A Veteran Commander—Frederic, Duke of Schomberg—He
lays Siege to Carrickfergus—It capitulates—He repairs to Dundalk, which
is evacuated by the Duke of Berwick—A Miserable March—"Hollow Heaven and
the Hurricane, and the Hurry of the Heavy Rain"—Sodden Roads and Leaden
Skies—Arrival of the Inniskillings in Camp—The Duke of Berwick fires
Newry and Carling-ford—Schomberg encamps at Dundalk—An Unhealthy
Situation—Failure of the Commissariat—Shales's Peculations—Bad Results
for the Army—Fevers and "Fluxes" attack the Soldiers—James and his
Followers arrive at Ardee—Their vain Attempts to draw Schomberg to
Battle—A Jacobite Conspiracy discovered in Dundalk.
The Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland was
not a young man. His years were eighty. The strange hallucination which
in our day has led us to accept half Schomberg's total of years as a
period bordering on old age, and to regard a hale human being of three
score as a sufferer from senile decay, had not as yet taken hold of the
public mind. Instead of being requested on account of his age to retire
from the army, he was welcomed by William when, after he was well over
seventy, he resigned the baton of a Marshal of France. So
universally recognized was his military genius, and so high was he held
in public esteem, that the honours "crowded thick" upon him, excited no
jealousy within the army, of which he was appointed the head, while they
gave widespread satisfaction to those without. He was known to be honest
in speech and deed, and a great sufferer for conscience' sake, having
resigned a princely income for the enjoyment of liberty of thought and
the exercise of the Protestant religion. In the popular
imagination his strength was "as the strength of ten" because his heart
was pure. Physically he was well fitted, despite his years, to be head
of the army. Careful conservation of all his faculties in youth now
enabled him at eighty to "wear his manhood hale and green", and "every
cornet of cavalry envied the grace and dignity with which the veteran
appeared in Hyde Park on his charger at the head of his regiment". His
seat at table was as easy as his seat in the saddle; his conversation
being full of charm, heightened by the fact that his courtesies were
conveyed in admirable English or exquisite French. With mental and
bodily powers unimpaired by years he now prepared to take the field,
presenting as he did so a marvellous combination of the activity and
ardour of youth and the wisdom and experience of age.
On learning of Schomberg's approach the Jacobite
forces retired, the majority repairing to Carrickfergus, others to
Lisburn. The reduction of the former was imperative before any hope of
success in the south could be entertained; and therefore, while sending
detachments to take possession of Antrim and other places abandoned by
the Jacobites, Schom-berg proceeded to lay siege to it. The Castle of
Carrickfergus is so advantageously situated that it might have held out
for months, and thus have hindered the General's progress and
disarranged his plans; but no sooner had he put in an appearance before
it than the governor, Colonel Charles MacCarthy More, commenced
negotiations for its surrender. He began by requesting permission to
send to James for leave to capitulate. This was refused, and the siege
began in form, while six ships bombarded the town from the sea. He then
offered to surrender on terms. This also was refused, as it had been
resolved to take the garrison prisoners; but, the siege proving a
tedious business, and active operation being required elsewhere,
Schomberg
agreed (on 27th August), after a few days and the
loss of about 150 men on each side, to permit the garrison to march out
with arms and baggage, on condition that they marched under escort to
the nearest Jacobite garrison. But these terms were considered by the
people of the town and neighbourhood as far too indulgent. They had
suffered much in many ways at the hands of the Jacobite troops, and, now
assembling in great crowds, they declared that the terms of surrender
had not been made with them, and proceeded to prove their words by
mobbing the men who had heaped insults upon them. The garrison,
perturbed and perplexed by this hostility on the part of the people, for
which they were quite unprepared, were easily disarmed, hustled, and
stripped, and naturally looked to Schomberg for protection. The General,
having pledged his word for their safety, and anticipating a massacre of
the men whom his troops were ready to escort, spurred his horse into the
crowd and broke it up, partly by addressing the mob and partly by
pointing his pistol at them. The result was that the Jacobites were glad
to hasten away, leaving all their belongings in the hands of the
townsfolk.
Immediately after the capture of Carrickfergus,
supplies and reinforcements arrived from England; and on the 31st of
August Schomberg reviewed his army at Belfast, prior to his departure
for Dundalk, where he had decided to await the remainder of his forces
and supplies.
The country between Carrickfergus and Dundalk is
mountainous, and was at that time boggy. This region had often proved a
place of refuge to Shane O'Neill when pursued by the English, and
Schomberg at once saw that in passing through it he should be secure
from cavalry or artillery, in both of which he was weak and the
Jacobites strong. He therefore took with him only the lightest of his
field-pieces, sending the rest of his artillery by sea to Carlingford,
where he expected the arrival of transports from England. He also sent
orders for the Inniskilling horse to join him en route.
