Download Spring 2012 - Part 1

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h a v e c o m e t o g e t h e r in a se a rc h f o r, a n d c e le b ra t io n o f , t h in g s
Ce lt ic .
Spring 2012 Edition - Part One
THE AGE OF SWASHBUCKLING
IRISHMEN
Days of Adventure & Glory with the Legions of Irish
‘Wild Geese’ in Europe
The MacAuliffe Regiment – later known as the Ultonia (Ulster) Regiment - and
its early forms have a history in the Spanish Army stretching back to 1597. The
regiment was originally known in Spain as El Terico Irlanda (‘The Regiment of
Ireland’).
The MacAuliffe Regiment (Regiment Ultonia) became part of the famous Irish
Brigade of the Spanish Army, which also included the Hibernia Regiment, the Irlanda
Regiment, the Limerick Regiment, the Wauchop Regiment, the Waterford Regiment,
and the Dublin Dragoons. As well as producing Spanish victories in campaigns in
Europe, the Irish Brigade of Spain spearheaded the Spanish Empire’s expansion in
the ‘New World’ … bringing Cuba, Louisiana, Texas, California, and Mexico under
the flag of their adopted country.
Tercio Irlanda – Army of Spanish Flanders 1605
Irish Post Office Commemorative Stamp
It was during the Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland in the late 1500s that the
first Irishmen went to serve Spain in El Terico Irlanda which, in 1605, changed its
name to the Tyrone Regiment and was commanded by Prince Henry O’Neill (also
known as Earl of Tyrone), who was the son of the famous ‘Red Hugh’ O’Neill. In
1628 the regiment appears to have split up into independent companies. In 1698,
Captain John Jordan was commanding a Tyrone company of the Spanish forces in
Florida.
Irish ‘Wild Geese’ with the Spanish forces in Florida
After the assault on Ireland in 1649 by the rabidly anti-Catholic forces of
England’s republican ‘Commonwealth’ – an invasion which became infamous in
history as a campaign of ethnic-cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Oliver
Cromwell* and England’s ‘New Model Army’, resulting in 600,000 civilian deaths out
of a total Irish population at that time of only 1,400,000 men, women, and children –
many Irishmen of fighting-age who survived England’s genocide then left for the
mainland of Europe, to serve as mercenaries in the armies of France, Spain, Austria,
and Russia.
* Cromwell's hostility to the Irish was religious as well as political. He was
passionately opposed to the Roman Catholic Church, which he saw as denying the
primacy of the Bible in favour of papal and clerical authority, and which he blamed
for suspected tyranny and persecution of Protestants in Europe. Cromwell's
association of Catholicism with persecution was deepened with the Irish Rebellion of
1641. This rebellion, although intended to be bloodless, was marked by several
massacres of Protestant English and Lowland-Scottish settlers by the Gaelic-Irish and
‘Old English’ (descendants of Catholic settlers who came to Ireland much earlier from
Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71),
and by the Highland-Scot Catholics in the north of Ireland. The Protestant English
and Presbyterian Lowland-Scottish colonists had settled on land confiscated by the
English government from former owners, native Irish-Catholic and Highland-Scot
Catholics of Country Antrim, to make way for the non-native Protestants. These
factors contributed to the brutality of Cromwell’s military campaign in Ireland.
Oliver Cromwell’s English ‘New Model Army’, 1649
Many thousands more Irish fighting men were added to the European armies
after the Treaty of Limerick** in 1691. And, because France and Spain were at war
with England, both countries eagerly recruited these tough, battle-hardened, Irish
warriors ... and, of course, the Irish relished any and every opportunity to once again
confront their old foe, the English.
How fierce the smiles these exiles wear,
who're wont to look so gay;
The treasured wrongs of fifty years are in
their hearts today.
The treaty broken ere the ink wherewith
'twas writ could dry,
Their plundered homes, their ruined shrines,
their women's parting cry,
Their priesthood hunted down like wolves,
their country overthrown!
Each looks as if revenge for all were staked
on him alone.
