David and Charles, 1973, good condition

A feature of Queen Victoria's long reign was the unceasing succession of small wars fought in the ever extending frontiers of the Empire, as colonial interests clashed with those of native states. Few of these conflicts so compelled the interest of the Victorian public as the Zulu War of 1879. The home government dragged against its will into a war by its own high commissioner, found itself committed to a costly and protracted struggle with the powerful Zulu military state. Before achieving final victory, the army sustained a crushing and dramatic defeat at Isandhlwana, one of the worst disasters in British military history, which was followed by the famous stand at Rorke's Drift. The war demonstrated clearly some of the problems typical of Victorian campaigning - the difficulties of transport and supply, of pushing troops into trackless and unmapped country in the face of a numerically overwhelming and savage enemy. This book places the conflict in its political context, and deals in detail with the military aspects of the campaign. It is based on a wide range of sources, influcing official accounts, and correspondence, the accounted and memoirs of eye-witnesses and participants....