Where do dreams come from?

 Zulu

Often, I wonder where my dreams begin, this evening's dream about fighting a battle may have come from reading about two battles of the era in question, Isandawana and Rorke's Drift.

There is a line of thought among historians that Lt. Ardendorf of the Natal Native Contingent was not in the fight at Rorke's Drift; he passed through on his way to his farm to warn them. There is also a large volume of reports stating he stayed to the end. Here I verge from the usual concept he stayed out of choice; he had no choice in my mind.

He'd rode 10 miles, and his horse was tiring, he knew even on a horse an Impi of Zulu warriors would run him down; his best option was to stay in a defensive position with an armed force.

Bravery has no value.

Months before Sir Stanley Baker died, he passed a pawn shop in his area, and came across Lt. John Chard's Victoria Cross;  thinking it was an imitation he walked on, it wasn't an imitation, like many of the men Chard had to pawn his medals to feed his family. Possibly the saddest story is that of Cpl. Frederick Schiess the only non-British recipient of the VC. He died on board a ship somewhere in the South Atlantic unremembered, and with no grave, after being found drunk and living on the streets.