"I find there are only two roads by which we could possibly get from Trichardt's Drift to Potgieter's, on the north of the Tugela, one by Acton Homes, the other by Fair View and Rosalie; the first I reject as too long, the second is a very difficult road for a large number of waggons, unless the enemy is thoroughly cleared out. I am, therefore, going to adopt some special arrangements which will involve my stay at Venter's Laager for two or three days. I will send in for further supplies and report progress.--WARREN." It will be observed that it did not in clear language state that a frontal assault was to be substituted for the flanking movement, yet it contained enough to tell the Commander-in-Chief in Natal that a radical change of policy was purposed. Sir Redvers Buller appears to have offered no objection. He answered to the effect that further supplies would be sent. [Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE GERMAN CORPS UNDER GENERAL LOUIS BOTHA.] [Sidenote: [JAN. 19-20, 1900.] It would be supposed that this discovery might have been made by a personal reconnaissance two days earlier, as soon as General Warren's troops had effected their passage at Trichardt's Drift. The saving of these two days might well have meant the difference between victory and defeat. Even if the maps were bad--and General Buller described the march as a march "into an unknown country," while it is a fact that Spion Kop was not shown in the sketch of the country round Ladysmith, issued by the Intelligence Department--an examination of the lie of the land by the generals must have disclosed on the 17th what does not appear to have been realised till the evening of the 19th. The desperate straits of Ladysmith rendered prompt and rapid action of the most vital importance. Yet two days were spent in bringing the transport across, and then in making the discovery that it was the most dangerous encumbrance and had better have been left on the south side of the Tugela. [Illustration: _F. C. Dickinson._] [_After a sketch by a British officer._ THE ACTION AT THREE TREE HILL. In this sketch the Boer position is along the crests of the hills. Halfway up the hill near the centre the British are seen advancing; on the nearer hill are two batteries of Royal Artillery, and the Lancasters and Lancashire Fusiliers "sniping"; in the foreground the ambulances. In the actual battle little or no smoke was to be seen; it has been exaggerated in the sketch in order to make the positions clear.] [Sidenote: Advance on the left ordered.]