William of Orange rallies his ‘multi-national’ Protestant army in Ireland,
1690
The ‘Williamite War’ in Ireland — also called the ‘Jacobite War in Ireland’ —
and in Irish-Gaelic it was known as Cogadh an Dá Rí (meaning ‘War of the Two
Kings’) — was a conflict between Catholic King James II of England (also known as
James VII of Scotland) and his son-in-law (who was also his nephew!), the Protestant
Dutchman, William of Orange … and the conflict was about who would be King of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. The cause of the war was the deposition of James II
as King of the Three Kingdoms in 1688, by William (who was married to James’
daughter Mary II) . James was supported by the mostly-Catholic ‘Jacobites’*** in
Ireland and he hoped to use that country as a base to regain his Three Kingdoms.
He was given military support by France to this end. For this reason, the war became
part of a wider European conflict known as the ‘Nine Years War’. James was opposed
in Ireland by the mostly Protestant ‘Williamites’, concentrated in the north of the
country. William of Orange landed a multi-national Protestant force in Ireland,
composed of English, Lowland- Scottish, Dutch, Danish and other troops, to put
down Jacobite resistance.
*** ‘Jacobite’: being a supporter of King James II of England and VII of Scotland;
the word ‘Jacobite’ comes from Jacobus, the Latin for James.
James left Ireland after a reverse at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690; while the
Irish remained faithful to James and fought on, even after he abandoned them … and
the Irish Jacobites were finally defeated at the second seige of Limerick, which
followed on from the disastrous Battle of Aughrim in 1691.
Kinsale Harbor 1690: James II flees Ireland for a luxurious Exile in France
The Treaty of Limerick**, which was signed on 3 October 1691, offered
generous peace terms to those Jacobites willing to stay in Ireland and give an oath of
loyalty to William III. A peace treaty was concluded on these terms, giving toleration
to Catholicism and full legal rights to Catholics who swore an oath of loyalty to
William and Mary. However in 1697, the Protestant-dominated Irish Parliament
refused to ratify the articles of the Treaty … and from 1695 onwards, the Irish
Parliament updated the ‘penal laws’, which discriminated harshly against Catholics.
Catholics saw this as a severe breach of faith. A popular contemporary Irish saying
was, cuimhnigí Luimneach agus feall na Sassanaigh (“remember Limerick and Saxon
treachery”). Part of the Treaty agreed to Sarsfield’s demand that the Jacobite army
could leave Ireland as a body and go to France. Ships were even provided for this
purpose. Initially, they formed the army-in-exile of the deposed King James II,
though this Irish army was operating as part of the French army. After James’ death,
the remnants of this force merged into the elite Irish Brigade of France, which had
been originally set up in 1690 from 6,000 Irish recruits sent to France by the Irish
Jacobites, in return for French military aid in Ireland.
** The Treaty of Limerick ended the Williamite war in Ireland between the
Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange. The treaty concluded the second
Siege of Limerick, and its articles dealt with the treatment of the disbanded Jacobite
army. Under the treaty, Jacobite soldiers in organised regiments had the option to
leave as regimental groups with their weapons and flags for France to continue serving
under the exiled King James II in the Irish army-in-exile, which was funded by the
King of France. Some 14,000 Jacobites chose this option and were marched south to
Cork city where they embarked on ships for France, with around 10,000 women and
children accompanying them. (Large numbers of individual soldiers wanting to join
the French, Spanish, or Austrian armies also emigrated covertly during the following
hundred years or so, in what became known as the ‘Flight of the Wild Geese’.)
Under the terms of the treaty, the Jacobite soldiers also had the option of joining the
Williamite army. And 1,000 soldiers chose this option. The Jacobite soldiers had a
third option; they could return home – and some 2,000 soldiers did so. This treaty
had twenty-nine articles, which were agreed upon between the Dutch LieutenantGeneral Ginkle, Commander-in-Chief of the English and multi-national Protestant
army, and the Lieutenant-Generals D'Usson and Philibert-Emmanuel de Froulay, the
chevalier de Tessé, who were Commanders-in-Chief of the Irish army. The articles
were then signed by D'Usson, Le Chevalier de Tesse, Latour Montfort, Patrick
Sarsfield (the Irish Earl of Lucan), Colonel Nicholas Purcell of Loughmoe, Mark
Talbot, and Piers, Viscount Glamoy. However, the Treaty articles were not honoured
by the victorious Williamite government for long, as the Papacy again recognized
James II as the lawful king of Ireland from 1693. The few Catholic landowners who
took the oath in 1691-93 remained protected, including their descendants. Those
who did not were known as "non-jurors", and their loyalty to the new regime was
automatically suspect. Some managed to have an outlawry specifically reversed, such
as the 8th Viscount Dillon in 1694. Starting in 1695, a series of harsh penal laws were
enacted by the Protestant Irish parliament to make it difficult for the Irish Catholic
gentry who had not taken the oath by 1695 to remain Catholic.
