Battle of Gwangqa Memorial

The Battle of Gwanga (8 June 1846) was the deciding moment of the War of the Axe. The Xhosa, had been very successfully fighting guerrilla war against the British and had won a number of significant victories at Burnshill. However, the major Xhosa military disaster occurred less than a month later at the Gwangqa River near Peddie. The British cavalry killed an estimated 500 Xhosa on the open plain, losing only two of their own men in the battle.