In command of the Second Division in Natal since October 1899, with local rank of Lieut.-General. He entered the Army in 1858; was Professor of Tactics at Sandhurst from 1872-5; Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General in Ireland (1875-7), and at Aldershot (1877-8); was Chief Staff Officer of the Flying Column in the Zulu War, 1878-9; Brigade-Major at Alexandria in the Egyptian War of 1882; Assistant-Adjutant-General in the Sudan Expedition in 1884; Deputy-Adjutant and Quartermaster-General in the Nile Expedition of 1884-5; Chief of Staff in Egypt 1886-8, and Commandant of the Staff College 1888-93. He commanded the 3rd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot 1895-6, and was Deputy-Adjutant-General to the Forces from that date until he left for Africa.] [Sidenote: [JAN. 9-10, 1900.] 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. [Illustration: GRILLED STEAK À-LA-BOER.] [Illustration: GENERAL WARREN'S BRIGADE MARCHING OUT FROM FRERE. The depressions seen in the middle distance are called by the Boers "dongas."] [Illustration: [_Photo by Middlebrook._ AN ARMY ON THE MARCH: GUNS AND AMBULANCE CARTS CROSSING A DONGA.] [Sidenote: JAN. 10, 1900.] _Forward Movement._] [Sidenote: The army moves.] [Sidenote: [JAN. 10, 1900.]