THE BATTLE OF CLADIFORD--THE INVESTMENT OF DERRY--PROCEEDINGS OF
PARLIAMENT.
Lying impatiently before Coleraine since the affair of Dromore,
Hamilton, on being joined by the Duke of Berwick, determined to renew
hostilities, and immediately proceeded against that important position.
Its garrison consisted of 3,000 effective men, who were expected to
make a determined resistance; but on the approach of the royal troops
they destroyed the bridge on their front, and, abandoning the fort,
retreated in the direction of Derry. Hamilton soon occupied the place,
and, leaving a regiment there under Colonel O'Morra, and being joined
by de Pusignan, who had captured Moneymore, Magherafelt, Dawson's
Bridge, and, in short, all the places on the left of the Bann, marched
to Strabane, which he reached on the 15th of April, without meeting any
opposition. Here he halted to rest his troops, and having ascertained
that the enemy to the number of 12,000 men, from Enniskillen and
Derry, under the command of General Lundy, were drawn up at Cladiford,
behind the river Finn, determined to offer battle. On receipt of
this intelligence, Hamilton and Berwick, leaving their main body at
Strabane, took 600 horse and 350 foot, and advanced to reconnoitre; but
on their appearance the town was evacuated, and the enemy, destroying
the bridge, drew up in a fortified camp on the western side of the
river.
Neither their force nor the strength of their position had been
exaggerated: the river, which was of considerable volume, was found to
be unfordable, while their right and left, beyond it, were protected
by morasses impassable to cavalry; a strong breastwork had been thrown
up in front of the bridge, behind which, in advance of their main
body, 2,000 men were arrayed in order of battle. Hamilton, however,
determined to attack them, without apprising De Pusignan, and setting
a party to work on the bridge under cover of his infantry, he marched
the cavalry along the river, determined to cross at the opportune
moment. The infantry approached the bridge and opened a fire which
dislodged the enemy from the trenches, and the planks being laid, they
dashed over, and making a lodgment in the abandoned works, drove them
back in confusion to the camp. Taking advantage of this diversion, the
horse swam the river on their right, and forming on the opposite side,
charged the entire body of the rebels, now drawn up on the high grounds
to receive them. But the bold front assumed by Hamilton disconcerted
them, and observing, at the same time, a squadron of dragoons, which
had just arrived under De Rosen, crossing the river to their left,
their whole force became panic-stricken, and fled in confusion. Their
cavalry was followed up and driven furiously through Raphoe, a distance
of five miles; "As for their infantry," says Berwick, "we killed about
four hundred of them on the spot, but the rest, being favored by the
morasses, found means to escape." The loss of the royal troops in this
affair was one officer and two men, drowned in crossing the river.
Hamilton found abundance of provisions and some war materials at
Raphoe, where, waiting to rest his troops, he was joined by Lord Galmoy
with eight hundred men, and determined to advance on Derry, when his
progress was arrested by the arrival of a deputation that came to treat
for its surrender. The party were well received, and a conference being
arranged to take place within two days, on condition that he should
approach no nearer than St. Johnstown, they departed highly satisfied
with their reception. Hamilton proceeded to the appointed place, and
being impressed with the importance of Derry to the Jacobite cause,
offered them the most liberal terms:--"Life, liberty, property, and
protection, on condition that the town would be surrendered at twelve
o'clock next day. The terms were accepted, and awaited but ratification
on both sides."
In the mean time, the king had left Dublin on the 8th of April, to
take a view of the country. Hearing of the victory at Cladiford, he
directed his course to that place, and arrived at the camp on the 18th,
on the very hour that Hamilton was in conference with the delegates
from Derry. De Rosen, perhaps, jealous of Hamilton's success, or
wishing to gain credit with the king, represented to him that his
presence before Derry would cause its gates to be at once thrown open,
and prevent unnecessary delay, so he prevailed on him to make the
experiment. Avoiding the place of conference, he took a circuitous
route, and appearing before the town, summoned it to surrender. The
"defenders," taking this sudden appearance of the king at such a time
as an act of treachery on the part of Hamilton, answered the demand
by a cannon-shot, which killed an officer by his side, and caused him
to retire in shame and confusion. The consequence is easily foreseen.
