The Shangani Patrol, also known as Wilson's Patrol, in pursuit of the the Matabele King Lobengula, 1893, during the First Matabele War
Illustration by Sidney Paget (1860–1908) from Cassell's History of England, pub circa 1905. Info from wiki: The Shangani Patrol (or Wilson's Patrol) was a 34-soldier unit of the British South Africa Company that in 1893 was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), during the First Matabele War. The patrol comprised elements of the Mashonaland Mounted Police and the Bechuanaland Border Police. Scouting ahead of Major Patrick Forbes's column attempting the capture of the Matabele King Lobengula (following his flight from his capital Bulawayo a month before), it crossed the Shangani late on 3 December 1893. It moved on Lobengula the next morning, but was ambushed by a host of Matabele riflemen and warriors near the king's wagon. Surrounded and outnumbered about a hundred-fold, the patrol made a last stand as three of its number broke out and rode back to the river to muster reinforcements from Forbes. However, the Shangani had risen significantly in flood, and Forbes was himself involved in a skirmish near the southern bank; Wilson and his men therefore remained isolated to the north. After fighting to the last cartridge, and killing over ten times their own number, they were annihilated
Size: 3503px × 4877px
Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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