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Remember Majuba – the First Anglo Boer War
Places of interest: Newcastle Town Hall, Zulu War Memorial, Fort Amiel Museum, Schuinshoogte, Majuba, Lang's Nek.
Fort Amiel was built in 1876 by Major F. Amiel as a defence against the Zulu's. However, it was never used for that reason and became a transit camp, hospital and commissariat.
In late 1880, emissaries of the Boer republic made another peaceful attempt to regain their independence, but when it, too, came to naught… war was declared.
British forces were marched northwest from Port Natal-Durban to Newcastle, from where they first attempted, on 28 January 1881, to invade Boer territory at Laing's Nek, in the vicinity of Volksrust. This attack failed, as did the second incursion, ten days later on the nearby Schuinshoogte ridge. The shortcomings of scarlet uniform, gleaming white helmet and conspicuous fighting formation saw the tide turn irrevocably against the British on the morning of 27 February 1881, on verdant slopes at the Battle of Majuba.
General Colley had led his troops up this 'Mountain of Doves' during the night, only to be killed as the Boer soldiers who climbed to an even higher position at daybreak put the British to flight. An armistice was signed a few days later at the foot of 'Majuba', followed by a peace treaty in Newcastle.
The subsequent Pretoria Convention, signed in October the same year, was never wholly acceptable to the fiercely independent Afrikaaner, and their discontent simmered for eight years until boiling over into the real Anglo- Boer War. |
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