The treaty about to be ratified was broken off; the alarm was sounded
throughout the rebel ranks; the "defenders" determined on more stern
resistance; a siege was ordered by the king, and under escort of De
Rosen, he returned to Dublin to meet his Parliament, which had been
convoked for the 7th of May.
The consequences of this ill-advised interference on the part of
the king are generally attributed to the Count de Rosen, whose
appointment to the command of the army was one of the many unwise
proceedings attributed to this very weak or very imprudent monarch.
Speaking of the affair just narrated, the Duke of Berwick says: "M.
de Rosen was the more to blame in persuading the king to the step I
have just mentioned with regard to Derry, as he knew and had approved
the agreement of M. Hamilton." But, with due respect for established
authority, there is ground for a deduction different to that drawn by
the Duke and other learned contemporaries. From the beginning of this
revolution the "defenders" had practised the art of duplicity to a very
considerable extent. In the winter of 1688, they sent delegations to
Dublin and London at the same time with very different objects:--that
to Dublin was meant to delay any action on the part of the deputy,
while the other went to expedite an invasion by the Prince of Orange.
Notwithstanding the short time that had elapsed from their defeat at
Cladiford until the conference with Hamilton, they had received a large
supply of arms and ammunition from England, and had gathered their
scattered forces into the town; and there is reason to surmise, that
while the king was outraged before their walls, Hamilton was outwitted
by their delegation.
But however this may have been, we think that if Hamilton, with his
characteristic promptitude, had marched boldly on Derry from Cladiford,
he could have dictated his terms within its walls. Most of the
"regimented men" spoken of by M. Walker in his history of the siege
that succeeded, were still outlying in the "far north;" the fugitives
from the late defeat would have been cut off from any hope of entering
the place; and the supplies received during the interval would have
been intercepted. There was not then within the town, a force capable
of offering any protracted resistance, and a surrender would be the
probable, nay, the almost certain consequence. Fewer lives, also, would
have been sacrificed on each side, and the whole country would have
been reduced to the arms of the king before the arrival of the Duke of
Schomberg. But, then, the army was under the command of De Rosen, and
whether this delay was occasioned by that general or not, it is now
hard to determine.
The success of the royal arms in Monaghan, Leitrim, and Fermanagh, kept
pace with the progress of Hamilton and Berwick. The insurgents were
everywhere driven from the open country, and compelled to take refuge
in Crom and Enniskillen. The garrison of Sligo, consisting of 3,000
foot and 1,000 horse, under Lord Kingston, withdrew to Ballyshannon,
which commands the entrance to Lough-Erne; and towards the beginning of
May, there remained no place of any significance in their possession
but the fortified towns of Enniskillen and Derry. But the defenders
of the latter place had made good use of the temporary cessation of
hostilities after the battle of Cladiford. Their outlying posts were
immediately abandoned, and troops came in daily from all quarters.
Culmore, a strong post which guarded the entrance of the Foyle, and
which they had held through the winter, was evacuated on the approach
of the Jacobite army, and its garrison of 1,500 men, under Captain
Murray, after a hazardous march through the mountainous country to the
west of the river, succeeded in getting safely within its walls. The
accession of these forces gave a new impulse to the flagging spirit of
the defenders. Governor Lundy, being suspected of Jacobite tendencies,
was at once deposed, and a military council was constituted, of which
Murray, the Reverend George Walker, and Colonel Baker, were the ruling
spirits.
The town of Derry stands on the western bank of the river Foyle, about
five miles above its expansion into a lough of the same name. It is
situated on an oval-shaped hill; the houses, rising tier over tier,
look very picturesque to one approaching it from an eastern direction;
but to the west it is overlooked by an irregular line of hills,
stretching far back into the County of Donegal. Since the time of the
Revolution, it has been greatly extended in all directions, but was
then confined to the hill already mentioned, and was encompassed by a
wall of immense strength, and about a mile in circuit. It was founded
by King James I., in 1607, as a refuge to the settlers, whom he sent
from England and Scotland, to the exclusion of the native race; and, by
a sort of retributive justice, it helped to complete the ruin of his
house, in the person of his grandson, but eighty years later. After
the departure of the king for Dublin, the Irish generals proceeded
to invest this important position, and, by the 20th of April, had
made the following disposition of their forces: The fort of Culmore,
which stands about five miles below the town, was occupied by a small
garrison after its evacuation by Captain Murray, and the river was
obstructed by a boom a little higher up. Hamilton, with about one
thousand horse and foot, established his camp some two miles from the
walls of the garrison; General Ramsay, with four battalions, took up
a position at Hollywell Hill, nearly the same distance to the west;
Brigadier Wauchop, with two battalions, a squadron of horse and two
field-pieces--their only artillery--made a lodgment on the eastern bank
of the river, at a place known as the "Waterside;" while a reserve of
three battalions of infantry and nine squadron of cavalry was stationed
at Johnstown, about six miles farther up the river, in the direction of
Strabane.
