense thicket of mangrove trees, held by an advance party of Boers, who opened fire on them. The Boer marksmen were well hidden in the thicket, while the British were completely exposed against the moon-lit sands and waters of Durban’s harbour.

Smith’s attack failed disastrously as every time the “Redcoats” (as the Boers termed the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment

of Foot) “stood up in the bright moonlight to reload, they offered to the Boers a target such as every marksman dreams of but seldom sees” (text from the official history of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers). Every shot fired by the Boers counted.

The Boers had won a major battle. Smith had lost many of his men, his 18-pounder had been captured, the two field guns abandoned during their retreat, muskets and pouch-belts and ammunition had been discarded and littered the beach. Three men were drowned, caught by the rising tide.

The final count was 22 dead, 31 wounded and six missing in action – a disastrous night attack causing 59 casualties (or 42% of the British force) which had set out. Three officers fell: Lt George Wyatt (shot dead), while Capt JF Lonsdale and Lt B Tunnard were severely wounded.

On the Boer side, four men fell en andere Helden (“and other heroes”), mainly during the closing stages of the battle. Smith considered it “expedient to retire”, according to his official report, and retreated to Fort Port Natal, where he was promptly besieged by the Boers.

Smith realised he urgently needed reinforcements from the Cape Colony. Richard Philip “Dick” King, an English trader at Port Natal, volunteered to ride 970km to Grahamstown to request the assistance of its British garrison.

King, accompanied by his 16-yearold Zulu servant, Ndongeni, set off and made his famous 10-day horseback ride to summon relief for the besieged British garrison at Fort Port Natal. Ndongeni travelled with him part of the way. Reinforcements were immediately dispatched to Natalia.

Thirty-one days after Smith recruited Dick King, on June 24, 1842, the first reinforcements from Algoa Bay arrived at Port Natal aboard the schooner Conch. This was one of the British vessels which carried the relief parties, including 100 men from 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot (and Dick King as a passenger).

The British troop reinforcements were in time to save Smith’s garrison from imminent surrender or starvation. Soon, the surrounding Boers dispersed and the Battle of Congella therefore ultimately ended in a British victory. The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers had carved an honourable niche in the early history of Port Natal and Durban.

Nowadays, the Old Fort of Durban enshrines all the military history of Durban. It is a quiet place, quiet with a quietness of itself, although it is in Durban’s noisy, bustling city centre.

While such military history is largely forgotten now, we should pause to remember those who made sacrifices at the Battle of Congella 180 years ago.