THE LANDING OF MARSHAL SCHOMBERG, AND HIS WINTER CAMPAIGN.
Hitherto, the success of the Jacobite cause in Ireland and Scotland,
had rendered the tenure of the English throne by the Prince of Orange
a matter of uncertainty both to himself and his English adherents. The
state of public feeling in the capital had rendered the presence of his
foreign mercenaries continually necessary to his person; and he knew
that should James succeed in repressing the rebellion in the other two
kingdoms, his restoration to the third would follow as an inevitable
consequence. He had already, with the English people, lost all that
popularity which immediately succeeded his invasion. By turning the
Convention into a Parliament, in order to avoid a popular election, he
outraged the first principle of the British Charter, and the people
soon learned that his pledges to maintain their liberty and religion
were only affected for the time, to establish his own dominion over
them. The Conventionists, too, so long subservient to his wishes, had,
since erected into a Parliament, inveighed against the Dutch influence
in the kingdom, and he, more than once, had threatened to abdicate
and leave them to the mercy of their outraged king. This threat
never failed of its desired effect on the leaders of the Opposition
in Parliament; but the popular discontent had to be suppressed by
the strong hand; and the British soldiers who showed any sign of
disaffection, were sent to serve as his Dutch contingent to the League,
while the followers of Schomberg and Ginckle lived at will in England.
But now that the relief of Derry and Enniskillen put a better face on
affairs in Ireland; and the death of Dundee freed him from farther
apprehension for the safety of Scotland, he resolved to relieve the
English people of the presence of his foreign mercenaries, by employing
them in the reduction of the only kingdom that preferred allegiance to
King James. He accordingly apprised the Parliament of his intention.
The proposition was favorably received, and large subsidies being
granted for that purpose, an army consisting of eighteen regiments
of foot, and six regiments of horse--about 20,000 men,--was soon
organized from among the military adventurers that the higher pay
given in England at that time had drawn thither from the Continent. A
fleet was soon ready to transport this army to Ireland, and the whole
was placed under the command of Marshal, the Duke of Schomberg, and
Count Solmes, to make a descent on the eastern coast of Ireland, and,
after establishing communications with the rebels, to proceed to the
reduction of Dublin. On the 12th of August this fleet appeared off the
coast of Down, and, sailing into Belfast Lough, effected a landing at
Bangor Bay, between Belfast and Carrickfergus. The next day Schomberg
took possession of Belfast, and after strengthening its defences,
and giving his troops some rest, he appeared before the Castle of
Carrickfergus and summoned it to surrender. The garrison was under the
command of Colonel McCarthy-More, and consisted of his own regiment
and that of Colonel Cormac O'Neil,--about eight hundred men,--poorly
supplied, and greatly embarrassed by the population of the town, who
had taken refuge within its walls. Schomberg immediately opened upon it
from his ships and land batteries, keeping up a fierce cannonade day
and night during the entire period of the siege. The garrison made a
stubborn resistance, and visited the besiegers with severe loss, which
elicited the praise of Schomberg, and excited a spirit of vengeance
among his followers. The walls being breached after the second day,
the besieged had resort to a singular stratagem. The cattle within the
walls were slaughtered, hauled up and thrown into the breach, and earth
and stones being heaped over them, the place was soon as tenable as
ever; their balls being spent, they tore the lead from the roof of the
castle, and converted it into bullets; and at last, their powder being
exhausted, and no succor arriving from the Irish army; after a siege
of eight days, they surrendered on terms considered highly honorable.
