General Barton with the Sixth Brigade was directed to entrench himself at Chieveley, and was given as his artillery the other six naval 12-pounders, two dummy 4·7's which the ingenuity of the bluejackets had constructed, and the remnants of the field batteries destroyed at Colenso. To guard Frere camp, the Composite Rifle Battalion, made up of drafts for the regiments in Ladysmith, was detailed. The total force available for offensive action was, when all deductions had been made, 15,000 infantry, 2,500 cavalry and mounted men, and fifty-eight guns, excluding the Mountain Battery, which was of no use in the field, and was never employed because of its want of range and power. The general theory in the British camp was that the advance would be made by the right flank in the direction of Hlangwane and Weenen, which many thought was the easiest line of approach to Ladysmith. Circumstantial reports had already reached Durban to the effect that a part at least of Sir Charles Warren's Division was marching along the Weenen road. But these conjectures were falsified by events; it was by the left flank that General Buller had determined to make his next throw.
GRILLED STEAK À-LA-BOER.
GENERAL WARREN'S BRIGADE MARCHING OUT FROM FRERE.
The depressions seen in the middle distance are called by the Boers "dongas."
[Photo by Middlebrook.
Jan. 10, 1900.] Forward Movement.
The army moves.