Obviously I didn't know that. Oh hang on, I refered to it's resemblance in my original post. In the movie Zulu the scenes involving Private Hook are virtually identical to those in the book, together with the volley fire episodes, hence my post. My problem is not with Stirling lifting the action from history, but rather the fact he lifted it from the movie.
I'm well aware that authors lift events from history, just as I am aware of the Zulu war.
Have you seen the movie Zulu? If you had you would be aware of my reference. If you haven't, watch the film, then you should understand what I am referring to.