But these conditions were flagrantly violated after the evacuation;
the prisoners, whom the English Annalist calls "brave fellows, but
poorly clad," were subjected to treatment which darkens the history
of the time; crimes too abominable for recital, were perpetrated by
the foreign mercenaries on the defenceless inhabitants of the town:
and Schomberg, who tried to check their excesses, only succeeded in
rendering himself so unpopular as to affect unfavorably the result of
the ensuing campaign.... Judging of this army of mercenaries on the
authority of the historian, Taylor, they must, indeed, have been a
godless host. "They were," says he,[21] "the outcasts of all society,
familiar with every crime, abandoned to every excess. Vices for which
language scarcely ventures to find a name; abominations that may not
be described, and can scarcely be imagined, were constantly practised
by these bandits. ... The traditions of the Irish Protestants and
Catholics contain a horrid catalogue of the enormities practised by
this 'black banditti;' and these accounts are fully confirmed by the
narratives which the contemporary writers have given of their conduct
in other countries. With these were joined some raw English levies, who
found it much easier to imitate the debaucheries than to practise the
discipline of the foreigners. Indeed, no worse scourge could be sent by
an angry Providence than the army which now proceeded against Ireland."
Having repaired the Castle of Carrickfergus, and left English garrisons
there and in Belfast, Schomberg drew out his army into the open
country, and spent some time in organizing the Enniskilleners, who
now flocked to his standard. Nor does it appear that they who now
joined him were of a character to check the evil propensities of his
foreigners. In allusion to them, the authority just quoted, gives the
following not very flattering picture:
"The soldiers of Schomberg were perfectly astounded by the appearance
of the men whose fame had been so loudly trumpeted in England....
Every man was armed and equipped after his own fashion, and each was
attended by a mounted servant bearing his baggage.... Descended from
the Levellers and Covenanters, they preserved all the gloomy fanaticism
of their fathers, and believed the slaughtering of Papists an act of
religious duty. They were robbers and murderers on principle, for they
believed themselves commissioned to remove idolatry from the land....
Reeking from the field of battle, they assembled round their preachers,
who always accompanied them in their expeditions, and listened with
eager delight to their wild effusions, in which the magnificent
Orientalisms of the Old Testament were strangely combined with their
gross and vulgar sentiments.... William himself despised them most
heartily, and subjected them to military execution by the dozen for
violating the laws of war. From the moment they joined the regular
army, they performed no exploit worthy of their former fame, simply
because they could not learn a new mode of fighting. They were aware of
this themselves, and frequently declared, with truth, that they could
do no good while acting under orders."[22]
Such was the army; discordant in language, in habit--in fine, in every
thing but its love of plunder and confiscation, with which Schomberg
now undertook the conquest of the country and the eradication of the
Catholic faith; and had he moved directly on the capital without
delay, there is hardly a doubt that he could have established his
winter-quarters in it, for there was then no army on his front capable
of offering any protracted opposition. Behind him, and to his right,
lay the northern province, lately relieved from the presence of the
Jacobite army; with no garrison but Charlemont, on the Blackwater, to
concern his movements, and that, in the presence of the Enniskilleners,
and in the midst of a population friendly to his cause, might have
been safely disregarded. Far off towards its western confines lay a
few detached encampments of the Irish, too remote to offer any timely
opposition, while the garrison of Belturbet was so straitened and
reduced by the late reverse at Newtownbutler, as to be scarcely able
to maintain its position against the outlying insurgents of Fermanagh.
At this moment he might have safely chosen at once, either to march
westward across the whole breadth of the island, or direct upon the
capital, without meeting a force capable of disputing his progress.
But on his front lay Newry, and there, report said that a large army
was encamped under the Count de Rosen and Hamilton, though, in truth,
no body of any consequence had as yet left the capital, and these
generals were then at Drogheda, engaged in the work of mobilizing and
disciplining their raw levies. After spending several days, undecided
whether to advance direct against it, or turn northward and undertake
the siege of Charlemont, he at last adopted a middle course, which was
to detach a force against that stronghold, while with the bulk of his
army he felt his way cautiously towards Dublin. Proceeding slowly along
the coast for several days, within easy communication of his fleet, he
at last turned his steps towards Newry, to try the countenance of the
enemy. The time lost by this indecision enabled the Duke of Berwick
to anticipate him there, and with a force of 1,000 foot and 600 horse
dragoons, hastily mustered, he stood prepared to oppose him. Knowing
the futility of giving battle with such a small body of men to an
army like that led by Schomberg, flushed with its recent success, he
endeavored to effect by stratagem that which he could not by force.
