Further trouble on the Cape Colony’s eastern border arises between the government and the Xhosa, towards whom the policy of the Cape government has been marked by much vacillation as Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.

On December 11, 1834, a government commando party kills a chief of high rank, incensing the Xhosa: an army of ten thousand men, led by Macomo, a brother of the chief who had been killed, sweeps across the frontier, pillages and burns the homesteads and kill all who resist.

Among the worst sufferers in this Sixth Xhosa War is a colony of freed Khoikhoi who, in 1829, had been settled in the Kat River valley by the British authorities.

Inhabitants of the farms and villages take to the safety of Graham's Town, where women and children find refuge in the church.

There are few available soldiers in the colony, but the governor, Sir Benjamin d'Urban, acts quickly and all available forces are mustered under Colonel Sir Harry Smith, a Peninsula War veteran.