The Dawson Ledger
Event

Battle of Isandlwana (1879 CE)

Worst British colonial-era defeat by an indigenous army up to that date (per Laband/Morris narratives; claim not page-verified).

Event Details

  • Date: 22 January 1879
  • Type: battle
  • Civilizations: unassigned

Description

Worst British colonial-era defeat by an indigenous army up to that date (per Laband/Morris narratives; claim not page-verified).

Quantitative facts and their sourcing

  • Date 22 January 1879; outcome: Zulu victory.
  • Wikipedia-compiled (stub): British force 1,837 men; British dead 1,300+; Zulu force 20,000-25,000 (10,000-15,000 engaged); Zulu dead 3,000-5,000.
  • Civilization label unassigned (see Anglo-Zulu War record).
  • PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): War Office, Narrative of the Field Operations (1881), Isandhlwana narrative: "52 officers and 806 white non-commissioned officers and men were killed at Isandhlwana, on the 22nd January. Of the native troops in camp it seems probable that from 200 to 300 fell, but the number who perished has not been ascertained with accuracy." Appendix "Summary of Losses in Action" repeats 52 / 806 with 471 natives (OCR of the table, columns partly garbled). British official figures; Zulu losses not given in the passages read.

Confidence

medium (battle facts); numbers low-medium. Numbers marked "Wikipedia-compiled (stub)" come from a secondary aggregator and must be upgraded to page-level scholarly citations before any Official use.

Citations

  • war-office-zulu-1881-ia [PRIMARY-READ] War Office, Intelligence Branch (1881). Great Britain War Office (Intelligence Branch), Narrative of the Field Operations connected with the Zulu War of 1879 (HMSO, 1881); archive.org scan, read. HMSO (scan: Internet Archive). https://archive.org/details/zuluwar1879. Read 2026-10-12; location: Isandhlwana narrative ("52 officers and 806 white non-commissioned officers and men were killed") and appendix "Summary of Losses in Action".
  • laband1995-kingdom-in-crisis [formal] John Laband (1995). Kingdom in Crisis: The Zulu Response to the British Invasion of 1879. Manchester University Press. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL28820938W. Verified 2026-10-11 (Open Library record found; edition exists, page-level not checked).
  • wp-battle-of-isandlwana [STUB (secondary aggregator)] Wikipedia contributors (2026). Battle of Isandlwana (Wikipedia; secondary aggregator, stub-grade). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana. Verified 2026-10-11 (resolves).

Review status

SOFT draft. Not Official. Needs editor review of CAD tags (estimated) and page-level citation upgrade.

About this entry

A draft entry preserved from civilization.study. Evidence grade: low. 2 of 3 listed sources are fully documented; the rest are names only. Method and sources

Conflict card

This card is generated from Civitas's war record and carries the same evidence badge as every other conflict card.

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battle · 22 January 1879

Battle of Isandlwana (1879 CE)

Worst British colonial-era defeat by an indigenous army up to that date (per Laband/Morris narratives; claim not page-verified).

Evidence: Primary text read Draft estimate

What the record says

  • Note Date 22 January 1879; outcome: Zulu victory.
  • Unverified (Wikipedia-compiled) Wikipedia-compiled (stub): British force 1,837 men; British dead 1,300+; Zulu force 20,000-25,000 (10,000-15,000 engaged); Zulu dead 3,000-5,000.
  • Note Civilization label unassigned (see Anglo-Zulu War record).
  • Primary text PRIMARY-SOURCE (read 2026-10-12): War Office, Narrative of the Field Operations (1881), Isandhlwana narrative: "52 officers and 806 white non-commissioned officers and men were killed at Isandhlwana, on the 22nd January. Of the native troops in camp it seems probable that from 200 to 300 fell, but the number who perished has not been ascertained with accuracy." Appendix "Summary of Losses in Action" repeats 52 / 806 with 471 natives (OCR of the table, columns partly garbled). British official figures; Zulu losses not given in the passages read.

Confidence. medium (battle facts); numbers low-medium.

Where it sits

  • Civilization: unassigned. Out of scope as a civilization pending an editor's decision.
  • Related: Anglo-Zulu War (1879 CE)

Sources and evidence

No page-level citation is claimed for any source. Figures marked unverified come from a Wikipedia aggregator and are not for Official use.

Link to this conflict

Art: Patterns of Civilization chronicle art, made with AI: illustrations, not historical evidence. Entries are drafts preserved from civilization.study. Method and sources.