This was the first move of the complicated operations by which Sir Redvers Buller designed to seize the passage of the Tugela at Potgieter’s Ferry:  Warren (seven battalions, comprising Coke’s and Woodgate’s Brigades and five batteries) from Estcourt to Frere.  When I got back to Chieveley all was bustle in the camp.  Orders to march at dawn had arrived.  At last the long pause was finished; waiting was over; action had begun.

So far as Chieveley was concerned, the following was the programme:  Barton’s Brigade to entrench itself strongly and to remain before Colenso, covering the head of the line of communications, and demonstrating against the position; Hildyard’s Brigade to move westward at daylight on the 11th to Pretorius’s Farm; cavalry, guns, and baggage (miles of it) to take a more circuitous route to the same place.  Thither also Hart was to move from Frere, joining Hildyard and forming Clery’s division.  Warren was to rest until the next day.  The force for the relief of Ladysmith, exclusive of Barton’s Brigade and communication troops, was organised as follows: 

     Commander-in-Chief:  SIR REDVERS BULLER

CLERY’S DIVISION        Warren’s Division
consisting of           consisting of

Hildyard’s Brigade, Lyttelton’s Brigade, Hart’s Brigade, Woodgate’s Brigade, 1 squad. 13th Hussars, 1 squad. 15th Hussars, 3 batteries, 3 batteries, R.E.  R.E.

     CORPS TROOPS

Coke’s Brigade (3 battalions), 1 field battery R.A., 1 howitzer battery R.A., 2 4.7-inch naval guns and Naval Brigade, 8 long-range naval 12-pounder guns, 1 squadron 13th Hussars, R.E., &c.

     CAVALRY (DUNDONALD)

1st Royal Dragoons. 14th Hussars. 4 squadrons South African Light Horse. 1 squadron Imperial Light Horse.  Bethune’s Mounted Infantry.  Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry. 1 squadron Natal Carabineers. 1 squadron Natal Police. 1 company K.R.R.  Mounted Infantry. 6 machine guns.

Or, to sum the whole up briefly, 19,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 60 guns.

All were busy with their various tasks—­Barton’s Brigade entrenching, making redoubts and shelter pits, or block-houses of railway iron; the other brigades packing up ready for the march as night closed in.  In the morning we started.  The cavalry were responsible for the safety of the baggage convoy, and with Colonel Byng, who commanded the column, I waited and watched the almost interminable procession defile.  Ox waggons piled high with all kinds of packages, and drawn sometimes by ten or twelve pairs of oxen, mule waggons, Scotch carts, ambulance waggons, with huge Red Cross flags, ammunition carts, artillery, slaughter cattle, and, last of all, the naval battery, with its two enormous 4.7-inch pieces, dragged by long strings of animals, and guarded by straw-hatted khaki-clad bluejackets, passed in imposing array, with here and