Talk:Natal Native Contingent

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The Natal Native Mounted Contingent (NNMC) is not the Natal Native Horse (NNH)

1. The force in question (i.e. the six native mounted troops at the beginning of the Anglo-Zulu War) were evidently and clearly designated as Natal Native Mounted Contingent.

2. Out of a saddening mixture of lack of knowledge, indifference towards the native units and habit back then, it was almost exclusively but nonetheless informally referred to as NNH (or as the equally wrong "Durnford's Basuthos" for that matter).

3. To add confusion the troopers would rather refer to themselves as Zikhali Horse (Troops No. 1 - 3), Edendale Troop (No. 4), Hlubi's Horse (No. 5) and Jantzes Horse (No. 6).

4. But the actual NNH was mustered only after the disaster at Isandlwana from the remnants of the Edendale Troop (No. 4) and Hlubi's Horse (No. 5) of the old NNMC. Command took Lieut. Cochrane.

5. The three troops known as Zikhali Horse (No. 1 - 3) amalgamated with Thomas Carbutt's Border Rangers and after an influx of new recruits reformed as Shepstone's Horse under Captain T. Shepstone from the Natal Carbineers.

Sources:

Castle, I.: Zulu War - Volunteers, Irregulars & Auxiliaries (MAA 388). Oxford: Osprey Publishing 2003.

Laband, J. & Knight, J.: The Anglo-Zulu War, 1879. Archives of Zululand. (Vol. I). Archive Publications International 2000, p. 282.

Laband, J.; Singer Thompson, P. & Henderson, S.: The Buffalo border, 1879: the Anglo-Zulu War in northern Natal. Durban: Dept. of History, University of Natal 1983.

Smith, K.I.: The commandants: the leadership of the Natal native contingent in the Anglo-Zulu war. Thesis (M.A.). University of Western Australia 2005.

Snook, M.: Notes on the Composition of the British Force at Isandlwana.Link

--IsandlwanaTW (talk) 12:02, 18 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]