Second Matabele War

Fearing another attack was imminent, Napier sent a relief force to the farmhouse. Finding no Ndebele, the mounted patrol swept northward to the Umguza. Crossing the road that led to Salisbury, the troopers clashed with natives near Colebrander’s Farm. As the Ndebele attempted to outflank the colonials, Frederick Selous crossed a nearby stream with a small skirmish line. The skirmishers prevented a large war party from advancing on the main column’s rear. Selous’ timing could not have been better, for at that moment the Maxim gun stationed near a corner of the farmhouse jammed. Accurate rifle fire allowed the column to withdraw, but not before the colonials discovered that another ibutho was nearby. Had the two Ndebele regiments joined forces at that time, the relief column would have been in serious straits.On April 25, 290 white troopers and friendly natives under the command of Captain Ronald Macfarlane left Bulawayo to scout the Unguza. Supported by a 1-pounder Hotchkiss gun and a Maxim, the patrol soon encountered several hundred Ndebele. A skirmish line of mounted scouts managed to draw the warriors into range of the two larger guns, and a fierce firefight erupted. ‘Bullets of all sorts came whistling along, from elephant-guns, Martinis, Winchesters, and Lee-Metfords, and for about an hour things were decidedly unpleasant, wrote Lieutenant Claude Grenfell. The Ndebele made two determined rushes to reach the Maxim gun, but were driven back with heavy losses.

Macfarlane, in the meantime, ordered a mounted charge against Ndebele warriors gathering behind a rock ridge to the left. With a rousing cheer, the horsemen swept over the ridges and drove the enemy across the river. On the right flank, a contingent of friendly natives wearing red capes, armed with assegais and commanded by Fred Burnham, dashed into tall scrub brush. In hand-to-hand combat, they cleared the area of Ndebele snipers. Several rounds from the Hotchkiss prevented the insurgents form returning.

The action along the Umguza seemed to signal a weakening in the Ndebele rebellion. Throughout the campaign, since March, the native izinduna (chieftains) had never been able to coordinate their activities. amabutho often stood idly by, even though the sounds of battle echoed but a few miles away. The Ndebele seemed to lack the central authority Lobengula had provided earlier.

By May 11, a relief force had finally reached the settlers. A column of 600 Rhodesians from Salisbury led by Cecil Rhodes fought its way through an opposing force of Ndebele between Movene Kraal and Gwelo on May 9, and linked with a mounted troop from Bulawayo two days later. The combined columns combed the district northeast of the city, skirmishing with Ndebele regiments and burning native kraals.

Plumer finally reached Bulawayo on May 24. Assisted by Macfarlane’s Bulawayo Field Force Corps, the Matabeleland Relief Force began scouring the Umguza River area, skirmishing as they rode. Within a week, two British officers, Maj. Gen. Sir Frederick Carrington and Colonel Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, arrived to take overall command of the various Matabeleland units and relief columns.

Carrington had barely settled into his headquarters when a Zulu informer brought news of the mlimo’s secret cave in the Matopo Hills. At Baden-Powell’s recommendation, two scouts, Fred Burnham and Bonnar Armstrong, were chosen to penetrate the Ndebele defenses and assassinate the mlimo. Riding by night, the two scouts located the medicine man, surprising him as he entered his dwelling. After a well-placed shot, Burnham and Armstrong took to their heels. Setting several thatched huts ablaze as a diversion, they managed to reach their horses. Burnham later recalled that for two hours they were ‘hotly pursued and had a long hard ride and a running fight over rough ground’ before escaping their angry pursuers.

With the death of the mlimo, Carrington ordered Plumer’s force to proceed to Inyati, northeast of Bulawayo. There was evidence that a large Ndebele contingent was in force at Tabis-I-Mhamba, just to the north. On June 29, Plumer’s column of 752 troops, supported by two 2.5-inch mountain guns, departed from Bulawayo along the Gwelo Road. After several uneventful days of travel, they approached the tortuous collection of kopjes and brushland that made up the Tabas-I-Mhamba locale. On the night of July 4, the column eased past Ndebele outposts and took up positions. Plumer’s combined infantry and cavalry attacked at 5:30 a.m. on the 5th, plunging into the brush and carrying several fortified kopjes in vicious hand-to-hand combat. Horsemen cut off lanes of retreat. By noon, the fighting was over. Plumer lost two-dozen men killed and wounded. Ndebele casualties were estimated at 100, and the troopers captured about 500 women and children, 1,000 cattle and more than 2,000 sheep and goats.

Meanwhile, in June the Mashonas joined the revolt. To the whites, who regarded themselves as liberators of the Holi caste, the decision by the Ndebele’s Mashona vassals to commit their warriors to the uprising came as an unwelcome shock. After a few raids, however, the Mashona chiefs, lacking the Ndebele’s centralized command, retired behind their fortified kopjes and stayed on the defensive.