Harry Smith's Last Throw

by Smith, Keith; Knight, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781848326460
• ISBN10: 1848326467
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-08-30
• Publisher: Frontline Books

Summary

The War of Mlanjeni was the longest conflict in South African history until the second Anglo-Boer War. The loss of life was substantially heavier than that of the Zulu War of 1879 And The political after-effects of it were significantly greater than those that followed the Zulu War.The Zulu War has been the subject of numerous accounts but the silence surrounding the Eighth Frontier War is deafening. Harry Smith's Last Throw fills this gap: a moving history, vividly drawn out using eye-witness accounts. The narrative is not limited To The British perspective. Xhosa accounts have been translated (many For The first time) to avoid an Anglo-centric bias. For both sides by the 8th War there was a great deal of blood to avenge and brutal killings were perpetrated by many combatants.The author provides a colourful backdop, explaining how the Dutch East India Company came To The Cape to establish a provision station for ships on the way to its East Indies empire. Dutch Burghers settled there but the Company had no interest in Africa itself. In order to be viable farms had to be large and this created a class of independent-minded who looked increasingly To The interior of Africa, pushing the Colony's borders. The wars with the Xhosa were the result of the eventual expansion of these boundaries into Xhosa territory.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations	p. ix
Genealogical Tables	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xvi
Foreword: The Land is Dead	p. xvii
Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
Introduction	p. 1
Setting the Scene	p. 9
The Indigenous People	p. 9
The Cape Settlement	p. 10
A British Colony	p. 14
Enter Harry Smith	p. 19
The Kat River Settlement	p. 25
I Will Be Governor	p. 30
Aucto Splendore Resurgo	p. 30
On the Frontier	p. 32
Sound the Tocsin	p. 36
The Grand Tour	p. 40
Reduction of Troops	p. 42
Rise of Mlanjeni	p. 43
War's Grim Visage	p. 48
Ambush at Boma PassM	p. 48
Massacre in the Military Villages	p. 59
The Governor Besieged	p. 64
Battle for Fort White	p. 65
Desertions and Incursions	p. 67
The Waterkloof TriangleM	p. 67
Fort BeaufortM	p. 77
Sipton ManorM	p. 81
Fort BeaufortM	p. 83
The Colony Fights Back	p. 87
Battle of Fort BeaufortM	p. 87
Loss of Fort Armstrong	p. 94
The Thembu Rebellion	p. 95
Post RetiefM	p. 98
'Hartebeestfontein'M	p. 100
The End of the Beginning	p. 105
Balfour and Fort ArmstrongM	p. 105
State of the Colony	p. 113
Losses and Gains	p. 115
Rebellion at Theopolis	p. 119
The Amatholas	p. 120
A Loss of Confidence	p. 124
The New Battleground	p. 127
The Fox's Lair, July 1851M	p. 127
Further Arrivals	p. 134
Baptism of Fire	p. 135
Terror at Niland's PassM	p. 139
October on the Kroome Heights	p. 149
First October CampaignM	p. 149
Second October CampaignM	p. 164
The Writing on the Wall	p. 172
The Last October CampaignM	p. 172
Despatches from London	p. 179
Leopard of FordyceM	p. 182
Invasion of the Transkei	p. 192
Harry Smith Learns his Fate	p. 197
The Last Throw	p. 197
Thembu in the WaterkloofM	p. 198
Loss of the Birkenhead	p. 205
Harry Smith IntervenesM	p. 208
Cleaning Up	p. 216
Changes	p. 219
The New Governor	p. 219
The Kroome Heights April-May 1852M	p. 221
Abduction of a Spy	p. 223
Major Hogge Departs	p. 224
Cathcart's Preparations	p. 225
Murray's Krantz, June 1852	p. 227
The Kroome Heights, July 1852M	p. 228
The Peace	p. 240
Take No Prisoners	p. 240
Cathcart's Transkei Invasion	p. 241
The Last Kroome Assault, September 1852M	p. 244
Surrender of the Chiefs	p. 258
Epilogue	p. 261
The Xhosa	p. 261
The Chiefs	p. 264
The British	p. 268
Notes	p. 271
Note on Sources	p. 294
Bibliography	p. 296
Index	p. 302
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