Missing Cairns?

The following are posted on behalf of Frank:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Some time ago I located the old photo, at the top of the post. That photo showed for the first time a sizable collection of cairns on the western face. Up to this point the only cairns to the west of the mountain were on the fugitives trail, way over to the right on the photo.
I have spent many trips looking for any signs of these cairns but it devolved onto a friend, Ronald Collyer to eventually find them. Photo number 2 shows the location in comparrison to the original photo. Photo 3 shows the actuall cairns well hidden under the acacia and thorn bush.
Photo 4 is a screen grab from Google showing the location of the cairns. The red dot is the actuall location, just to the South of the present road. And again just south of the old track.
While looking for these cairns Ronald found a very large rock in the stream bed, the stream is a tributary of the manzimyama. There is testimony that most of the waggon drivers had problems in negotiating a large rock in the stream bed with only one driver seemingly able to get around it. Untill now its always been assumed that rock was in the bed of the manzimyama. In order to assist in locating the area the current water pump station has been highlighted in Yellow.
Considering the number of cairns found there are obviously a significant number of bodies burried there, possibly as many as 70 - 80. Considering that number the question immediatly arrises that why arent these cairns shown on Alfred Boasts map? It would have been very difficult not to see that amount of bodies due to their proximity to the road. So possibly they werent marked because they had already been well buried, probably by Bromhead, and didnt need his attention. Whoever did build those cairns therefore it had to have been before Boast.
The second question then would be who is buried beneath those cairns? The first guess would be the NNC and loafers that left the battlefield by that road. But I would question if the right horn had indeed reached there so early in the battle? Second possibility would be the mounted Durnford men, but they managed to fight their way through, possibly with some losses but not in that amount. Could those cairns then be hiding the remains of a party of imperial soldiers who managed to fight their way down the slope? There are a couple of references to that possibility.
Interesting speculation and I doubt if we will ever know, its just nice to be able to add another piece to the puzzle, well done to Ronald and friends.

Cheers

Bonjour Frank,
It seems to me that I read somewhere that the Zulus themselves built "stone heaps".
Is it true or false (I.E: in the hope to elimininate an hypothesis)?
Fascinating. How far is the "alleged" Anstey's last stand?
Amitié
Fred

Frank
Absolutely brilliant find!
Congrats!
Thoughts:  
Even if Bromhead had buried these men well, surely Boast would still have marked them on his map?
Waggon drivers/voorloopers/etc, or NNC is the most likely option for the bodies therein contained, given that that's where the first rush of fugitives might have met the right horn.  It is not inconceivable that a small party of the 24th might have reached the same spot and be under one of the cairns.
Does this area form part of the battlefield's land?
Can these cairns now be re-built up/maintained/whitewashed and included in the jurisdiction of the Monuments council?

Fred
Anstey was actually found in the rear of the 1/24th Camp on the eastern slope of the nek by Lieut. Armitage (Times 22.4.1879) and buried by Black (Daily Telegraph 18.8.1879 and Anstey Family Papers). The 'alleged', unprovenanced location was simply described as "the Manzamjama".

Bonjour Julian,
It's the reason why I used the term "alleged" last stand about Lt Anstey( alleged location near "the Manzamjama").
Amitié
Fred

Why Broad's map does not contain cairns around the kraals described by Witt and others?

Julian
Possibly the timings could be a clue why boast didnt mark them. If the bodies were left insitu and he buried them then surely he would have made note. That makes me think the bodies were completely covered by the time he got there, the cairns would have been very visible from the track when he arrived so possibly he bypassed in order to do the work he was going to get paid for, just a thought.
The area is within the reserve area to the East of the Manzimyama tributary ( I need to try and find if it has a name, hopefully Barry logs in and can advise.)
Im sending an e mail of to Joseph the custodian and trying to get him to attend to the cairns, failing which the local hotels are going to be aproached to help.
Again I think the time table will be everything in trying to figure out the occupants of the cairns. Something to be explored, but think Norse and his opinion on a force that far West. Havent got my books but there was another statement, Mancell?

Fred
There is a tradition of the zulus when the cross a river/stream of placing a stone on a pile.
In terms of distance the 'alleged Anstey' stand is around 5 to 600 metres south.
In terms of the kralls that were defended, I believe the very first cairn on the trail is where the southern krall was.
I was going to send you an e mail, but possibly I can get your brilliant research mind working. Bromhead wrote a report on his activities in burying the dead at iSandlwana and refered to a map he had drawn. I can send you the report description, would you mind looking to see if you can find anything?

