.G., finding their own horses, saddlery, and rifles, and serving
without pay. This body of patriotic men did useful work to the north
of Maritzburg, in the neighbourhood of Mooi River, from the 4th to the
16th November, when on the arrival of reinforcements from the Cape
they were released from further duty, and thanked in General Orders
for their "excellent service."

[Footnote 181: This contingent consisted of parties from the
_Terrible_, _Forte_, _Thetis_, _Philomel_ and _Tartar_, of a
total strength of 35 officers and 423 men. Commander Limpus,
R.N., was placed in command of the guns (see p. 120).]

[Sidenote: Nov. 11th/99. Reinforcements begin to disembark. Sir F.
Clery takes command, Nov. 15th.]

On 11th November General Murray, with the approval of Sir R. Buller,
handed over the command of the Estcourt garrison to Colonel Charles
Long, R.H.A., and returned to Maritzburg to direct personally the
heavy work falling on the line of communication staff in arranging for
the disembarkation and equipment of the reinforcements, whose arrival
at Durban was now hourly expected. He had been warned by Headquarters,
on the 7th, that these reinforcements would be made up to three
brigades and divisional troops, and that Lieut.-General Sir C. F.
Clery would be sent in command. On the evening of the 11th the first
battalion, the 2nd West Yorkshire, arrived at Durban with the
Brigadier of the 2nd brigade, Major-General Hildyard, and was sent on
the following day to Estcourt, accompanied by two naval 12-prs. and a
7-pr. manned by a detachment of bluejackets under the command of Lt.
H. W. James, R.N.[182] These units reached Estcourt on the 13th.
Lt.-General Clery reached Durban on November 15th, and assumed command
of the troops south of the Tugela. By the 17th five more battalions
and a brigade division of field artillery had landed at that port. The
British troops in southern Natal were thus in numerical superiority
to the Boer column, moving south of the Tugela. The dates of the
disembarkation of the remaining units of the corps for the relief of
Ladysmith, to which a fourth brigade was ultimately assigned by Sir R.
Buller, are shown in Appendix 7.

[Footnote 182: The 12-prs. were replaced at Maritzburg by two
others sent up from Durban under command of Lieut. A. Halsey,
R.N.]

[Sidenote: Nov. 14th. The raid begins.]

On the morning of the 14th November, Joube