A sluggish general.
Preston’s vacillations.
Design against Dublin.
While Ormonde was making his arrangements with Annesley and Jones, Preston was at Monasterevan collecting an army with which he hoped to neutralise the Parliamentarians in Dublin. Digby still struggled to make this force available for the King’s service, and his secretary Walsingham wrote from Monasterevan that he had been cherished and received as an angel of peace. When mustered a few days later on the Curragh of Kildare, Preston’s army amounted to 7000 foot and 1200 horse, well officered and well appointed. Leyburn says the foot were ‘as lusty appearing men, and as well accoutred with arms and clothes as ever I did see,’ and the horse up to the average. Jones, with a much inferior force, advanced to Naas, while Preston encamped on the left bank of the Liffey not far off. Jones drew back to Johnstown, and then detached some cavalry to go round by the south of Naas and intercept some of Preston’s men. Leyburn had warned the latter of the danger he incurred from the superiority of the English horse, but there was a moment when they might have been annihilated between Naas and Johnstown, and Bellings himself remonstrated with the sluggish general, but it was then too late, and Jones was allowed to rally all his men in safety on a hill near Kill, whence they reached Dublin without further fighting. Preston’s next encampment was at the Boyne close to Trim. Walsingham came there by appointment, but found that the political wind had changed, and that the general had changed with it as usual. The presence of Bishop French was probably fatal to any negotiation, and the unfortunate private secretary returned to Dublin. Trim was held by an English garrison, and Preston wished to take, while Jones was anxious to relieve it. Hearing that the Ulster Protestants had come as far as Dundalk on their way to join Jones, but that they would be obliged to retire in ten days for want of provisions, Preston withdrew to an unassailable position at Portlester, where he intended to remain until the invasion was passed. But Bishop French and Sir Nicholas Plunket advised him to take active measures lest his own supplies should run short. Jones, who in Bellings’s words ‘fought but for bread and elbow-room about Dublin,’ could not have kept the field long, and Preston, by taking the advice of a priest and a lawyer on a military question, lost the advantage of dividing his enemy’s forces and perhaps beating them in detail. Sir Henry Tichborne and others came to Skreen with nearly 2000 men and two guns, and the united forces marched through Trim. Jones mustered his army at the famous hill of Tara, and found himself almost equal in strength to Preston, and rather superior in horse, of which he despatched 500 under Major Harman to reconnoitre at Portlester, but they lost their way. Preston left his almost impregnable position and marched to Agher, south of Trim, where he again took up strong ground. But news came from Leixlip that there were only 500 soldiers in Dublin, and the Irish general, as rash as he was generally supine, decided to make a dash for the capital through Maynooth, which had already ‘by especial Providence’ voluntarily surrendered to Jones. Preston left Agher on August 8, Harman with his troopers hanging upon his skirts, and causing as much delay as possible.[111]
Battle of Dungan Hill, August 8, 1647.
The wheel of a waggon which came off at a ford delayed Preston’s march, and the bulk of the enemy’s cavalry gradually drew up to Harman’s support, while their whole army was visible in the distance. Jones was upon Lynch’s Knock or Summerhill, and Preston upon Dungan Hill, after which the battle is generally named. It was evident that Maynooth would never be reached without fighting, and Preston prepared for battle in what he thought was a good position. Without any preliminary cannonade the Parliamentary army advanced across the interval between the two hills. The Irish horse were routed at the first charge, having been posted in a narrow lane with high quickset hedges and without power of forming line to the front. Perhaps the real cause of their misfortune was that they were commanded by Lord Costello instead of by their well-tried leader MacThomas Fitzgerald. Costello knew nothing of war, but he was a recent convert, and that seems to have been thought sufficient. A large part of the infantry stood in some very tall wheat, where they were useless. Battalions were separated from each other by high banks, and no manœuvring was possible. The best fight was made by four hundred Scotch Islanders under a Glengarry, but most of them were killed. The bulk of the infantry took refuge in a bog, where they were first surrounded, and then ‘our foot,’ says Jones, ‘followed into the bog, where they put to the sword all not admitted to quarter; such of the rebels as left the bog fell into the power of our horse.’ There is the usual dispute as to whether men were slain after quarter given or not. Bellings says ‘most of the officers and some soldiers repaired to the red colours, and to preserve them Colonel Flower commanded his regiment to stand to their arms in a body; and having brought them to Colonel Jones, they had quarter.’ Jones’s own account tallies pretty well with this, for he says ninety-five commissioned officers were taken prisoners, and only about 300 non-commissioned officers and men. Five thousand four hundred and seventy bodies were counted on the field, and many stragglers were afterwards killed by the troopers. No mercy was shown to any English, nor to such of the Anglo-Irish as had changed sides. Jones thought scarcely 500 of the infantry escaped. The English lost three officers, of whom one, Captain Gibbs, really died of drinking ditch-water when heated. The total number killed was under twenty. Four twelve-pounders with sixty-four draught oxen, and what was even more important, Preston’s papers fell into the victor’s hands. All the colours were taken, which Jones ‘could not be persuaded to be brought into Dublin in triumph, as savouring (said he) of ostentation, and attributing unto men the glory of this great work due to the Lord only,’ but there was a public thanksgiving in all the city churches.[112]
The Parliament neglect Ireland.
Victories of Inchiquin.
Dungarvan.
Bunratty.