In 1879 the Colonial Government of Natal ordered a British army, led by General Lord Chelmsford and equipped with the most modern weaponry, to invade the Zulu Kingdom. Overconfident and contemptuous of his Zulu adversaries, Lord Chelmsford believed that his biggest problem would be in bringing the Zulus to battle. Shortly after crossing the Buffalo River the British column set up camp in the shadow of a Sphinx shaped hill called Isandlwana. The following day, Lord Chelmsford, with over half his force,went in pursuit of what he believed to be the vanguard of the Zulu army.

But he had been decoyed and outwitted by Nshingwayo, the Zulu commander. Whilst Chelmsford and his redcoats trudged vainly in pursuit of a Will-o-the Wisp enemy, the Zulu army, 20,000 strong fell upon the unsuspecting camp. The outcome of the bloody battle that followed, and the Zulu pursuit of the British survivors, has been rated as one of the worst disasters ever inflected on a British army.