The six days' march from Belfast to Dundalk severely
tried the spirit of the soldiers. Heavy autumnal rains and unusually
stormy weather had combined to make a melancholy picture. All day the
sodden roads gave place at intervals to treacherous bog, or swampy
morass, which made the movements of the men a tedious plodding rather
than a steady march. At night, having with difficulty discovered ground
suitable on which to pitch the tents, the soldiers proceeded to erect
them, battling the while with a wild wind, which, as soon as the pins
were driven in, caught the canvas and whirled the tents aloft like rooks
against the stormy skies. Even when shelter was secured, the ground was
very damp, and, despite such precautions as could be taken, proved a
prodigal source of agues, chills, and fevers. The mountainsides, where
they were not waterfalls, were slippery with rain, the paths giving
foothold to neither man nor horse. Gun-carriages broke in ruts or on
rocks, and the men who had dragged the mounted guns had now to carry
them. There were no pack-horses, and therefore a minimum supply of
provisions was carried, and this was soaked by the steady downpour. To
intensify the gloom of sodden roads and leaden skies, there was no sign
of life visible, human or animal. The cabins were derelict, cattle dead
for days lay rotting on the roadside, and a heavy harvest recklessly
wasted lay prone upon the ground in the devastated corn-lands. The most
cheerful could scarcely contrive to maintain their optimism amid such
surroundings. How universal was the spirit of despondency among the men
may be gauged from the fact that even the Dutch, whose country, as a wit
of that period remarked, "draws fifty feet of water", were despondent.
But worse was yet to come. Even the most dismal
surroundings can be rendered bearable by the joy of human companionship.
Schomberg's army had come to an unknown land, to aid an unknown ally
whose appearance was eagerly awaited. The fame of the Inniskillings had
been noised abroad. English, French, Danes, and Dutch discussed their
doughty deeds and pictured to themselves a body of men, sprucely clad,
with cuirasses and accoutrements all complete. The far-famed
Inniskillings arrived and created much the same impression on
Schomberg's forces as Mouldy and Bullcalf and their comrades did upon
the irate Falstaff, who swore he would not march with such a ragged
regiment! But brave hearts beat beneath those tattered habiliments;
those rugged exteriors concealed "the soul's immensity". Composed almost
exclusively of gentlemen and yeomen who fought not for pay but for their
country, their kin, and their God, the Inniskillings recked little what
their exterior semblance might be. All they asked for they got. To be
the vanguard in the fight for freedom of thought, to lead "the forlorn
hope " and be the first to confront the foe; but the strict discipline
of a regular army suited but ill with the wild daring which had
characterized the desultory warfare in which hitherto they had been
engaged. This discouraged them, and made them less useful as auxiliaries
than otherwise they might have been; for had they been permitted to
fight under the conditions to which they had been accustomed, they
would, undoubtedly, have prevented some of the destructive ravages which
attended the methods of warfare adopted by the followers of James. It
should not be forgotten that these men were animated by the religious
spirit, and therefore they may from a modern point of view be regarded
by some as fanatics. It is difficult for us—
Light half-believers of our casual creeds,
to comprehend the intensity of their zeal. It can
only be fully realized by those who have studied religious emotion in
its many manifestations, whether Christian or Moslem, whether it results
in a massacre of St. Bartholomew in Europe or a Mutiny in India. The
Duke of Berwick, who was in command of the Jacobite forces in Ulster,
caused Newry to be fired, and also set fire to Carlingford. Schomberg,
indignant at these barbarities, which threatened to hamper the movements
of his army, sent a trumpet to Berwick, warning him that if these
atrocities were continued, he would retaliate by giving no quarter to
the Jacobites or their allies who might fall into his hands. This
remonstrance appears to have produced the desired effect, for on the 7th
of September, as Schomberg approached, Berwick abandoned Dundalk without
injuring the town, and fell back upon Drogheda. Here, on the 10th, the
royal standard of James was unfurled on the tower, and beneath it were
soon collected 20,000 fighting-men, "the infantry generally bad, the
cavalry generally good, but both infantry and cavalry full of zeal for
their country and their religion ". As usual, there was a crowd of
camp-followers armed with scythes, half-pikes, and long knives called "skeanes".
