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Section 3—Melvill and Coghill |
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Isandlwana 1879 |
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Melvill and Coghill—The Colours—Index.
Only 3 VC’s (Victoria Cross) were awarded to individuals that fought at Isandlwana. All were awarded to men who made it onto the Fugitives Trail. Two medals in particular were the subject of controversy.
It is not or ever will be clear but the adjutant to the 24th Regiment and Colonel Pulleine’s senior advisor on the field of battle was one Lieutenant Melvill. Of the scarce evidence available it is widely assumed that Pulleine ordered Melvill to save the colours of the 24th regiment and not to let them fall into enemy hands. Melvill left the field whilst his regiment was still alive and fighting and fled with the colours down the Fugitives Trail. Several witnesses testified at the court of enquiry that Melvill met Lieutenant Coghill on the trail at the Fugitives Drift. Melvill was unhorsed mid current and Coghill rode back into the water to save him and the colours. With the river being high with the incessant weeks of rain, the colours slipped from Melvill’s grasp and washed down the river. Both Coghill and Melvill made it out of the river and up a steep slope on the Natal bank of the river until utterly exhausted they were killed by Zulu’s thought to be from the kwaSokhexe homestead of Sihayo or the displaced Sothondose tribe on the Natal bank of the river that was raided by Chelmsford on the day after crossing the Buffalo River on 11th January 1879. Both were posthumously awarded the VC some years later. There bodies were discovered a few days later and buried on the hillside they fell on. The colours were recovered a few weeks later in the water in a series of rapids. |
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