As regards the number of their opponents, there is no certain information.

Nothing is known, however, to reduce the estimate previously given--30,000.

Allowing for the necessity of holding in check the garrison at Ladysmith, the Boers could very well meet Buller in force numerically equal, without taking account of the passive advantages of a defensive position unusually strong.
That night were distributed the British orders for forcing the passage of the Tugela.

They were issued by Sir Francis Clery, as commanding the South Natal Field Forces; but Sir Redvers Buller, by the language of his subsequent report, has left no doubt that the plan embodied his own ideas, as Commander-in-Chief in {p.220} South Africa generally, but present on this scene.

This report is the guide in the following account, the narratives of others having been by the writer used to supplement or, where necessary, to elucidate.
The general line of the Tugela, for a half-dozen miles above Colenso, is nearly due east, but its course is extremely winding.