So, raising intrenchments at Newry, and causing a report to be spread
through the enemy's ranks that he was marching forward to give him
battle, the movements of the latter became more slow and cautious as
he advanced. The country between the two armies was studded with hills
favorable for deception, and on these Berwick posted videttes, within
sight of the enemy, and took up a central position himself, making
as bold a front as possible. Schomberg, on observing this, believed
that the whole Irish army was drawn up to dispute his advance, and,
halting his army, he encamped at the distance of two miles, and went
at the head of fourteen squadrons to reconnoitre the position. Berwick
in the centre, with only two troops of horse, caused his videttes to
withdraw gradually, and ordered a flourish of trumpets, as if about to
charge, when Schomberg hesitated, halted, and finally retired to his
camp. He was followed at a safe distance by Berwick, and, the night
soon closing, he spent it in hasty preparation; he strengthened his
position, delivered ammunition to his troops, and resolved to attack
in force the following morning. The morning came, every thing was
in requisition for the great issue of arms, but no army appeared on
his front, for Berwick had retired during the night, and marched to
Drogheda to join the Duke of Tyrconnell, who had assembled an army
there, and where the king had arrived to conduct the campaign in person.
The army now assembled at Drogheda, under the command of the king,
consisted of about 20,000 men, not more than half of whom were the
veterans of the last year, the rest being raw levies, indifferently
clad, and armed with such weapons as could be hastily improvised
for the occasion; with a park of artillery, generally estimated at
twelve light field-pieces. Here a council of war was held, in which
the king was earnestly besought to abandon the capital and fall back
towards the centre of the island; but, after much deliberation, he
determined to offer battle, and advanced to Dundalk, where Schomberg
lay intrenched with an army greatly augmented by accessions from Derry
and Enniskillen, and vastly superior in every thing that could render
an army effective.
It is hard to account for the indecision of Schomberg at this period;
for several days the Irish army hovered in his vicinity, but no
challenge could induce him to quit his intrenchments. His well-known
gallantry made this the more remarkable, and his continual persistence
in declining an engagement, daily offered, led de Rosen to believe
that "he wanted something," and to urge the king to assail him in his
encampment. But this proposition was declined by the latter, on the
ground that, as "he wanted something," winter would do the work of war
on his army of foreigners without hazarding a battle, and leave him
completely powerless to continue his campaign in the ensuing season.
Elated with the belief that Schomberg was afraid to meet him in the
field, after issuing a manifesto offering rewards to such as would
desert to his standard, he took leave of his army and returned to
the capital. The army soon retired to winter-quarters at Drogheda,
and Schomberg, after an inglorious campaign of four months, spent in
advancing about thirty miles, withdrew from Dundalk, and encamped in
the low country to the north of it, where he passed the remainder of
the winter. Here a loathsome disease attacked his troops. Thousands of
them fell victims to it, and the whole army became so enfeebled, that
the living were scarcely able to bury the dead. Others, principally
of the French troops, under the inducement held out by King James,
deserted to the Irish army, though many were retaken and executed:
until disease, demoralization, and desertion had actually reduced his
army to four or five thousand men at all capable of service. Cognizant
of this, the Irish generals again appealed to the king, to attack
him while in this condition, and rid the country effectually of his
presence; but with his characteristic dogmatism, he still persevered in
a policy that seemed to work so well, lost an opportunity which seems
to have been offered by Providence for the success of his cause, and
hugged his illusion till too late. De Rosen and d'Avaux were soon after
recalled to France; the Irish generals had become disgusted with their
leadership; the army felt relieved by the event, and higher hopes were
felt for the campaign of 1690.