The "defenders," from their walls, saw the gradual approach of the
Jacobite army, and felt the necessity of prompt and determined action.
Every consideration that impels men to deeds of daring was heightened
by the fiery appeals of their leaders. The fall of so many important
posts, in such quick succession, had deprived them of the vast stores
which they had collected through the preceding winter; the population
of the town had increased to twenty thousand within the last month, and
famine, at no distant day, would do the work of war, should William
fail to succor them in the interval. On the other hand, they still
outnumbered the beleaguering army three to one; were better supplied,
and much better armed; they had their city as a last refuge, in case of
defeat, and one successful battle before its walls might save them from
the horrors of a protracted siege. All these considerations awakened
them to a consciousness of their true position, and nerved them to
action, while it was yet possible to dislodge the enemy; and from this
time, until the town was completely invested, they exhibited a courage
and determination worthy of a better cause.
On the 21st of April, Colonel Hamilton was ordered from General
Ramsay's headquarters to occupy the village of Pennyburn, about a
mile below the town, in the direction of Culmore; and taking with
him a guard of 200 men, he proceeded to the execution of his order.
As he passed within sight of the town, he was assailed by the enemy,
amounting to 1,500 foot and 300 horse; but he gained the village, and
occupying the houses and adjacent cover, he kept up a fire, while he
dispatched a messenger to de Momont's quarters for assistance. It
happened that the Irish cavalry were out on a foraging expedition;
there being only a guard of forty troopers and the same number of horse
dragoons in the camp; and with this force de Momont and Major Taaf rode
at once to the rescue. On reaching the scene of action, they found
Hamilton still disputing the possession of the town with the enemy's
foot, while their horse were drawn up with their right resting on the
river to receive them. A fierce conflict ensued; the enemy broke and
fled into the town, but de Momont, Major Taaf, and seven of their
command, were killed, and "there was not a man left who was not either
wounded or had his horse shot under him."[13] The loss of the enemy is
not stated, but judging from the vast superiority of their force, and
its hasty retreat, it must have been much greater.
Pennyburn was then occupied by the royalists, and reinforced from the
encampment at Boom Hall[14] to the number of 500 men, and a second
attack, after such a signal defeat, was little apprehended. But as
that position brought them within cannon range of the city, the enemy,
conscious of its importance, determined to risk another effort to
dislodge them before it could be secured by intrenchments. Accordingly,
on the 25th, they sallied out with a force of 8,000 men, and endeavored
to surround this detachment. The Irish disputed every inch of the
ground, but were forced back to the last houses in the village, and
were on the point of retreat, when Ramsay appeared in the rear of
the enemy, and assailed them with great vigor. Other reinforcements
arrived; the action continued from nine o'clock in the morning until
seven o'clock in the evening, when the enemy retreated in confusion. In
this sally de Pusignan was killed, Brigadier Pointy was wounded, and
Berwick received a contusion, which he tells us was the only hurt he
ever had, though his after years were spent in continual warfare.
As the next attack was the last of that series of "brilliant assaults"
so greatly extolled by the eulogists of the Williamite cause, it is
here transcribed entire from the Memoirs of the Duke of Berwick,
who was himself an actor in the affair which he so simply, yet so
graphically, describes:
"They sent us word from Dublin that they were dispatching artillery
to us; for which reason we thought it right to possess ourselves
immediately of such posts near the town as might be of use in pressing
the siege. With this view, Ramsay, with his troops, on the 6th of May,
attacked a windmill, which stood on an eminence at half-cannon shot
from the town, and behind it was a bottom in which he meant to encamp.
