February 1878, Bromhead's battalion was dispatched to the British Cape Colony in response to a request for reinforcements to assist in the Ninth Cape Frontier War. Arriving at East London on 9 March, Bromhead's B Company took part in several offensive operations at the conclusion of the war. During an assault on a Xhosa position in May, the company's commanding officer, Captain A.G. Godwin-Austen, was wounded by a shot accidentally fired by one of his own men. He was consequently sent back to England to recover, and command of the company temporarily passed to Bromhead. In August the battalion was sent to Pietermaritzburg, Natal, to prepare for the invasion of Zululand. Rorke's Drift At the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu War, Bromhead's battalion was assigned to Lord Chelmsford's main invasion column which entered Zulu territory on 11 January 1879. The column crossed the border on the Buffalo River near an isolated mission station named Rorke's Drift, which was used as a staging post, and advanced to the east where it set up camp at Isandlwana. However, along with a large contingent of Natal Native Contingent (NNC) troops, Bromhead's company was ordered to stay behind and guard the mission station until they were replaced by a detachment from the 2nd Battalion 4th Regiment which was en route from the rear. At noon on 22 January the garrison's senior officer, Major Henry Spalding (Chelmsford's quartermaster general), received news of a Zulu presence in the area, and departed from Rorke's Drift in order to ascertain the whereabouts of reinforcements due from Helpmekaar. Consequently, Lieutenant John Chard, a Royal Engineer who had been given the task of maintaining the cable ferry across the river, was left as the senior officer. At around 15:00 a small number of dishevelled horsemen appeared with news that the camp at Isandlwana had been overwhelmed by a Zulu army that was probably on its way to attack Rorke's Drift. Acting Assistant Commissary James Dalton, an experienced former sergeant in the 85th Regiment, persuaded Bromhead and Chard that the best option was to remain at the station rather than make a fighting retreat. Rorke's Drift comprised two single-storey buildings approximately apart: the western building was being used as a makeshift hospital and the eastern building had been converted into a storehouse. Moving swiftly, the garrison erected a defensive perimeter between the two buildings using mealie bags from the storehouse while the