CHAPTER XI.

THE WAR IN IRELAND. CAMPAIGN OF 1691. FROM THE BATTLE OF AGHRIM TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR IN IRELAND.

The Irish retreat on Limerick.—The capture of Galway.—The march on Limerick. — The second siege of Limerick.-The forcing of the Shannon.-The attack on Thomond Gate.-The Surrender of Limerick, and close of the war in Ireland.

[For Illustrations, see Note on p. xiii.]

So utterly demoralised was the Irish army by its bloody defeat, that there was scarcely any attempt at an organised retreat. By ones and twos, or in straggling parties of twenties and forties, the dispirited soldiers made their way as they best could by the highways, by the lanes, and across the bogs, towards Limerick, and as Bannagher and Portumna fell into the hands of the victorious army and their garrisons joined in the retreat, the ground was strewn with hampers and all sorts of household stuff which the people dropped as they went. The sole idea of each man was to get to Limerick, and thus secure his own personal safety.427

There now remained but two places of any importance in the hands of the Irish, Galway and Limerick; and four days after the battle de Ginckell marched by way of Loughrea and Athenry on Galway. After the capture of the outworks, an action in which Major-General Talmach "would needs go as a volunteer, as he usually did when it was not his turn to "command," Galway surrendered with the honours of war, the

47 The Authorities consulted for this chapter may be quoted en masse; and they are chiefly;

Story.

Macarice Excidium.

A diary of the siege and surrender of Limerick, Lond. 1692.

Letters in the Clarke MSS.

London Gazette.

Parker.

Kane, &c., &c.

Contemporary maps and plans of Galway and of Limerick.

Tracts: Brit. Mus. 816 m. 23.

The account in the Fingall MSS.

garrison being permitted to march to Limerick, leaving the town "with their arms, six pieces of cannon, drums beating, colours flying, match lighted, and bullet in mouth." Sir Henry Bellasyse was appointed Governor with the TwentySecond Foot (his own), and the Twelfth and Twenty-third Regiments for a garrison.

The Commissary-General having now arrived in person with a large convoy of money, supplies, ammunition, and other material, the army was deemed prepared to march on Limerick; a move which was begun on the 28th, and continued by way of Athenry, Loughrea, and Eyrescourt, to Banagher Bridge, at which latter place the Royal Dragoons joined. On the 3rd of August the march was continued by Birr, and BurrisaKane, to Nenagh; and here a halt of four days became compulsory for reasons of supply. Not all the experiences of 1689 or of 1690 had yet sufficiently impressed the Authorities with the first principle of warfare—that a Commissariat without an adequate Transport Train at its own sole disposal, however perfect it may be in other respects, is absolutely useless. And when the army reached Nenagh, a distance of only seventy miles from its base of operations and its frontier of depôts, it was without bread. The General had already foreseen some such contingency, and upon his sending to Dublin a strong representation on the subject," most of the nobility and gentry "furnished him with their coach-horses" but still these went but a little way towards meeting the demand, and recourse was had to pressing.

On the 11th a fresh start was made by way of Shalley (where the Fourth Foot joined), and Tulla, to Cahircoulish, six miles south-east of Limerick, which was reached on the 14th.

Between Cahircoulish and Limerick was encamped the major portion of the Irish forces, it being apparently intended to try the issue of another battle before retiring within the city. The whole country was of course under martial law, and every Irishman in the neighbourhood of the army was forced into the service fresh arms were issued from the stores in Limerick to those who had lost theirs during the flight from Aghrim; and all betokened a resolute defence of this the last stronghold remaining to the Irish. Ireton's Fort had been repaired, a new fort had been erected on the site of an old churchyard not far from it, and a third had been begun with a view to forming a complete chain of outworks round the town. The star-fort on King's Island was in a better condition than before, and was connected

with the town by covered ways; while earth-works had been thrown up within the old walls of Irishtown. The Duke of Tyrconnell, the Count de Lauzun (who had taken the place of St. Ruth), and all the principal Irish Generals were within the fortress; supplies were abundant and the garrison was strong.

The reader will recollect the description 128 of the place given in the history of the siege of the previous year: and indeed a better idea of the defences may be gathered by one glance at the plans (Ill. XLVI) than from pages of description.

De Ginckell remained outwardly inactive for the first ten days after his arrival at Cahircoulish: but preparations for the siege were energetically proceeding all the time. The Tipperary Militia arrived in camp escorting a large Commissariat Train of supplies and a train of artillery also arrived from Athlone, consisting of nine twenty-four pounders, nine eighteen-pounders, and three mortars with its proportion of all necessary material; and on this occasion the lesson of 1690 was not forgotten, for large parties were sent out to meet the trains as they approached. Twenty-nine tin pontoon-boats were also received from Athlone. Several regiments arrived in camp from other parts of the country, among them the 11th Foot, and the 5th Dragoon Guards. The fleet came up the river and anchored about three miles below the town. Horses were sent out from camp to meet and hasten up another siege-train coming from Dublin; and every regiment was ordered to manufacture two thousand fascines.