Hi

Just out of interest, where was Keane's body found in relation to the cairns?

Thanks

simon

Simon
Look at the map, bottom right is a small building. Thats the 'gamekeepers' hut that was being built when they discovered the button

Frank,
I have a copy of Bromhead's report from the Blue Book.
Unfortunately one of Lt O'Donnel's map (? : I wrote his name from memory)  on the burial of the bodies is missing...
The key is perhaps Pulleine.
You quoted Nourse and Mansel. There are also, for example, testimonies from Zulus (even if they did not quote / of course /  Pulleine).
Thank you for your kind words.
Amitié
Fred

Frank
Do you know how many new cairns are there in that position?

Julian There can be as many as 7
Fred In Bromheads report he mentions a map is attached, that seems the one that is missing from the blue book.
As you well know my theory on Pulleine.

Sorry missed out, we will only know once the bush is cleared. Close examination of the old photo seems to indicate the seven. Ive sent of a couple of e mails so hopefully Amalfa will come to the party, or at least give me permission to raise the money and clear the bush.

Frank,
I am sorry for the mention of Pulleine. I have forgotten your theory on Pulleine when I wrote my post about him. Now, I remember your theory and my post was certainly inspired by it!
In Bromhead's report, "Nothing is said about burial's on the Fugitives' track. These may have been down on a third (1) map, on which Lieutenant O' Donnell showed the course of the track , but it appears that this not longer exists" ("Hill of the Sphinx, p. 77).

Note 1:" Two maps prepared by Lieutenant Mainwaring for Bromhead's report are reproduced in Atkinson " ("Hill of the Sphinx, p. 77).
One of them (the well known map) is inserted from memory  in my copy of the Blue Book.
Amitié
Fred

From memory, I have a copy of published reports in a Natal newspapers when Lt O'Connell (3/60th Rifles) was  sent to the batttlefield in March 1880 (burial party). I shall take a look.
His report is also published in the Blue book.
Between Bromhead's burial's party and Boast's work there was at least one other Burial's party; I have also in mind a burlal party with a man which belonged to the NMP.Some informations were given by him.
It seems to me that on the forum there is a member with a family link to Lt O'Donnell. It would be interesting to know if he has some documents on the subject.
About 0' Donnell and his map: From my notes (unfortunately without source quoted):"O'DONNELL, HUGH, Captain, was born 9 February 1858, at Jubbulpore, Central Provinces, India, son of John Walter O'Donnell, CE, PWD, and Rosabella O'Donnell. He was educated privately in Germany; at Streatham School, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and began his military career 30 January 1878, as an Ensign in the 1st Battalion 8th King's Regiment In the following year he volunteered for active service in the Zulu War, and joined the 24th Regiment. He received the South African Medal and clasp, and received a letter of thanks from the War Office through the Quartermaster-General from HRH Commanding-in-Chief: "For a sketch made by order of OC detachment of 24th Regiment of the track taken by the fugitives from Isandlwhana, 1879, from which information was gained".
Amitié
Fred

Frank
Bloody brilliant. Remarkable.

Your comments have been passed onto Ronald.

Frank
I've just e-mailed you.  The 1982 battlefield plan of cairns has one cairn marked on the spot where you've found seven (no. 77).  I was given this plan by David Jackson (who annotated it).  Let me know if you'd like a copy (it is huge).
Also Boast's Report states that he made 18 cairns on that side of the mountain. On boast's map there are 15 cairns centred around Shepstone's marked grave plus 3 outliers by the track where you have found them, making 18.

Yep those are the figures that dont work, 4 missing.

On closer examination it is clear that no. 77 is the cairn just to the south of the modern road - the one you believed has disappeared. It is very close to the group you've found. I'll send the map to you anyway just in case.

Thanks Julian.
Charles Aikenhead, owner of Rorkes Drift Hotel and Lindalani Mazibuko from AMAFA have committed to cleaning the bush away and refurbishing the cairns.
Cheers

FRank
Check your e-mail. I've just e-mailed you.

Amafa inspected the cairns site today and will be attending to the rehabilitation as soon as the lockdown eases.

A merging of history.
On the 13th March 1883 Alfred Boast reported to The Colonial Secretary that his mission to bury the dead at iSandlwana had been completed having buried the dead and built 298 separate cairns.