The enemy defended themselves with great bravery; and, at last, the
whole town sallying out upon him, he was driven from his post and
obliged to retire. Ramsay himself was killed, with about 200 men;
several officers of distinction were made prisoners. Wauchop took the
command of Ramsay's troops, and resolved upon another attempt to make
himself master of the mill; but the enemy, apprised of the importance
of it, had covered it with a great intrenchment, which our troops could
never force, and we sustained a further loss of several officers, and
at least a hundred men." * * * "After this experience, we assembled
all our troops, consisting of twelve battalions and fifteen or sixteen
squadrons (about 2,800 men), and encamped opposite the front of the
place, behind a rising ground, at the distance of a long musket-shot;
and we left on the other side of the river two battalions that had been
stationed there. A few days after, six large pieces of cannon--four
guns and two mortars--arrived: there were thirty in the town. We had,
in all, not more than five or six thousand men; the besieged had ten
thousand, well armed. About the same time arrived M. de Rosen, with
some French engineers and matrosses to begin the attack. As I was not
pleased with the business, any more than with the new general, * * I
asked for the command against Enniskillen, and obtained it, and left
the camp on the 21st of June, with four hundred horse dragoons, and
marched to Cavan Park."
The Parliament which assembled in Dublin, in obedience to the king's
call, had high and solemn duties to perform, and seems to have been
fully impressed with their importance. The country was impoverished;
its treasury was empty; its banking-system was completely unhinged;
and, as money was the great necessity of the hour, little could be
done towards the support of the army until the financial system of the
country was established on a satisfactory basis. Though the Williamites
of Ulster had fallen away before the national troops, they had still
two very important strongholds, Enniskillen and Derry, in their
possession; and hostilities might be protracted until the arrival of an
invading army, which the king's English agents apprised him might be
soon expected, and to raise and equip an army able to cope with it was
the real business of the session.
But the Parliament was not constituted for that expeditious legislation
that the king expected. In the Upper House there were no Catholic
prelates, and the Protestant lords, spiritual and temporal, greatly
outnumbered the Catholic peers.
In the Lower House the Catholic element greatly preponderated,
and conflicting opinions are never slow to arise in the greatest
emergencies. The Protestant representatives very naturally wished to
know whither the king's reforms tended; and the Catholic members, with
a desire quite as reasonable, wanted to have their rights secured by
constitutional guarantees. The discussions arising in consequence of
these different views were long, and not free from religious rancor,
and so, much of the time--short enough for the pressing duty of the
hour--was wasted on questions that might have been better left for
future deliberation. Grattan, in alluding to this Parliament eighty
years later, says: "Though Papists, they were not slaves; they wrung
a constitution from King James before they accompanied him to the
field."[15] This was the view of a great statesman; but yet we think
that the first and only duty of that Parliament should have been to
grant, even to wring, money from the country, to remove their king's
dependence on the bounty of France, and enable him to support an army
equal to the necessity of the time; and this it undoubtedly could have
done, had the Catholic members been as liberal in voting supplies to
James, as their Protestant colleagues were afterwards in casting the
wealth of the country at the feet of William. These rights that Grattan
appreciated so much--the rights he won himself--where are they? The
great duty was to beat the enemy and leave the rest to time.
The speech of the king to the assembled Parliament was all that could
be desired, and went far to secure that general accord so necessary
to success. His principles were unaltered. Pardon and protection
were again offered to all who, within a certain day, would return
to their homes. He pledged himself to secure social harmony through
the establishment of civil and religious liberty; to elevate the
social condition of the people, and advance the interests of trade
and commerce. The address met the approval of both Houses, and, under
the best auspices, they entered on their important duty.... With the
exception of the following acts, which appear supplementary, the
measures introduced into this Parliament were the same as those already
noticed:
First: An act declaring that all persons should pay tithes only to the
clergymen of their own communion.
Second: An act repealing the act of settlement, and indemnifying
Catholics who had been declared innocent by the Court of Claims.
Third: An act of attainder against all persons bearing arms for
William, declaring their property, real and personal, forfeited, unless
they surrendered before a certain day.[16]
Fourth: An act increasing the king's subsidy to £20,000 per month.
These acts all received the royal sanction, though the third met with
considerable opposition; and the fourth was passed over an earnest
protest from the Protestant lords, spiritual and temporal. But the
_great_ act, the one which concerned the future welfare of the country,
far more than all the others, met with the persistent opposition of the
king, though strenuously advocated by the majority; and so the act of
Poyning remained unchanged until the days of Grattan and the volunteers
of '82.
