'Fearful Hard Times; The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879', by Ian Castle and Ian Knight, published by Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-180-0, price £ 17.95.

Although the dramatic events at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift continue to dominate interest in the Anglo-Zulu War, there was, of course, more to it than that. It may have been a short war, but it was a particularly brutal one, with seven major battles taking place in little more than six months. 'Fearful Hard Times' is the first full-length study of an aspect of the war which has largely been overlooked hitherto; the operations of Colonel Pearson's Right Flank Column, which operated in the lush coastal belt of Zululand.

Pearson's campaign was certainly not without incident; indeed his column fought the first pitched battle of the war, at Nyezane on 22nd January - just three hours before Lord Chelmsford's column came to grief elsewhere in the country at Isandlwana. Nyezane was fought according to the same Standing Orders employed at Isandlwana, and was a complex running fight which resulted in a British victory. In the aftermath, Pearson advanced and occupied the deserted mission station at Eshowe, but found that the collapse at Isandlwana had left him unsupported.

Unable to advance, unwilling to retreat, Pearson dug in, and for three months nearly 1,800 British troops were cooped up in appalling conditions within the fort, constantly harassed by Zulus in the surrounding hills. In the end, it took a major expedition by Lord Chelmsford - culminating in another battle, Gingindlovu - to relieve Eshowe. 'Fearful Hard Times' uses a wealth of previously unpublished material to follow both the progress of the siege and the relief column. Through the letters and diaries of the besieged, it pieces together the hardships of life under siege, living in insanitary conditions, often wetthrough, subject to constant alarms, and usually hungry. The book not only provides the fullest account so far of the two battles, but also of the numerous raids and skirmishes which characterised the fighting around the fort itself.

Reviews

Introduction
Fearful Hard Times: The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879
Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign 1878-1879
But Burdens Shouldered; Anglo-Zulu War Graves and Memorials in the United Kingdom
Deeds of Valour: A Victorian Military And Naval Trilogy
Warrior Chiefs of Southern Africa
Fuzzy Wuzzy; The Campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, 1884-85
Butler; A Scapegoat?
Steam, Steel and Shellfire; The Steam Warship 1815-1905
Victorian Military Campaigns
British Campaign Medals; Waterloo To The Gulf
Guns of the British Empire; Firearms of the British Soldier, 1837-1987
Reflections From The Bridge; The Victorian Sapper in Photographs
Osprey Round - Up: Colonial Titles
Pony Wars Round-Up

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