He described the burials as : “Each grave was dug three feet deep and 18 inches wide. The graves were carefully and sufficiently filled in and their locality marked with a cairn of stones built over each grave with the largest obtainable to the height of not less than 3 feet.”

Boast drew a map/sketch of the grave locations , a rather strange combination of plan and 3D combined.

In 1932 an additional map was draw by Steven Watts entitled iSandlwana Grave Plan, numbering the graves.

Those cairns are now a poignant reminder of the battle standing out from the veld in their coating of whitewash.

Unfortunately, a number of the cairns over time have been destroyed and lost. Currently there are ………… recognizable. However, a process is now underway to identify and mark as many as possible of those long-lost locations.

Old photos, commentaries, statements and photos are being used to identify locations spread over the entire seat of the battle and its aftermath, the Fugitives trail and the alternate escape routes.

With the discover mentioned above locating an as yet unknown number of cairns focus has been concentrated on the area of the old road from the Bashe to the saddle.
Alfred Bost identified graves on the West of the Manzimyama tributary, higher up the slope than the stream itself, and a single isolated grave on the western bank of the stream, to the north of the road.

On the Municipal grave map from 1932 those graves were not identified my Watts and therefore not numbered.

However, a single cairn was identified and numbered by Watts but in a different location, south of the road and close to the tributary higher up the slope.

The cairn built by Boast is clearly marked on his map and its contents have been the subject of speculation for 140 years. Authors and historians in the past have mentioned a road party working on the road, that has been largely discredited, also Chards Engineers, again proved wrong by Chard himself.

In an essay Ian Knight has attributed the cairn as a memorial to one Bertie Hughes, drawing on a mention from WJS Morris and William Smyth. According to the essay Hughes died while trying to cross the Manzimyama whilst in flood. This incident occurred however in 1889 so clearly the cairn predated this issue.


Boast did not mention the cairn higher up the slope so the assumption would be that it was constructed after 1883. Watts showed it on his survey of 1932, but didn’t show the cairn west of the stream. Watts was I believe constrained in his brief to the so-called cemetery area, east of the Manzimyama.

It is therefore a possibility that there were in fact two separate cairns constructed, the lower for fugitives caught by the right wing and the upper as a monument to the unfortunate Bertie Hughes. Again, there exists therefore the possibility that over the years history has merged the two cairns character into one where the lower cairn has adopted the mystique of the upper.

Frank
A couple of points to note. slips of the finger - it's Steven Watt (not Watts) and his map dates from 1982 (not 1932).
The letters re Bertie Hughes mention only that a cross was placed by the river on the east bank; there was nothing about building a cairn and placing a cross on it; there was just the cross placed (presumably on an existing cairn). Hughes himself was buried in St. Vincent's precluding the necessity of any cairn.

William Smyth
I am responsible for the sacraments at St. Augustine’s and the outstations. There are ten out-stations where regular Sunday services are held. One week my horse had to carry me 150 miles. The new road through the drift was deep in mud. I found a grave with an iron cross, in memory of Bertie Hughes.

As he was buried at St Vincents there would not be a grave at the Manzimyama, so I assume he meant a cairn as such.
The 1932 was a slip of the finger, with apologies.
I dont recall a mention of the eastern bank?
Boast only built one and that was on the western bank. The other mentioned by Watt is on the east as I have mentioned and assumed it was constructed for the 'memorial cross' that was at some point moved to the west bank.

Hi Frank
Smyth
The phrase 'a grave with an iron cross, in memory of Bertie Hughes' is written strangely. It's not 'Bertie Hughes's grave with a cross'. It's a question of semantics, I know, but the 'cross' was in Bertie's memory and the 'grave' could have been someone else's. Smyth would also have been well aware the Hughes was buried in St. Vincent's as the first European to be buried there. I suggest that he used the word 'grave' specifically knowing full well it was one, just not Bertie's.
Parkins & Lewis
Parkins wrote that Morris & Hughes were riding home towards St. Vincent's trying to find a place to ford the Manzimnyama and Morris saw Bertie's riderless horse "nearly across on the opposite side". (Letter written on 15.1.1889 describing the event itself on 10.1.1889).
Lewis, coming from the same direction, wrote "there is a cross on the other side [i.e. the eastern bank] where the horse got out." (Letter written on 25.8.1891 describing his trip on 16.8.1891).
Put the two together and you have a cairn on the eastern bank. Lewis's letter is particularly interesting as he mentions another death at the same place in August 1891.

