XLIII. CHAP. Small band of yeomen and militia, under lieutenant Elliot of the Antrim regiment, and a respite gained of two or three days more. Bunclody. Attack of On the first of June also, about four thousand insurgents, led by several chiefs, among whom was a priest named Kern, a man of extraordinary stature, strength and ferocity, proceeded in two columns, from Vinegar-hill, along both the banks of the Slaney, on the western of which lies the beautiful village of Bunclody, lately called Newtownbarry, the object of attack. They entered the town without opposition, as the garrison, consisting of five hundred, under colonel Lestrange of the King's county regiment, immediately retreated. Engaged in plunder and intoxication this confused and unruly rabble was unexpectedly assailed, and routed with slaughter, by the garrison, which, after a mile's retreat, had been led back to the charge, at the instance of lieutenant colonel Westenra, who regarded flight as inglorious, when a few brave loyalists had still remained, posted in some houses, with a desperate resolution of defence. Proceed ings at Gorey, 1798. A victory at Bunclody might have opened for the rebels a way into the county of Carlow, and might there have excited a dangerous insurrection: but the two main bodies of their force were directed to two other points, Ross and Gorey. Success at the former would lay open to their arms the counties of Kilkenny and Waterford, where thousands were expected to join them: by the latter they might force a passage even to the capital. While a vast number XLII. number was assembling under a priest named Philip CHAP. Roche, on the hill of Corrigrua, seven miles from Gorey, the loyalists of this town were filled with joy at the anxiously expected arrival of an army under general Loftus and colonel Walpole, on the third of June. These leaders marched, on the following day, with fifteen hundred men in two divisions, by different roads, with a design to attack, in cooperation with troops from other quarters, the post of Corrigrua. But Roche had received intelligence of their scheme; and, quitting his post, proceeded with his whole force, perhaps between ten and twenty thousand in number, directly toward Gorey, meeting half-way Walpole's division alone. The conduct of Roche, in this instance, resembles that of a man incomparably superior, the great Frederick of Prussia, who, when his camp was to be attacked by several armies at once from different quarters, at Lignitz in 1760, abandoned silently his station in the night, met and defeated one of the armies, and thus was completely extricated from circumstances of extreme peril. The motions at Corrigrua could not be so silent, A zealous protestant, Thomas Dowling, a farmer, had got intelligence, and had galloped full speed to Gorey to apprize the royal party, but not only was his account rejected with scorn; he even found himself in danger of imprisonment, if not of death, and was obliged to withdraw in silence from the town. CHAP. Battle of Clough. Walpole, less attentive to tactics than the decorations of his person, marched with vain confidence, without scouts or flanking parties, and knew nothing of the enemy till they appeared advancing upon him within a few yards distance, at a place called Tubberneering, near the church and hamlet of Clough. His troops were instantly thrown into confusion by a tremendous fire; and, while with personal bravery he attempted to arrange them, he received a ball through the brain. They fled in the utmost disorder, leaving their artillery, which consisted of three pieces, in the hands of the foe, and stopped not till they arrived at Arklow, thirteen miles distant. Their loss appears to have been about forty, besides that a detachment of seventy grenadiers from the army of Loftus, sent to their assistance, were surrounded at Clough, and all killed or taken prisoners. Loftus proceeding in a road nearly parallel, unable to bring his artillery across the fields, and imagining Walpole victorious, made a circuitous march, and knew not the event until he arrived at the place of action. Following thence the rebels toward Gorey, he found them posted on the hill at whose foot the town lies. They fired on his troops with the captured artillery which they had drawn to the top; and as he could neither attack their post, nor attempt to pass by it to Arklow, with probability of success, he retreated to Carnew, and thence to Tullow in the county of Carlow. simo. XLIII. Ross. June On the same day, the fourth of June, the chief CHAP. division of the rebel forces, changed its position from Carrickburn mountain, distant six miles from Attack of Ross, to Corbet-hill, a mile from that town, which 5, 1798. was the object of attack for the next morning. On Carrickburn, these forces had been reviewed and organized under the inspection of Beachamp Bagenal Harvey, whom they had liberated from the jail of Wexford and chosen for their generalisThe seizure of Ross, when it might have been effected without opposition, on the twentyninth of the preceding month, had been vehemently urged by a chief named Hay, and a great number had agreed to accompany him for that purpose; but the scheme was postponed, on the arrival, already related, of Colclough and Fitzgerald. Harvey, neither deficient in courage nor intellect, possessed not that calm intrepidity which is necessary in the composition of a military leader, nor those rare talents by which an undisciplined multitude may be directed and controled. He formed a plan of an attack on three separate parts of the town at once, which in all probability would have succeeded, if it had been put in execution. Acting as if engaged in regular warfare, Harvey sent a summons, with a flag of truce, to the commander of the garrison, requiring a surrendry for the prevention of bloodshed; but the bearer, named Furlong, was shot by the troops. While this general of the rebel army was arranging his men in three columns for the triple assault, they complained that they Dd 4 XLIII. CHAP. they were galled by a fire from the outposts of the garrison, and demanded the removal of this annoyance. To dislodge the out-posts, five hundred men were assigned to a brave young man, named Kelly, who quickly performed this service, but was utterly unable to restrain his irregular band. These, followed by a multitude in defiance of orders, fierce and ungovernable, many of them intoxicated, rushed headlong forward, forced back the cavalry with slaughter on the foot, seized the artillery; and drove the troops posted in that quarter to the bridge, and the opposite side of the river. From a full persuasion of a decided victory in favour of the assailants, some officers fed, without stopping, twelve miles, to Waterford, with this alarming intelligence. But, as if plunder were their only object, these victorious rebels pursued no farther their advantage, while the royal troops, posted in other parts, maintained their stations, unassailed by the columns destined to attack their quarters. These columns had not been completely formed when a premature onset was made by the third; and, by the premature flight of some of their leaders afterwards, with unaccountable timidity, they were totally deranged and ineffective. While in Waterford, the fugitives of the royal army announced the undoubted conquest of Ross by the rebels, in Wexford the fugitives of the latter asserted, before it happened, the total defeat of their forces by the garrison. The |