At last, and towards the end of June, they reached the great, important
business of the session--the ways and means of supporting the army.
The Catholic gentry had maintained the war up to the present time,
and their means were totally exhausted. The Protestant gentry seemed
unwilling to risk fortune or credit on the issue as between the king
and the Prince of Orange. The king's condition was desperate, and
called for extraordinary remedies; there was no alternative between
exaction and abdication, and he overstepped the limitations of
trade for the higher law of preservation. He doubled his subsidy by
proclamation; established a bank restriction act by the same authority;
issued a million and a half of copper coin, and gave it a nominal
value. These measures were declared arbitrary, but they were also
measures of the direst necessity; he pledged himself to revoke them
when the necessity had passed, and also to redeem the coin issued in
sterling money. The traders demurred, raised the price of provisions,
and rendered the coin almost worthless; the king established a scale of
prices, and threatened penalties on those who exacted more. Such was
the offence, and such the demand for this "arbitrary assumption." The
king in his extremity, the country in the throes of a revolution, the
brave men pouring out their life-blood on the battle-field, were as
nothing in comparison to the claims of a self-constituted monopoly.
In criticising those "arbitrary assumptions" of the king, we should
bear in mind that free trade was then no established principle of
either English or Irish legislation; that the corn laws of England,
which are somewhat of a kindred character, have been repealed after
years of angry agitation, and within a very recent period; that the
people, whose rights were of paramount consideration, gave their
unqualified approval to those measures; and, even allowing them to
have been arbitrary, he could be no patriot who would put the claims
of trade in opposition to the liberty of the nation. In one measure
alone--his interference with the Dublin University--does the king
seem to have acted both unwisely and arbitrarily; and of this, the
following extract from Taylor's history will afford a sufficient
exposition:--"The first step taken by King James in his war on the
Dublin University, proved that he gave that body more credit for common
sense than it merited. He nominated a Roman Catholic to be professor
of the Irish language, and was afterwards astounded to hear that no
such professorship existed in that venerable institution. Doctor Leland
rates James very severely for having committed such a blunder, but,
truly, the blunder belongs not to him alone. He could scarcely have
credited the existence of such a practical jest as an institution whose
professed design was to instruct the Irish in the doctrines of the
reformed religion, which yet left the teachers wholly ignorant of the
language of those whom they had to instruct. Compared with this, the
folly of Goldsmith's attempting to teach English in Holland, without
first having learned Dutch, sinks into insignificance."[17] The point is
well taken, and the oversight of the primary duty of the founders is,
no doubt, of a piece with many others that might be noted; but candor
compels the acknowledgment, that neither the king nor the Catholic
people should be first to rectify a _mistake_ which left the college so
harmless in pressing the object of its establishment.
The heads of the institution, alarmed at this interference of the king,
endeavored to convert the property of the college into ready money.
Tyrconnell ordered the prosecution of the purchaser, and seized on the
plate so disposed of. Litigation followed, and after some time the
property was restored to the institution, on condition that it should
not again be sold. The king next appointed a Catholic to a fellowship
of the college, and its authorities demurred; but before the matter was
pressed to an issue the candidate's incapacity was discovered, and the
affair terminated for the time. Such were the encroachments of the king
on that venerable institution, antecedent to the invasion; but now that
he had become king regnant in Ireland, he pressed those innovations
with more rigor and less cause. He abolished its original charter,
expelled the provost for contumacy, and is even accused of a design to
convert the college into a Jesuit seminary. This was all inexcusable;
the more so, that it was inconsistent with his avowed principles,
that it awakened the reasonable apprehensions of the loyal Protestant
people, and, above all, that it consumed the time and attention which
should have been devoted to the great and pressing demands of the
country.
By this unnecessary and ill-timed delay, the military affairs of the
nation were allowed to languish; the army, dependent on tardy and
forced supplies, had partaken of the general apathy; and were it not
for the indefatigable efforts of Tyrconnell, scarcely the semblance
of an army could have been maintained to the end of this memorable
session. But while the king was engaged in angry discussion with his
turbulent Parliament, Tyrconnell was engaged in the organization of
the forces. He had already sent 2,500 troops to the army before Derry,
had in course of training 9,000 more awaiting arms and equipments from
France, and a well-appointed force ready, under Lord Mountcashel, to
undertake the reduction of Enniskillen.