A day or two after the appearance of the English army before Limerick, Sir William King, a former Governor of the city, escaped from the Irish and got safely into camp; and the information afforded by him as the siege progressed proved to be of great use.

For some days it seemed as if this year's operations were to be only a repetition of last year's failure, for the weather again set in wet. However, on the 22nd it cleared up, and on the 25th de Ginckell invested the place.

With an advance-guard of about two thousand Horse and Dragoons, and two thousand five hundred infantry, accompanied by eight field pieces, the army marched towards Limerick. In immediate support of the advance-guard rode the whole of the cavalry, every man carrying in front of him three fascines to be dropped at convenient spots. As the army drew nearer to

428 Chap. VIII.

the town, the troops gradually opened out on either flank in order to occupy all the approaches; and as they did so, Major General Mackay with the infantry of the van pushed forward to attack the enemy's outworks.

Ireton's fort was no contemptible work; it was in good order, had a wide ditch, was garrisoned by five hundred men, and had lines of communication with the town. Cromwell's fort was scarcely less formidable: but the Old Church fort was in an unfinished condition. Mackay's party, upon approaching Old Church fort, found, to their surprise, that it was quite deserted; and before they reached Ireton's fort the Irish abandoned that also, retreating to a stone fort nearer the town; this fort they reached in safety although Mackay's men pursued them closely. Later in the day Count Nassau was sent to attack Cromwell's fort, which the granadeers of his party, after receiving the enemy's fire full in their faces, carried with little. difficulty. All that night and the next day the troops stood to their arms in expectation of a sally from the town and on the following night, ground was broken towards the Shannon to the west of the town and a line of trenches begun from the river to Cromwell's fort: behind this work the Danish contingent encamped.

The next operation was to improve the defences of the outworks abandoned by the Irish, and to connect them by lines of communication: and on the 30th the battery of guns to the extreme left of the new trenches (Ill. XLVII) opened fire on Thomond bridge, while at night the battery of mortars at the same spot shelled the town, the enemy replying from King's Castle and from their batteries in the Irish Town.

The line of circumvallation was now so extensive, that, besides taking their day duties, every regiment of infantry had to mount guard in the trenches every other night, never mounting with their Colours lest the enemy might thus discover the inadequacy of the army to the ground to be covered. In consequence of this strain upon the infantry, the Horse and Dragoons were ordered to furnish four men per troop for spadeduty in the trenches; and right well they worked, altho' it was a most unusual thing for trenches to be dug or batteries erected by any but infantry soldiers. By this means a fresh battery was made between Cromwell's fort and the river, although it was almost immediately afterwards abandoned, as being still too far from the town: the approaches were also carried considerably nearer to the walls.

For the next few days the firing from the batteries continued; but, owing to the flat and boggy nature of the ground, great difficulty was experienced in finding suitable places for fresh batteries within effective distance of the walls. At length, on the 4th of September, it was resolved to erect a battery on the isthmus opposite the English town, although from the nature of the ground it was found impossible to approach the works to within less than from three hundred to four hundred yards of the place. Neither this new battery nor the works below the town could hinder the enemy's free communications with County Clare, where the main body of his cavalry lay some little distance from the river. The new battery was rendered as formidable as possible, and consisted of eight ten-inch to eighteen-inch mortars in the centre flanked by twenty-five 24 Prs. and 18 Prs. on the right, and ten pieces for red-hot shot on the left. A battery of eight 12 Prs. was also planted at Ireton's fort: and on the 8th all these, together with the batteries on the left attack, set to work simultaneously, throwing bombs, fire-balls, carcasses, and ball, without cessation. The houses of the town were hourly in flames, an event always welcomed by the Irish soldiers as an opportunity for plunder, they comforting the unhappy owners of the property on such occasions by the assurance that it was "better for them to be plundered by their own people than to give what they had to "the English soldiers, who would certainly strip them on the "first opportunity."

Indeed so universal was this brutal feeling in the country, that the Cork Militia, being employed in the release of a party of protestant prisoners from St. Thomas's Island a little above Limerick, actually stripped their fellow-protestants of all that the enemy had previously left them, as they escorted them from the Island to the English camp.

The Irish were not idle during all this time, and they did not witness the erection of all this apparatus of Death around them without making some efforts to stave off the effects. They planted a new battery of eight guns in King's Island opposite the new English battery, and they raked Ireton's fort from the old Black Battery, besides maintaining a heavy fire from the other parts of their works.

However at length, on the 9th, there appeared a wide breach in the English town wall between Ball's Bridge and the Abbey: the guns in the spur beyond the Abbey had been dismounted; and the town was laid almost in ruins. On this night occurred