The battle-fields of Ireland, from 1688 to 1691

by active 1867 John Boyle

Still the affairs of William were of a serious and perplexing nature, both in England and on the continent. Party strife ran high in the British Parliament, and the Princess Anne, whether touched by remorse or excited to revenge, was known to hint at the necessity of recalling her father to the throne, while the continued success of Marshal Luxemburg, since the battle of Fleurus, had reduced the "Allies" to great extremities, and threatened the very existence of Holland as a European power. Several times since his accession, William was compelled to pass over to the continent to reassure his favorite subjects, and to take counsel with the members of the coalition against the increasing power of France. His visits on those occasions were necessarily hurried and unsatisfactory; the successful termination of the Irish war, alone, could grant him a respite from his manifold cares, and accordingly Ginckle, who had succeeded the Count de Solmes in command of the army, was ordered to continue afield through the winter, and press it to an issue, either by treaty or by force of arms. To put the result beyond peradventure, his force was strengthened by accessions from every available quarter: the militia and northern reserves were called into service; several regiments reached him from Scotland; and the Dutch Guards, who had been recalled to England with the Count of Solmes, were replaced by a body of British infantry, the dragoons of Colonel Mathews, and the cavalry of the Count of Schomberg, until a force of over 50,000 men were at his command, while abundance of stores and ammunition arrived daily at every port from Cork to the capital.

Nor did the complete reduction of the country, judging from the relative numbers, the condition of both armies, and the territories occupied by them, seem an end either distant or difficult to accomplish. Three of the four provinces were virtually under the sway of General Ginckle; the coast from Kinsale, eastward to Derry, was under the control of his fleet; his army lay extended through the centre of the island, within a day's march of the Shannon, the possession of any pass on which would break the Irish line of communication, and open up the remaining province to the progress of his arms; and to this was his attention now directed as the speediest manner of terminating the war, which had become so irksome to his sovereign.

Warned by the reverse of the British arms before Athlone and Limerick, that an assault in force at any one point of the Irish line, would be attended with hazard and delay, he devised a simultaneous attack along its whole extent, as the more speedy and efficacious. It would keep the enemy, who were not half his number, divided among many garrisons, weaken them at some point, and give him the advantage of selecting that for his most determined assault, which should be found the least capable of resistance. For this purpose, he established his bases of operation at Cork, Roscrea, Mullingar, and Enniskillen; the first threatening that part of the southern province still in arms for King James, and each of the other three commanding one or more important passes into the still unconquered territory. That part of his army at Enniskillen was commanded by Kirke and Douglas; that at Mullingar, by Brewer, Lanier, Earle, and others; that at Roscrea and its environs, by Count Nassau and the Prince of Wurtemberg; and that at Cork, by Tettau and Scravenmore,—none of them varying far from 10,000 men, with strong detachments at several intermediate points, while he himself established his headquarters at Kilkenny, holding a strong reserve in hand, to be directed north or south as necessity should require. The campaign was to be first inaugurated by Tettau on the south and Douglas on the north. The former was to move against the interior of Cork and Kerry, and, wasting the country on his way, to threaten Limerick, in order to divert attention from the movements on the river above it. The latter was to proceed against Sligo, and, having captured it, to assail Lanesborough from the west, while Brewer, from his quarters at Mullingar, was to threaten it on the east. The investment of the latter place was to be the signal for a general movement along the whole line from Kilaloe, northward, when, if any one point were carried, the whole army was to concentrate round Athlone, which once reduced, Limerick should be evacuated, or the whole country westward to Galway left open to his march. The plan was well designed, the generals able and experienced, the army in the finest condition; and nothing was wanting to success but the time opportune for a general movement.