]]
Irish ‘Wild Geese’ of the ‘Gardes Irlandais’ and the regiments of
‘Clare’ (O’Brien) and ‘Roth’
After the Irish army-in-exile of King James II had reformed and reorganised in
France during 1691 and 1692, they then fought on as part of the French army during
remainder of the Nine Years’ War (1688–97) – often called the War of the Grand
Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg
… it was a major war of the late 1600s fought between King Louis XIV of France,
and a European-wide coalition, the ‘Grand Alliance’, led by the Anglo-Dutch
Stadtholder-King William III, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II
of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, and the major and minor princes of the Holy
Roman Empire. The Nine Years’ War was fought primarily on mainland Europe and
its surrounding waters (including the Williamite campaign in Ireland) as well as a
minor campaign between French and English settlers and their Indian allies in colonial
North America (known as ‘King William’s War’).
King Louis XIV of France
The Irish Brigade of France wore red coats throughout the 1700s with different
coloured ‘facings’ (cuffs and collars etc) to distinguish each regiment. (To the French
King, these red coats symbolized that they were the army of the only legitimate King
of England, Ireland, and Scotland.) In 1757 Bulkeley's Regiment had green facings,
Clare's yellow, Dillon's black, and Roth's dark blue with white braiding. The 1791
provisional regulations, on the eve of the disestablishment of the Irish Brigade of
France, gave black facings to all four regiments with only minor differences to
distinguish each unit. Most of their flags were representative of their Jacobite origins,
with every regimental colour carrying the ‘cross of St. George’ and the four crowns of
England, Ireland, Scotland and France. Nearly all the regiments’ flags carried an
Irish harp in the centre, one exception being Roth's Irish regiment of former Foot
Guards, whose official Irish title in the 1690s was the ‘King of England’s Foot Guards’;
their flag was a red cross of St. George with a crown in the centre surmounted by a
crowned lion. Another was the Earl of Clancarty’s, whose flag became that of the
Duke of Berwick's regiment when the latter was founded in 1698 following the
abolition and merger of Clancarty's regiment, and several other regiments, to form
Berwick's regiment – and later, in 1743, to be known as the FitzJames infantry
regiment.
Flags of Regiment Dillon
Regimental Colonel’s flag (left): white field with a white cross; centre device consisting of a golden
Irish harp surmounted by a golden crown with the motto ‘In Hoc Signo Vinces’; and a gold crown in
each corner. Regimental flag to the right: Red and black opposed cantons with a central red cross
bordered with white.
An Ensign of Regiment Dillon, carrying the Regimental Flag
Soon after the Irish army-in-exile had arrived in France, they gathered at the
port of Brest, and naturally the first thought of most of the Irish leaders was the
preparation for a successful landing in England, and another attack on William of
Orange. The two kings, James II and Louis XIV, were in frequent conference on this
issue. The French king’s chief interest was that if he could assist James II to take the
British crown away from William of Orange, then the French would be able to destroy
their European enemies, who were battling Louis XIV as an international alliance
known as the League of Augsburg.
An invasion plan was agreed upon, but the Irish and French expeditionary
force was to exclude the original ‘Irish Brigade of France’ that left Ireland for France
in 1690 … as Louis had other plans for that elite brigade. The remainder of the Irish
army-in-exile – totaling some 14,000 fighting men – was to be part of an allied-army
of 30,000 men, which was nominally led by James II himself. However, the real
military commander was to be Marshal de Bellefonds, who had the immensely
popular Irish leader, Major-General Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, as his second-incommand. Hope for the success of this expedition was based on the misguided belief
that Jacobites in England would rally to James’ colours as soon as the expeditionary
force landed.
Early in April 1692, the Irish and French invasion force assembled in
Normandy between Cherbourg and La Hogue; King James and his legitimate son,
the Duke of Berwick, were with the troops. However, like so many of James’ efforts,
the whole plan turned out to be a disaster. It is summed up succinctly by John
Todhunter in his book, ‘Life of Patrick Sarsfield’:
“A great fleet was assembled at Brest, 80 ships of the line and some 300
transport ships. Bellefonds was commander-in-chief, and De Tourville, the admiral.
