Editing Second Boer War (section)

=== Buller replaced ===

[[File:Peter de wet01.jpg|thumb|Boer General [[Piet de Wet]], 1900]]
By taking command in person in Natal, Buller had allowed the overall direction of the war to drift. Because of concerns about his performance and negative reports from the field, he was replaced as Commander in Chief by Roberts. Roberts quickly assembled an entirely new team for headquarters staff and he chose military men from far and wide: Kitchener (Chief of Staff) from the Sudan; [[Frederick Russell Burnham]] (Chief of Scouts), the American scout, from the Klondike; [[George Francis Robert Henderson|George Henderson]] from the Staff College; [[Neville Bowles Chamberlain]] from Afghanistan; and [[William Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson|William Nicholson]] (Military Secretary) from Calcutta.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} Like Buller, Roberts first intended to attack directly along the Cape Town–Pretoria railway but, again like Buller, was forced to relieve the beleaguered garrisons. Leaving Buller in command in Natal, Roberts massed his main force near the Orange River and along the Western Railway behind Methuen's force at the [[Modder River]] and prepared to make a wide outflanking move to relieve Kimberley.

Except in Natal, the war had stagnated. Other than a single attempt to storm Ladysmith, the Boers made no attempt to capture the besieged towns. In the Cape Midlands, the Boers did not exploit the British defeat at Stormberg and were prevented from capturing the railway junction at [[Colesberg]]. In the dry summer, the grazing on the veld became parched, weakening the Boers' horses and draught oxen, and many Boer families joined their menfolk in the siege lines and ''laagers'' (encampments), fatally encumbering Cronjé's army.