Morning Julian
Smyth
I really think that sentence is a question of interpretation, and your right he would have known Bertie was buried at St Vincents. He does make that very clear when he says ir was in Memory of him. Even today the cairns are continually refered to as graves and the whole isandlwana area is known as a Grave yard. Steven Watt refers to to it on his plan as Im sure does Boast so it would be hardly suprising if Smyth did the same.
As to who the 'grave' belongs to.
Let me reiterate my point Boast built a 'grave' on the west bank of the Manzimyama, some 40 to 50 metres North of the track, There is no singular grave indicated by him to the East of the stream.
However a cairn was erected at a later date higher up the road ten metres South of the track and below the tributry. That cairn is therefore to the EAST of the main Manzimyama stream. My contention is that this eastern cairn is one quite possible erected to the memory of Bertie ( Or even a later fatality) your account from Parkins and Lewis tends to confirm that rather than prove the opposite, in positions the memorial cairn east of the manzimyama. If indeed they had been refering to the cairn on the same bank as their approach it would have been mentionied that it was on the side of the hill some 50 metres to their north.
I do have proof of the positioning of that cairn, its been badly damaged and is in a difficult location but it is highly visible along the old and new roads, unfortunatly while still held as an unwilling prisoner I cannot get to the battlefield neither can my friends in PMB to take photos. But it is there.
My stance remains Indomitably solid Im afraid.

Updated photograph from Frank.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Cairn Clearing in progress. Charles from the Rorkes Drift Hotel assisted by Pat Rungen and the crew from iSandlwana Lodge. Great bunch of guys.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

From Isandlwana Lodge Facebook page.

For those members trying to put this site into context.
Between the Manzimyama stream, at the bottom of the western slope leading to iSandlwana, a tributory stream runs of the ridge down the slope and then cuts across the slope at a diagonal before straightening again and joining the main stream.
The earliest fugitives attempted to escape via the traders track to Rorkes Drift. That track runs from the saddle on a diagonal course across the west face of the hill and then straightens down the slope across this tributory and over the Manzimyama.
The right horn of the impi aproached from the north down the ridge and cut the road. Exactly where is open to interpretation, history tells us that occured down the manzimyama valley, I believe that they took a much easier path down the valley created by the tributory, higher up the slope and closer to iSandlwana. (Ive never quite figured why they would take the longer Manzimyama route and end up right at the bottom of the hill instead of this much easier path). These rediscovered cairns are marked on the Alfred Boast map of 1883 but not on the later 1982 survey and are on the western side of the tributory, closer to the manzimyama. So there is no doubt at all that they were graves of men fleeing the battle, exactly who they were we will probably never know, unless any artifacts turn up whilst the area is being cleared and rebuilt.
Regards

We're the men buried exactly where they were found, or were groups of the deceased buried in a general area, as in one body was found and then several others may have been added to the burial spot?

Hi Danny. Boast collected bodies into groups of 4 ish and buried them then created the cairns. There seems to be around 6 cairns in that area, we wont know exactly untill final clearing but they are acccording to old photos considerably bigger than normal so highly possible that they contained more than the norm. Speculative I know.

The whole area has now been cleared of bush, and the cairns and ruins have been exposed. Big thanks have to go out to Charles at RD Hotel, Pat Rundgen tour guide and Shane from iSandlwana Lodge. They have all been brilliant.
The next stage is to have the cairns refurbished and white washed and then hopefully after lock down is finished to hold a blessing on site.
Sanral have been requested to provide an iSandlwana Battlefield sign placed on the Manzimyama, this effectivly extends the battlefield by 2 kilometre.
Photos will be posted of the cleared area.

And as if by magic:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks John appreciated.

No problem Frank, just happy to be of assistance.

JY

So Frank, judging by what's been exposed and by comparison with the early photo taken from this location how many cairns do you think you've found at this spot?

Julian. Charles is going to explore over the weekend at this stage it looks like 6 but there seems to be a lot of damage, the alloe growing through hasnt exactly helped. Early next week we should have a better idea. We are trying to get a drone set up to give us a full aerial picture. Will take some time to get a complete picture, just a pity with this bloody lockdown I would love to be there for a few days but thats way way into the future. Everything else seems to be coming into place though.

Whatever the outcome, with your presence or without, you've done a grand job.

"Everything else seems to be coming into place though"...

Well done to all those involved in finding and reinstating the cairns, it must be a thankless task in the heat, I'm sure that others will join me in sending a heartfelt thank you fir your hard work and dedication in a difficult environment and difficult times....'thank you'

Awesome work