Battle of Vinegar Hill

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Battle of Vinegar Hill
Part of 1798 Rebellion
"Defense of the rebels at Vinegar Hill" (George Cruikshank)
Date June 21, 1798 Location Enniscorthy, Wexford Result British Victory, regain control of county Wexford
Combatants
Irish Rebels	British Army, Hessian Mercenaries
Commanders
Rebel Council	Gerard Lake
Strength
20,000	15,000
Casualties
1,000 (inc. c. 400 women & children)	100

1798 Rebellion
Ballymore-Eustace – Naas – Prosperous – Kilcullen – Carlow – Tara Hill – Oulart Hill – Newtownmountkennedy – Gibbet Rath – Three Rocks – Bunclody – Tuberneering – New Ross – Antrim – Arklow - Saintfield – Ballynahinch – Ovidstown – Foulksmills – Vinegar Hill – Ballyellis – Castlebar – Collooney – Ballinamuck – Killala

The Battle of Vinegar Hill was an engagement on 21 June 1798 between forces of the British Crown and Irish rebels when over 10,000 British soldiers launched an attack on Vinegar Hill outside Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, then the largest rebel camp and headquarters of the Wexford rebels. It marked a turning point in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 as it was the last attempt to hold and defend ground against the British military and forced rebels to rely on tactics of mobile warfare for the remainder of the Wexford rebellion. The battle was actually fought in two locations, on Vinegar Hill itself and in the streets of nearby rebel-held Enniscorthy.

Contents 1 Bombardment of Vinegar Hill 2 Attack on Enniscorthy 3 Taking of Vinegar Hill 4 Aftermath 5 Primary sources 6 Secondary Sources 7 See also

[edit] Bombardment of Vinegar Hill

The battle began shortly before dawn with an artillery bombardment of rebel positions on the hill. Advance units quickly moved forward against rebel outposts under cover of the shelling, and moved artillery closer as forward positions were secured. The rebel strength was estimated at some 20,000 men but they were accompanied by thousands of women and children who had sought refuge in the camp. The tightening ring forced the thousands of rebels into an ever shrinking area and increased exposure to the constant shelling including new experimental delayed fuse explosives resulting in hundreds of dead and maimed. At least two mass charges by the rebels on Vinegar Hill brought temporary relief and heavy casualties but failed to break the advancing lines of military.

[edit] Attack on Enniscorthy

In Enniscorthy town, the military simultaneously launched an attack on the town to cut off escape via the bridge linking Vinegar Hill with Enniscorthy town. British progress in the town was much slower and they suffered heavy casualties as Enniscorthy experienced heavy street fighting for the second time in the space of one month. The rebels were eventually driven across the bridge but were reinforced by a large contingent of newly arrived rebels, and rallied to prevent the military from breaking through with fighting taking place along the entire length of the bridge.

[edit] Taking of Vinegar Hill

Meanwhile, the rebel position on the Vinegar Hill was becoming more desperate and when troops crested its eastern summit, the rebels began a withdrawal through a gap spotted in the British lines later known as “Needhams Gap” after the General whose late arrival allowed the bulk of the rebels to reach safety.

When it became clear that the rebels were retreating, the British cavalry were unleashed and a massacre of stragglers, mostly women and children, ensued causing hundreds more deaths. The infantry followed and were guilty of more atrocities including multiple incidents of gang rape of females amongst the rebels and the incineration of about 80 rebels trapped in buildings in the town of Enniscorthy.

[edit] Aftermath

The bulk of the rebel forces streamed unmolested towards the Three Rocks camp outside Wexford town and following the decision to abandon the town, split into two separate columns, one setting out to the west, the other northwards in a new campaign to spread the rebellion beyond Wexford. The defeat was therefore not the crushing blow to the rebels that it has traditionally been depicted but it did alter the course of the rebellion in that "liberated areas" could no longer be held. Continuing resistance now took the form of mobile warfare, raids and large scale guerilla-type operations.

[edit] Primary sources

Miles Byrne (1780-1862) - Memoirs

Luke Cullen - "Personal Recollections of Wexford and Wicklow Insurgents of 1798" (1938)

Edward Hay - "History of the Insurrection of County Wexford" (1803)

John Jones - Impartial Narrative of the Most Important Engagements which took place between his Majestys' Forces and the Rebels during the Irish Rebellion, 1798 (1798)

Richard Musgrave - "Memoirs of the different rebellions in Ireland" (1801)

George Taylor - "A History of the Rise, Progress and Suppression of the Rebellion in Wexford in the year 1798" (1800)

H.F.B Wheeler & A.M Broadley - "The war in Wexford: an account of the rebellion in the south of Ireland in 1798, told from original documents" (1910)

[edit] Secondary Sources

C. Dickson - "The Wexford Rising in 1798: its causes and course" (1955)

[edit] See also

• Battle of Vinegar Hill -Australia 1804
• The 1804 Australian Rebellion and Battle of Vinegar Hill
• 1804 200 year Anniversary