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The Zungeni Mountain skirmish took place on 5 June 1879 between British and Zulu forces during the second invasion of Zululand, in what is now South Africa, during the later stages of the Anglo-Zulu War. British irregular horse commanded by Colonel Redvers Buller discovered a force of 300 Zulus at the settlement of eZulaneni near Zungeni Mountain.[nb 1] The horsemen charged towards and scattered the Zulus before burning the settlement. Buller's men withdrew after coming under fire from Zulus who threatened to surround them.
Buller's men were joined by more irregulars and a force of British regular cavalry, the latter under the command of Major-General Frederick Marshall. Two squadrons of the 17th (The Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers, led by Colonel Drury Drury-Lowe, approached the Zulu position. They could not close with the Zulus, who were in an area of long grass and bushes, and Zulu fire killed the 17th Lancers' adjutant, Lieutenant Frederick John Cokayne Frith. Drury-Lowe ordered some of his men to dismount and return fire. When the Zulus threatened to outflank the British, Marshall ordered a withdrawal. Aside from Frith, British casualties included two irregulars wounded; two months after the battle, the remains of 25 Zulus were discovered on the battlefield. After the skirmish, the British paused to fortify their camp before proceeding further into Zululand. They then decisively defeated the Zulu in the 4 July Battle of Ulundi.
The British High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, sought to annex the independent Zulu Kingdom as part of a plan to form a confederation of colonies in southern Africa. Frere seized upon a legal dispute in July 1878 involving Zulu chief Sihayo kaXongo. Two of the chief's wives had left him and escaped across the border into the British Colony of Natal. Sihayo's sons then led an armed band into the colony that retrieved them for execution.[10] In December 1878, Frere mobilised British troops on the borders of Zululand and presented Cetshwayo with an ultimatum whose terms required the turning over of Sihayo's sons, changes to the Zulu judicial system, the admission of Christian missionaries and the abolition of the Zulu social/army system known as iButho.[nb 2][12][13] The ultimatum demanded radical change in the Zulu way of life, and it was intended by Frere that Cetshwayo would reject it.[14]