"Question about photograph of Rorke's Drift" Topic

I found a post-battle photograph of the storehouse (the roof thatching removed to prevent another fire), with the improvements of a high stone wall. At the middle height of the wall, there are square spaces. Are these open firing ports (for men kneeling), or are they enclosed steps, so men could stand in them while firing over the wall?

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Your next post mentions that this wall was put up in a couple days, yet the black spaces have very straight edges, the sort of things that would have to have been carved, not just piled, and that would have taken time and appropriate tools. The gun ports in the top row look more rounded. Might the photo have been doctored in some way? Could they have used mortar or concrete to create the square look?

Grelber

The following is PURE SPECULATION:

I suspect they had mortar, since Rorke's Drift was a forward supply depot and such repair things would be needed for various projects. Mortar may have been for some kind of bridge supports that Chard was working on before the battle.

I don't think the holes were carved, but probably either laid with flat stones or lined with cut boards. In some of the spaces, you can see small straight rocks lining the holes. The holes are also not perfectly square, but are square-shaped, with different angles and sizes of holes.

The interesting hole/port is the one on the extreme left, which is higher than the others and has a stone step in front of it. I suspect it was an after-thought, or perhaps there is some obstruction (such as the stairs leading to the upstairs door) that required it be a bit higher.

Another interesting thing is on the top of the wall, it has parapets, but is lined with mealie bags (probably to rest the rifles on).

As to the speed of construction, I understand the relief column had well over 1,000 men, of which many could be put to work on the projects.

Here is the only other photograph I have found of the post-battle improvements. NOTE: I enhanced the photo with AI, to try and show the features a bit clearer.

This photograph appears to have been taken later than the previous photo, as the upstairs doors are missing, and it appears the firing port holes/steps appear filled in. I do know that the improvements made at Rorke's Drift were temporary, and they were partially dismantled and the materials moved a few hundred yards away to the river crossing, where Fort Melvill was constructed.

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Not sure the "square spaces" in the first photo are holes or steps of any sort. Dark boxes or crates, perhaps? Something to stand on to shoot from the row of actual holes higher up? The upper row is more uniform and you can actually see some depth in some of them. Something's wrong about the lower ones, and unless it's an AI effect, if they were real we should see where they were in the second photo. I wouldn't altogether discount Grelber's "doctored photo" theory.

Since many of the "openings" lack proper lintels to support the stonework above them, I don't think they are, in fact, firing ports or windows.

Respectfully, below is a link to the un-retouched original photo, which I believe still shows the openings.

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Apparently, these photos came from Chard's personal photo album, as attested by this site: link

Interestingly, here is the auction for Chard's photo album, which sold for over $93,000 USD:
link

Here is a photo of the backside. Note that on the stone wall (where the sun is shining and the surface can be seen clearly) near the center of the storehouse, you see the spaced out black spaces on the wall:
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A magnified view. There is no way these are boxes or crates. And these images are coming direct from Chard's personal photo album – so no reason they would be altered photos.

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Perhaps the wall started out on DAY 1 as a 4-5 foot wall with parapets, just to get a basic defensive wall in place. Then on DAY 2, the soldiers built on top of it, extending it to 9-10 feet, leaving the "windows" for firing steps, or closing them in on the other side for some unknown reason???

There are what appear to be filled sacks above the "windows" at the top and they aren't sagging so must be supported by a board or rods. The "windows" along the top look exactly the same as the ones lower in the wall so the building on top of the 1st day's work could be right.

Much better, thank you! I concur.

I have discovered that Chard kept a 40-page diary,which included his time in Africa. I have found excerpts about the battle itself. But according to internet searches, the entire diary (with the post-battle construction being of interest to me) is not fully digitized online. So, if he wrote about any post-battle engineering, I don't know how to find out about it.