On the other hand, the fall of Cork and Kinsale were succeeded by a period of great distress within the Irish lines. The exterminating policy of the lords-justices had filled the province with a helpless population, enhancing the price of provisions and lessening the resources of the army. The brass coin of King James, in which the soldiers received their pay, was greatly depreciated within their own boundaries, while throughout the other three provinces it was decried, and had become utterly worthless.[⁵⁶] A derangement of trade with France also intervened, and disasters followed each other in quick succession. A few days after the fall of Kinsale, a vessel freighted with salt and other necessaries, anchored under the guns of the fort, and the captain, believing it still held by the Jacobite troops, only discovered his mistake when she was actually in possession of a boarding party from the enemy. Another, laden with ammunition and clothing for the troops, struck on a rock coming up the Shannon, and became a total wreck, and all on board perished. Almost coincident with those events; one Long, an English captain, who had been for some time a prisoner in Galway, aided by some disaffected inhabitants, made his escape, and seizing a French frigate of twelve guns, doubled the northern coast and reached Carrickfergus in safety with his prize. In the mean time the expedition promised by the French Government was unaccountably delayed, until hope seemed illusory, and the necessity of an accommodation with the enemy was intimated in the civic councils of the nation.

Through all these troubles Berwick and Sarsfield never faltered in their duty. The camp and the council alike demanded their attention. In both they seemed ubiquitous, and their exertions alone saved the Jacobite cause from utter prostration at this critical period. At length, after several weeks had elapsed, commerce began to revisit the coast; the immediate necessities of the army were relieved; the efforts of Tyrconnell were manifested in something more tangible than promises; arms and ammunition, as a first instalment of his good faith, arrived at Galway, coupled with assurances that the French king had at last accorded that consideration which the importance of their cause demanded, and appeals to their loyalty and patriotism to hold out until his arrival. The effect was soon observable: the despondence of the people gave way to hope; the discontent of the council was for a time allayed; and the generals turned their undivided attention to military affairs—Berwick to store the magazines, put the troops in order, and guard the different posts; and Sarsfield, with a few thousand available troops, to organize the Rapparees and direct their movements in frustrating the designs of the enemy.

Through the preceding events of the war, the Rapparees had played no insignificant part. The torch of the invader had rendered them homeless and reckless, and, thrown on their own resources, they took up this wild life, and wrung their subsistence from the enemy with a daring hand. From the Shannon to the eastern coast, wherever a tribute could be levied, or a British detachment ambushed, there were the stealthy Rapparees wresting a reprisal or wreaking a revenge. Neither toil nor privation seemed to affect them, nor could danger deter them from their purpose. Death, swift and certain, was their doom when captured, and that they dealt as swiftly and surely in their turn. Unable, through want of regular arms and discipline, to meet large bodies of the enemy in the field, they divided into small bands, and traversed the country in all directions. All the by-ways of the land were known to them; they came and went like shadows; and wherever they passed, there was a hostage or a victim. No position of the enemy, however guarded, was safe from them, and frequently in the dead of night, when his camp seemed most secure, the skies would be suddenly lit up by the blaze of his tents, and horses and other booty secured in the confusion, and borne with a noble disinterestedness to the headquarters of the Jacobite army. In fine, the Irish Rapparee was an Irish patriot, and a devoted one,—as brave and devoted as the Chouan of La Vendée. He fought without pay; suffered without murmur, and gave his life for a country that scarce holds his name in grateful remembrance.

Such were the men that Sarsfield now called to his aid, and for this purpose, he "let loose,"—says the English historian of the war,—"a great part of the army to manage the best for themselves that time and opportunity would allow them, giving them passes to signify what regiments they belonged to, so that in case they were taken they might not be dealt with as Rapparees, but soldiers.... Keeping a constant correspondence with one another and also with the Irish army, who furnished them with all necessaries, especially ammunition."

These soldiers now extended along the whole frontier, and in a short time established communication between the Rapparees and the regular army, while Sarsfield, with a small force, took the field, to profit by every diversion they might create in his favor.

