Cruelty of Fate (The Anglo-Zulu War 4) by James Mace

Author:James Mace [James Mace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Legionary Books
Published: 2019-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

The following morning, Captain Moriarty and Lieutenant Johnson departed, leading most of their detachment of redcoats along the muddy rutted track towards where they hoped the rest of the convoy would be found. Lieutenant Lindop and Sergeant Booth remained behind. Anthony had tasked his soldiers into shifts; five would take what spades and pickaxes there were and work on building an earthen ramp along the south bank. Four men established a pair of lookout posts a hundred yards to the east and west of the drift.

Approximately three miles north, Moriarty and Johnson spotted the remaining eleven wagons formed into a defensive laager. They were manned mostly by black African wagon drivers and voorloopers. Some of these carried carbines, though most of the young voorloopers were unarmed. At the approach of imperial soldiers, a lone white man stood atop one of the wagon benches and waved to them, holding his hat over his head.

“By God,” the man said, as the captain rode up to him. “I thought you lot were abandoning us, as well as your stores, to the Zulus!”

“Yes, a slight mix-up with the escorts,” Moriarty said.

The conductor, Josiah Sussens, let out a sigh and slapped his slouch hat atop his head once more. “A complete cock-up that has already cost us forty-six cattle and about a score of your ammunition boxes,” he said with irritation. “When no help was sent from Luneburg, I decided to bring the wagons in myself. Unfortunately, we have been unable to continue any further, but at least I’ve managed to get the convoy into a proper defensive laager. Not that we could do much, should the Zulus come in force. Twice now we’ve been left to the mercy of the kaffirs by you lot! We are fortunate that they didn’t just swoop in and gut us!”

“Yes, well, we are here now,” Moriarty said. He thought to berate the conductor for his outburst, though in truth he could hardly fault the man. And as Mister Sussens was a civilian, Moriarty’s rank meant little to him.

With no break in the weather in sight, the hapless soldiers from the 80th Regiment began the hateful and filthy task of dragging the convoy down the trail to Myer’s Drift.

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