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Photo: Alphonse de Neuville, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
During the Battle of Rorke's Drift, about 150 British soldiers repelled repeated attacks by 4000 Zulu warriors for a period of 12 hours. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded, the most in any one day in British history. The museum is housed in what was Jim Rorke's trading post which was built in 1847. The film Zulu is about this battle and has a young Michael Caine in his first major role.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the Swedish mission station and British supply depot at Rorke's Drift, it was carried out by a vastly outnumbered British force under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal Engineers and Gonville Bromhead of the 24th Regiment of Foot. It holds the record for the largest number of Victoria Crosses awarded for a single battle. After a large contingent of Zulu warriors broke off from the main force during the final hours of the British defeat at the day-long Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, they travelled ten kilometres to attack Rorke's Drift later that day, with fighting continuing into the following day.
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On 22 January 1879 the British Camp at Isandlwana was overrun by 20,000 Zulu leaving 1357 British Soldiers and colonial auxiliaries dead. Two survivors managed to escape and warn the British Force at Rorke's Drift of an impending attack. Today the battlefield has memorials to those killed. A visitor centre and museum (where the entrance fee is paid) is about 1.5 km due north of the main battlefield. It is advised that the services of a guide be sought at the museum.
A museum set in a park that exhibits local history, industry and crafts. The museum also has a reconstruction of a local Zulu kraal.
In 1871 the second French Empire collapsed and Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte fled to Britain. He died in 1873 and his son, Prince Louis Napoleon (the Prince Imperial) became the heir to the Bonapartist tradition. The Prince Imperial trained at Sandhurst and as the Zulu War was drawing to a close travelled to South Africa to see some action. Although there were strict instructions that he was to be kept out of danger, a reconnaissance party of which he was a member was ambushed and he was killed. A monument, paid for by Queen Victoria, now marks the spot where he died.