CHAPTER VI
The Famous Irish Victory of Benburb—Cruel Murder of the Catholic Bishop of Ross
THE forces of the belligerents were not large, according to our more modern standards. In his comprehensive “History of Ireland,” the Rev. Abbe McGeoghegan credits Owen Roe with only 5,000 infantry and 500 horse, while he calls Monroe’s force 6,000 foot and 800 cavalry. The objective of both generals was the ancient city of Armagh, and the grand-nephew of the great Hugh O’Neill was destined to win one of Ireland’s proudest victories in the immediate neighborhood of his grand-uncle’s most famous battlefield—the Yellow Ford. Marching northward from the borders of Leinster, Owen Roe crossed the historic Blackwater and took position at a place called Benburb, in the present county of Tyrone. Monroe advanced to attack him, and ordered his younger brother, George Monroe, who commanded a strong detachment, to join forces with the main body without delay. O’Neill, apprised by his scouts of this movement, sent two regiments, under Colonels MacMahon and MacNenay, to intercept young Monroe at a pass through which he would be compelled to defile his troops in order to form a junction with his brother. The two colonels obeyed their orders so strictly that George Monroe’s force was so utterly broken and routed that it was unable to render any service to the Puritan general during the remainder of the campaign. The victors immediately rejoined O’Neill, who, in the interim, had detached Colonel Ricard O’Ferrall to obstruct the elder Monroe’s march from Kinnaird to Caledon, where he had crossed the Blackwater. The Scotchman’s cannon proved too much for O’Ferrall, who could only reply with musketry, but he retired in admirable order, although closely pressed by Monroe’s stronger vanguard. The battle of Benburb began on the morning of June 16th, new style, 1646. O’Neill’s post was near the river, his flanks protected by two small hills, and his rear by a wood—all held by chosen troops. Throughout most of the day, the Scots, who had both sun and wind at their backs, seemed to have the advantage, in so far as partial demonstrations could determine the question. O’Neill, in expectation of a reinforcement from the direction of Coleraine, “amused” the Scotch general until the sun had shifted position and no longer shone full and dazzlingly in the faces of the Irish soldiers. Almost at this propitious moment, the expected auxiliary force reached the field, and took up position in O’Neill’s line of battle. Rev. C. P. Meehan, historian of the “Confederation of Kilkenny,” who quotes Monroe’s despatch, Rinuccini’s letters, and other contemporaneous authorities, says: “It was the decisive moment. The Irish general, throwing himself into the midst of his men, and, pointing out to them that retreat must be fatal to the enemy, ordered them to charge and pursue vigorously. A far resounding cheer rose from the Irish ranks. ‘Myself,’ said he, ‘with the aid of Heaven, will lead the way. Let those who fail to follow me remember that they abandon their general.’ This address was received with one unanimous shout by the army. The Irish colonels threw themselves from their horses, to cut themselves off from every chance of retreat, and charged with incredible impetuosity.” Some musketry was used, but the victory was decided in Ireland’s favor by her ancient and favorite weapon, the deadly pike, which may be called the parent of the bayonet. Monroe’s cavalry charged boldly that bristling front of spears, but was overthrown in an instant and all but annihilated. Vain, then, became the fire of the vaunted cannon of the Scotch commander and the crashing volleys of his small arms. Vainly he himself and his chosen officers, sword in hand, set an example of courage to their men. With the shout of “Lamh Dearg Aboo!” which, fifty years before, had sounded the death-knell of Bagnal, Kildare, and De Burgh, on the banks of the same historic river, the Irish clansmen rushed upon their foes. The struggle was brief and bitter. Lord Blaney’s English regiment perished almost to the last man, fighting heroically to the end. The Scottish cavalry was utterly broken and fled pell-mell, leaving the infantry to their fate. Lord Montgomery’s regiment alone retired in good order, although with considerable loss, but Montgomery himself, fifty other officers, and some two hundred soldiers, were made prisoners. Monroe fled, without hat or wig, and tradition says he lost his sword in swimming his horse across the Blackwater. Of the Anglo-Scotch army, there died upon the field 3,243 officers and men, and many more perished during the vengeful pursuit of the victors, who do not appear to have been in a forgiving mood. O’Neill acknowledged a loss of seventy men killed and several hundred wounded. The Scottish army lost all of its baggage, tents, cannon, small arms, military chest, and, besides, thirty-two stand of battle-flags. Fifteen hundred draught horses and enough food supplies to last the Irish army for many months also fell into the hands of the vanquishers. Monroe’s army was, virtually, destroyed, and he sullied a previously honorable record by plundering and burning many villages and isolated houses to gratify his spite against the people whose soldiers had so grievously humiliated him.
O’Neill’s fine military instinct impelled him to follow up his success by giving Monroe no rest until he had driven him from Ulster, but, unfortunately, there came at this crisis a request, which really meant an order, from the Nuncio, to march the Ulster army into Leinster in order that it might support those who were opposed in the Council at Kilkenny to entering into further peace negotiations with the bigoted Ormond and the now impotent king. O’Neill could hardly decline this misdirected mission, but it proved to be, in the end, a fatal act of obedience. From that hour the Irish cause began to decline. General Preston, O’Neill’s fierce Anglo-Irish rival, and fanatically devoted to the cause of Charles, engaged in battle with the Parliamentary general, Michael Jones, at Dungan Hill in Meath, and was totally routed, with immense loss. It is only proper to remark here, that the “Old” Irish did the best fighting during this war, because their hearts were in the struggle, while the Anglo-Irish, who mainly composed the armies under Preston and Lord Taaffe—the latter of whom was ignominiously defeated at Knockinoss, near Mallow in Cork—were only half-hearted in their efforts. Taaffe’s defeat was aggravated by the cruel murder of the brave “Left-handed” MacDonnell of Antrim, who, after having been made prisoner, was barbarously put to death by order of the murderous renegade, “Murrough the Burner,” who commanded the victors. This bloody-minded wretch further signalized his cruelty by storming the city of Cashel and sacking the grand cathedral, founded by one of his own princely ancestors, in the twelfth century. Hundreds of non-combatants of all ages and both sexes, who had taken refuge in the holy place, were ruthlessly massacred, and twenty priests were dragged from under the high altar and wantonly butchered. Lord Broghill emphasized his brutality in Cork County by hanging before the walls of Macroom Castle the saintly Bishop MacEagan of Ross, who refused to counsel the Irish garrison to surrender. Dr. Madden, a gifted poet, summed up the noble refusal and its tragical consequences in the following lines:
“The orders are given, the prisoner is led
To the castle, and round him are menacing hordes:
Undaunted, approaching the walls, at the head
Of the troopers of Cromwell, he utters these words:
“‘Beware of the cockatrice—trust not the wiles
Of the serpent, for perfidy skulks in its folds!
Beware of Lord Broghill the day that he smiles!
His mercy is murder!—his word never holds!
“Remember, ’tis writ in our annals of blood,
Our countrymen never relied on the faith
Of truce, or of treaty, but treason ensued—
And the issue of every delusion was death!’
“He died on the scaffold in front of those walls,
Where the blackness of ruin is seen from afar,
And the gloom of their desolate aspect recalls
The blackest of Broghill’s achievements in war.”