Battle of Vinegar Hill
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Battle of Vinegar Hill
Part of 1798 Rebellion
"Charge of the 5th Dragoon Guards on the insurgents – a recreant yeoman having deserted to them in uniform is being cut down" (William Sadler II)
Date June 21, 1798 Location Enniscorthy, Wexford Result Decisive British Government victory Government re-gains control of County Wexford
Belligerents
United Irishmen	British Army, Hessian Mercenaries
Commanders
Military Council of Wexford Irish	Gerard Lake
Strength
c. 20,000	c. 10,000
Casualties and losses
1,000 (inc. c. 400 women & children)	100

The Battle of Vinegar Hill was an engagement on 21 June 1798 between forces of the British Crown and United Irishmen when over 10,000 British soldiers launched an attack on Vinegar Hill outside Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the largest camp and headquarters of the Wexford Irish. It marked a turning point in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 as it was the last attempt by the Wexford Irish to hold and defend ground against the British military and forced the Irish 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 Irish-held Enniscorthy.

Bombardment of Vinegar Hill

The battle began shortly before dawn with an artillery bombardment of Irish positions on the hill. Advance units quickly moved against Irish outposts under cover of the shelling and moved artillery closer as forward positions were secured. The Irish strength was estimated at 20,000 but they were accompanied by thousands of women and children. 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. The rebel position on Vinegar Hill was becoming desperate and when the British troops crested its eastern summit, the rebels began a withdrawal through a gap in the British lines later known as “Needham's Gap” after Francis Needham, whose late arrival allowed the bulk of the rebels to reach safety. They then fled to safety themselves.

Attack on Enniscorthy

The British simultaneously launched an attack on Enniscorthy town to cut off the bridge linking Vinegar Hill to the town; they were met with fierce resistance from the Irish there led by William Barker. British progress in the town was also slow and they suffered heavy casualties as the town saw heavy street fighting for the second time in one month. The Irish fighting men were eventually driven across the bridge but were reinforced by a large contingent of newly arrived Irish, who managed to prevent the military from breaking through until most of the surviving Irish army had escaped along the eastern side of the river Slaney.

Atrocities

Vinegar Hill - view from Enniscorthy

When it became clear that the bulk of the Irish were retreating from Vinegar Hill, the British cavalry were unleashed, quickly followed by the infantry. A massacre of hundreds of stragglers ensued, mainly women and children, from a combination of the cavalry and infantry attack but also from the field guns which were switched to grape shot to maximise casualties among the fleeing masses. In addition, the British military were guilty of multiple instances of gang rape of females amongst the Irish camp¹. In Enniscorthy meanwhile, troops set fire to a makeshift rebel hospital in the town, burning scores of trapped and helpless wounded rebels alive, their bodies were said to be still hissing in the embers the following day².

Aftermath

The bridge at Enniscorthy
(Vinegar Hill visible in background)

The bulk of the Irish 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, which saw surviving Irish factions heading towards the Wicklow Mountains to link up with General Joseph Holt's forces. Emerging to meet them, Holt was given much of the credit for the planning of the ambush and defeat of a pursuing force of 200 British cavalry at Ballyellis on 30 June 1798. However the subsequent midlands campaign to revive the rebellion was a disaster and Holt was lucky to escape with his life back to the safety of the Wicklow Mountains.

The defeat was therefore not the crushing blow to the Irish that it has traditionally been depicted, but it did alter the course of the United Irishmen's fight for independence. Continuing resistance now took the form of mobile warfare, raids, and large scale guerilla-type operations.

References

1. ^ p. 28, "The Mighty Wave: The 1798 Rebellion in Wexford" (Four Courts Press 1996) Daire Keogh (Editor), Nicholas Furlong (Editor) ISBN 1-85182-254-2
2. ^ p. 146 "Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-98" (Dublin, 1991) Nicholas Furlong ISBN 0 906602 18 1

Primary sources

• Miles Byrne (1780-1862) - Memoirs
• Luke Cullen - "Personal Recollections of Wexford and Wicklow Insurgents of 1798" (1938)

Secondary Sources

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

See also

• Battle of Vinegar Hill, Australia, 1804