The Boer campaign in Natal At the outbreak of the war, the British forces in Natal were concentrated at Dundee and Ladysmith. At Dundee about 4 000 men were gathered under Gen. W. Penn Symons, and at Ladysmith there were about 8 000 men under the command of Gen. G. White. The Transvaal commandos, led by the aged Comdt.-Gen. P.J. Joubert, consisted of about 11 000 men, while about 4 000 men from the Free State were gathered west of the Drakensberg. Joubert’s first task was to destroy the British forces at Dundee. From there they had to move on to Ladysmith where the Free State and Transvaal Railway connections with Dundee met. The first battle in Natal, the battle of Talana on 20 October 1899, ended in a Boer defeat. However, in light of the large Boer force, the British, with their mortally wounded commander Penn Symons, wisely beat a retreat to Ladysmith. A day after their defeat at Dundee, the Boers were again defeated at Elandslaagte northeast of Ladysmith. By occupying the railway station 24 kilometers north of Ladysmith, an over-eager Gen. J.H.M. Kock, had brought his commandos too close to the large British force in Ladysmith. General White sent a strong division under General French who, with the aid of his lancers, decisively beat Kock. The Free State commandos in the meanwhile cautiously descended along the Drakensberg in order to join up with Joubert’s forces. White tried to stop them by dispatching a strong force that made contact with the Boers on 24 October 1899 at Rietfontein, north of Ladysmith. Unlike the Transvalers the Free Staters were well prepared and successfully defended their position, causing the British to fall back to Ladysmith. After the victory at Rietfontein the Transvaal and Free State forces were united. The Republican commandos now formed a semi-cirlce from the south-east to the north around Ladysmith and the Boers occupied hills like Umbulwana, Pepworth Hill and Nicholson’s Neck. General White now found himself in a difficult position, as his communication with Pietermaritzburg and Durban could easily have been cut off by the Boers. This possibility was the reason for his decision to drive the Boers from their positions with a large attack in order to divide the Transvalers from the Free Staters. On "Mournful Monday", as the British called Monday 30 October 1899, the British suffered 1764 casualties while unsuccessfully trying to split up the Republican forces. White’s defeated and demoralised troops were forced to retreat to Ladysmith. There they began to dig themselves in while the Boers besieged the town. With White isolated in Ladysmith, Joubert and 2 000 burghers set out on a expedition as far as Estcourt in Natal. It was their aim to find good defence positions from where the advance of the British reinforcements from the coast could be stopped. During this expedition one of the commandos under Gen. Louis Botha captured an armoured train near Chieveley. Amongst the prisoners of war was Winston Churchill, journalist of the Morning Post. Only at the end of November, after a long delay, Joubert returned to Colenso and took up position on the northern bank of the Tugela River. Joubert retired due to injury and was replaced by Gen. Louis Botha on 30 November 1899.