By this time Schomberg had reached Dundalk and
established his camp about a mile to the north of the town, with the
mountains of Newry on the east, the town and river on the south, and low
hills and bog-land on the north. The situation was most unhealthy, and
the army soon began to suffer severely from dysentery. It was dangerous
to advance farther through the open country, where he was liable to be
overwhelmed by superior numbers. Many of his men had died on the road,
stricken down by hardships and disease, and his camp was crowded with
the sick.
King James and his Court at Dublin were thrown into
consternation by news of Schomberg's progress. They appear to have been
misinformed as to his condition and numbers, and, in the belief that
resistance would be useless, Rosen proposed to abandon Drogheda and
Dublin and hold the passage of the Shannon till the reinforcements which
Melfort had been sent to France to secure had arrived. This idea
Tyrconnell opposed as pusillanimous and impolitic, and lashed the King
up to such a pitch of enthusiasm that James declared he would not
disgrace himself by leaving his capital without a struggle. Tyrconnell
rushed to Drogheda, where he encouraged the army by announcing that some
ten thousand were on the way to reinforce them. About that number were,
in fact, drawn from the south and sent to Drogheda, where the complete
force now presented a formidable barrier to Schomberg's further
progress. When Rosen heard that Schomberg lay idle, he exclaimed that he
was certain that the commander lacked something, and ordered his forces
to advance immediately towards Dundalk. But Schomberg was so strongly
entrenched that it proved impossible to force him to fight.
Rosen was right when he concluded that Schomberg's
inactivity was the result of his lacking something. He lacked much. In
fact there was little which he was not in want of. In the first place,
he found that "not one in four of the English soldiers could manage his
piece at all". He therefore set himself assiduously to drill those new
levies which formed the greater part of his army, ordering the
musketeers to be constantly exercised in firing. In the second, the
commissariat had been not only disgracefully neglected, but had
obviously been placed in the hands of dishonest persons. For this the
Commissary-General was to blame. Henry Shales had held the same post
under James which he now held under William, a fact he owed to his
expert knowledge. His speciality appears, however, to have been
peculation, and he proved his ability in the art of stealing by the
condition of Schomberg's army, whose supplies could scarcely have been
worse. In every department barefaced robbery was visible. The meat was
bad, the stimulants undrinkable. Tents and clothing were rotten, and
muskets broke in two like dry twigs. Shoes were charged to and paid for
by the Treasury, but the army went barefoot. Even horses purchased with
the public money were hired out for private gain, and the troops in
Ulster left without. To these ills may be added those which arose from
sickness. The men, deprived of ordinary comforts, supplied with bad
food, scantily clothed, and lodged in a damp situation, suffered much
from the heavy autumnal rains which made the camp a swamp. They had
surgeons provided against the accidents and mishaps of warfare, but with
no means wherewith to fight the fluxes and fevers which made Dundalk one
vast hospital. Some troops arriving from Londonderry only made matters
worse by introducing into the camp the contagion of an infected city.
Such was the condition of Schomberg's army when the
Jacobites, to the number of 40,000 men, appeared on the adjacent hills,
and encamped in a position which combined comparative salubrity with
perfect safety. James, who retained in his own hands the chief command
of his army, arrived to direct the operations of this formidable force,
and his officers vainly endeavoured to provoke Schomberg's forces to
fight, sometimes attacking the outposts in the hope of drawing out the
main body to their defence, and at other times approaching the lines and
taunting the soldiers as cowards. The anxiety of the Jacobites to engage
was shown on the 21st of September, when their whole army, with James at
their head, and the royal standard displayed, marched direct to the camp
at Dundalk and challenged their opponents to battle.
Schomberg awaited their approach with imperturbable
coolness: he gave orders that no guns should be fired until the
Jacobites came within musket-shot, and his only reply to the officers,
who impatiently applied for orders to engage, was: "Let them alone; we
shall see what they will do." When they continued their advance as
though they intended to storm the camp, he sent orders to his cavalry to
return from foraging on an appointed signal, and he gave the command
that the foot regiments should stand to their arms. The ardour of his
troops was excited in an instant, and even the sick arose and assumed
their arms with alacrity; but James suddenly withdrew and repaired to
Ardee. He appears to have reckoned upon treachery rather than on force,
for on the day following a conspiracy was discovered in Dundalk to
betray it to the Jacobites. It appears that if Schomberg had been weak
enough to yield to the importunity of those who wished him to give
battle, several French companies would in the heat of the action have
fired at their comrades and gone over to James's cause. Six of the
conspirators were executed without delay, and about 200 were disarmed
and sent in irons to England. The Jacobites complained of the King's
irresolution, Rosen expressing the opinion that if James had ten
kingdoms he would lose them all.