The Battle of Kambula took place on 29 March 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, when a Zulu military force attacked the British camp at Kambula, having routed the mounted element of the British force at the Battle of Hlobane the day before. The battle was a decisive Zulu defeat and the Zulu warriors lost their belief in victory. The war ended after the Zulu defeat at the Battle of Ulundi on 4 July 1879. Prelude Following the disaster at the Battle of Hlobane on 28 March 1879, the forces of Colonel Evelyn Wood prepared to receive an attack by the entire Zulu impi, of which they had encountered only the leading sections. Soon after dawn of 29 March, Transvaal Rangers rode out to locate the impi, the cattle were put out to graze and after some deliberation, two companies were despatched to collect firewood. By the Rangers had returned with the news that the impi was on the move and was to attack Kambula at noon. Wood also now received information that the impi was nearly 21,000 men strong, consisting of regiments that had already defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana and other battles. Many of the Zulus were armed with rifles taken from the British dead at these battles. Shortly after this, the Zulu impi was sighted away across the plain, coming on due westwards in five columns. The warriors of the impi had not eaten for three days. The woodcutters and cattle were brought back in. Confident that the defences could be manned within a minute and a half of an alarm being sounded, Wood ordered the men to have their dinners. Cetshwayo responded to pleas from the abaQulusi for aid against the raids of Wood's troops by ordering the main Zulu army to help them. He ordered it not to attack fortified positions but to lure the British troops into the open even if it had to march on the Transvaal to accomplish this but his orders were ignored. The impi moved and Wood initially thought it was advancing on the Transvaal but it halted a few miles south of Kambula and formed up for an attack. Kambula camp The defences on Kambula consisted of a hexagonal laager formed with wagons that were tightly locked together, and a separate kraal for the cattle, constructed on the edge of the southern face of the ridge. Trenches