Each army having thus adopted its plan of action, a furious desultory war soon raged along the whole lines, from north to south. The Rapparees, under the guidance of the soldiers sent among them, formed in two lines: one of these moved along between the English army and the eastern coast, harassing the militia in its rear, and ravaging the country up to the gates of Dublin; while the other hung around its encampments, interrupting communication, disconcerting its movements, destroying its forage, and driving large herds of cattle beyond the Shannon. Their courage and hardihood were surprising. They now attacked larger bodies of the enemy, and raids and skirmishes, terminating in loss of life on both sides, were of daily—almost hourly, occurrence. If the enemy lost less in men—as we are assured he did, on the testimony of his own annalist—he paid the balance in booty, for to this the attention of the Rapparees, even in the heat of battle, was principally directed. An instance or two of their manner of proceeding will better illustrate their service at this time than pages of general detail.—As the English army extended northward, pursuant to its design against the Irish quarters, the regiment of Lord Drogheda occupied Kilcormack Castle, in the King's County, as an escort to the supplies daily arriving and passing on northward. The forage growing scarce around that station, the commander, Colonel Bristow, billeted his men on Balliboy, a few miles distant, in a plentiful district, and scoured the country in all directions. After a few days the town was well stored with provisions for the winter, and the greatest vigilance was exercised against a surprise from the Rapparees, who were reported to be about in the neighborhood. From a steep hill behind the town, which commanded a view of the country around, a constant lookout was kept up through the day; and every evening, before retiring to rest, the hedges and brushwood were searched, and the guards doubled through the night. Notwithstanding all this vigilance, the Rapparees got within the lines and concealed themselves in the hedges around the town; where they remained three days without food, and exposed to the severity of the weather. At length, on the third night, when the very quiet that prevailed awakened suspicion, a lieutenant and twenty men were sent out, who beat up all the hedges, and even those where the Rapparees lay concealed, without detecting any sign of them; and retired for the night free from apprehension. In half an hour more the town was fired at both ends; this was a signal to the Rapparees at a distance, who flocked in from all directions. The soldiers were driven to the hill, where a fight raged all night between them and one body of the Rapparees; while another, in their sight, rifled the town, brought off a large booty of provisions and horses, and secured them before morning. The next day they attacked Philipstown, but were repulsed and driven through the country; when turning on their pursuers, they killed one hundred and twenty of them, returned and laid the town in ashes, and killed two hundred more, sent against them. No place was free from their assaults:—Clonmel, Cashel, Mountmellick, and Mullingar, were attacked by them in such quick succession, that the British soldiers were kept marching and countermarching to meet assaults either feigned or real, until the winter set fairly in, and the grand movement of Ginckle seemed yet as remote as ever.

The soldiers sent into the interior of Cork and Kerry also performed signal service to the Irish cause. Mounted upon the small surefooted horses of those mountainous districts, they traversed the country in all directions; organized the farmers and Rapparees; established lines for running the produce of the country to the general depot at Limerick; and then attached themselves to the forces of Colonels McCarthy and O'Driscoll, who still held the country against the incursions of the enemy. This Colonel O'Driscoll was a brave and intrepid soldier. He commanded a regiment of his own tenantry at the siege of Cork; but having no faith in English treaties, he refused to accede to the terms of Marlborough, and, at the head of his regiment of four hundred men, fought his way through the English lines, and reached the open country to the north-west of the city. Here he learned that his son, or kinsman(?), "young Colonel O'Driscoll," had been slain in an attempt to retake Castlehaven, which had been captured by the British; and that the country around was despoiled, and the people flying in dismay to the mountains. Burning with revenge, he marched rapidly along the line of the Bandon, passing through Ballineen and Inniskeen; scattering several English settlements as he passed; and turning westward, bore directly for Castlehaven, took it by storm, and put the whole English garrison to the sword. Other places were retaken in quick succession, his force increasing with each success; and being joined by Colonel McCarthy, they attacked the forces of Tettau, under Eppinger, Cox, and Coy, again drove them from the interior, and the reduction of the country was, for that time, abandoned.