Battle of Vinegar Hill

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Battle of Vinegar Hill
Part of the 1798 Rebellion
"Charge of the 5th Dragoon Guards on the insurgents – a recreant yeoman having deserted to them in uniform is being cut down" (William Sadler II)
Date June 21, 1798 Location Enniscorthy, Wexford Result Decisive British Government victory Government re-gains control of County Wexford
Belligerents
United Irishmen	Great Britain Hessian Mercenaries
Commanders
Anthony Perry Father John Murphy Myles Byrne William Barker Mogue Kearns	Gerard Lake Francis Needham William Loftus James Duff David Dundas Gen. Wilford
Strength
c. 20,000	c. 18,000
Casualties and losses
500 - 1,000 (inc. women & children[1]	100, and suffered many more causualties in Enniscorthy Town

The Battle of Vinegar Hill was an engagement during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 on 21 June 1798 between British troops and Irish Republicans when over 15,000 British soldiers launched an attack on Vinegar Hill outside Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the largest camp and headquarters of the Wexford republicans. It marked a turning point in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, as it was the last attempt by the republicans to hold and defend ground against the British military. The battle was actually fought in two locations: on Vinegar Hill itself and in the streets of nearby Enniscorthy.

Preparations

By 18 June, the British had assembled some 20,000 troops to pour into Wexford county and crush the insurgency. The republican leadership issued a call to all its fighters to assemble at Vinegar Hill to meet the army in one great, decisive battle. The number assembled was estimated at 20,000, but the majority lacked firearms and had to rely on pikes as their main weapon. The camp included many thousands of women and children who were staying there for protection against the rampaging military.

The British plan, as formulated by General Lake, envisaged the complete annihilation of the republican army by encircling the hill and seizing the only escape route to the west, the bridge over the Slaney. Lake divided his force into four columns to accomplish this; three columns, under Generals Dundas, Duff and Needham were to assault Vinegar Hill, while the fourth column, under General Johnson, was to storm Enniscorthy and its bridge.

Bombardment of Vinegar Hill

The battle began shortly before dawn with an artillery bombardment of Irish positions on the hill. Advance units quickly moved against republican outposts under cover of the shelling and moved artillery closer as forward positions were secured. The tightening ring forced the thousands of republican troops into an ever-shrinking area and increased exposure to the constant shelling, including new experimental delayed-fuse shells resulting in hundreds of dead and maimed.^[2] At least two mass charges by the Irish republicans on Vinegar Hill brought temporary relief, and heavy casualties, but failed to break the lines of the advancing British military.

The situation on Vinegar Hill was becoming desperate for the republicans, and when the British troops crested its eastern summit, they began a withdrawal through a gap in the British lines later known as “Needham's Gap”; General Needham's late arrival allowed the bulk of the republican troops to reach safety.

Attack on Enniscorthy

The British simultaneously launched an attack on Enniscorthy town to cut off the escape route via the bridge linking Vinegar Hill to the town, but were met with fierce Irish resistance, led by William Barker. British progress in the town was slow and they suffered heavy casualties as the town saw heavy street fighting for the second time in one month. The republicans were eventually driven across the bridge, but were reinforced by a large contingent of newly arrived troops, who managed to prevent the military from breaking through until most of the republican troops had escaped along the eastern side of the River Slaney.

Atrocities

Vinegar Hill - view from Enniscorthy

When it became clear that the bulk of the Irish were retreating from Vinegar Hill, the British cavalry were unleashed, closely followed by the infantry. A massacre of hundreds of stragglers ensued, mainly women and children^[3], from a combination of the cavalry and infantry attack, but also from the field guns which were switched to grape shot to maximise casualties among the fleeing masses. In addition, the British military were guilty of multiple instances of gang rape of females amongst the Irish camp.^[4][5][6] Meanwhile, in Enniscorthy, British troops set fire to a makeshift hospital in the town, burning scores of trapped and helpless wounded Irish troops alive; their bodies were said to be still hissing in the embers the following day.^[7]

Aftermath

The bridge at Enniscorthy
(Vinegar Hill visible in background)

Meanwhile, the bulk of the republican forces streamed unmolested towards the Three Rocks camp outside Wexford town and, following the decision to abandon the town, split into two separate columns in a new campaign to spread the rebellion beyond Wexford. One set out to the west, the other northwards towards the Wicklow Mountains to link up with General Joseph Holt's forces.

The defeat was therefore not the immediate crushing blow to the republicans that it has traditionally been depicted as, but it did alter the course of the United Irishmen's fight for an independent republic. Continuing resistance now took the form of mobile warfare, raids, and large scale guerilla-type operations.

References

1. ^ Reinterpreting the 1798 Rebellion in County Wexford - Kevin Whelan, p.28 in The Mighty Wave- The 1798 Rebellion in County Wexford (1996) ISBN 1-85182-253-4 (Eds. Keogh & Furlong
2. ^ P.121 'The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism' Kee, Robert. (London, 1972)
3. ^ P. 28, Reinterpreting the 1798 Rebellion in County Wexford - Kevin Whelan, in The Mighty Wave - The 1798 Rebellion in Wexford (1996) ISBN 1-85182-253-4 (Eds. Keogh & Furlong
4. ^ Whelan p. 28.
5. ^ Mac Laren, Archibald "A Minute Description of the Battles of Gorey, Arklow and Vinegar Hill; together with the movements of the army through the Wicklow mountains" National Library of Ireland
   and in Charles Dickson "The Wexford Rising in 1798: its cause and course" p. 239-49 (Tralee 1955) ISBN 0094772509
6. ^ Kee, See Part 2 Chapter 10.
7. ^ Furlong, Nicholas. Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-98. Dublin, 1991. ISBN 0 906602 18 1

Primary sources

• Miles Byrne (1780-1862) - Memoirs.
• Cullen, Luke. Personal Recollections of Wexford and Wicklow Insurgents of 1798 (1938).
• Cloney, Thomas. A Personal Narrative of those Transactions in the County of Wexford, in which the author was engaged, during the awful period of 1798. Dublin, 1832.
• Gordon, James B. History of the Rebellion in Ireland in the year 1798, &c. London, 1803.

Secondary Sources

• Dickson, Charles. The Wexford Rising in 1798: its causes and course. Tralee, 1955.
• Furlong, Nicholas. Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-98. Dublin, 1991. ISBN 0 906602 18 1.
• Gahan, Daniel. The People's Rising. Wexford 1798. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan Ltd., 1995.
• Kee, Robert. The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism. London, 1972.
• Keogh, Daire & Nicholas Furlong (Editors). The Mighty Wave: The 1798 Rebellion in Wexford. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996. ISBN 1-85182-254-2.

See also

• Battle of Vinegar Hill, Australia, 1804

Coordinates: 52°30′05″N 6°34′11″W / 52.50139°N 6.56972°W / 52.50139; -6.56972

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