King James himself, with his son the Duke of Berwick, was able to embark with the
expedition. James counted on the loyalty of the commander of the English Fleet,
Admiral Russell, and other English captains, and James hoped the British navy would
declare their support for him. Admiral Russell, disgusted by the stupid proclamation
of James, frankly told the Jacobite agent that he would fight the French if he met
them, even if the King himself was on board; and fight them he did, defeating and
destroying the French fleet off La Hogue on 24 May 1692, during a naval battle that
lasted several days. This was a severe blow to James II, who then proposed to retire to
a monastery; and to Sarsfield it must have been among the greatest disappointments
of his life.”
A more accurate description of the catastrophe was that the troops were
hindered from embarking on the French fleet assembled for that purpose because of
adverse winds described by the British as ‘Protestant winds’. Also, a combined force
of British and Dutch ships under command of Admirals Russell and Van Allemonde
gave the French fleet a thorough beating. This disaster was a turning point in the fate
of the 14,000 Irish troops awaiting embarkation; as soon as it was realized that there
was little further hope of an assault on the English homeland, these Irish regiments
were scattered to join French armies throughout Europe. They were ordered to join
the French armies in Flanders, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Some of these scattered
Irish units came, by pure chance, to fight alongside the elite ‘Irish Brigade of France’
that had been formed in France in 1690, prior to the onset of the serious fighting in
Ireland between the forces of James II and William of Orange … but these battlefield
‘meetings’ occurred due to the fortunes of war rather than from any deliberate
planning.
The Irish troops who were deployed to Flanders in 1692 did have an
opportunity to vent their spleen on William of Orange by helping the French to
capture the city of Namur. On this occasion they fought under the direct command
of French King Louis XIV; later they came under the orders of the Marshal Duke de
Luxemburg, whom the French king appointed as commander after the battle for
Namur. Both Patrick Sarsfield and the Duke of Berwick were with de Luxemburg,
who gained a further victory over the Williamites at the Battle of Steenkirk.
The village of Steenkerque is located in Belgium between the cities of
Bruxelles and Mons
Scenes from the village of Steenkerque
François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, directing the Battle of
Steenkirk
A senior French officer, the Marquis de Quincy, writing of the engagement at
Steenkirk* said that among the officers who”gave proofs of a great valour and a rare
capacity” were the Duke of Berwick and the Earl of Lucan (Patrick Sarsfield). De
Luxemburg himself, writing to Louis XIV, said, “Monsieur, the Duke of Berwick, was
present from the commencement, when we proceeded to reconnoiter the enemy; and
behaved, during the entire combat, as bravely as I have rendered an account to your
Majesty, that he had done in the last campaign. The Earl of Lucan was with him; in
whom we have particularly noticed the valour, and intrepidity, of which he had given
proofs in Ireland. I can assure your Majesty that he is a very good and able officer.”
* The Battle of Steenkerque (also spelled Steenkerke or Steenkirk) was fought on 3
August 1692. It was a victory for the French against a joint English- LowlandScottish-Dutch-German army under William of Orange. The battle took place near
the village of Steenkerque in the south of Holland, about 50 kilometres south-west of
Brussels. Over 8,000 men out of only about 15,000 engaged on the side of the Allies
were killed and wounded. The losses of the French out of a much larger force were
at least equal. Contemporary soldiers affirmed that Steenkirk was the hardest battle
ever fought by the infantry during the ‘Nine Years War’. Five English regiments were
completely destroyed. Their commander, General Hugh Mackay, was also killed.
The English, habitually blamed their great losses on the attitude of their Dutch allies,
and as they would again 50 years later at Battle of Fontenoy when they were once
again humiliated by the Irish.
The Irish troops who went with the French army to Germany were the most
fortunate, for there they met many of their old comrades who were serving in the
original ‘Irish Brigade of France’, which was under command of the Irish Earl of
Mountcashel, Justin MacCarthy. The German campaign was an easy one, for in this
war the Germans had no stomach for a fight, and the capture of Heidelberg was the
only significant battle.
The Irish troops sent to Italy, however, had a very different story to tell; for
their service was full of tough fighting and high-adventure. William of Orange’s allies
in Italy were very strong and consisted of English, Spanish, Italian, and Huguenots
(French Protestants); plus their commanders were formidable soldiers of the caliber of
Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Sconberg. Marshal de Catinat was the
French commander who, because of the overwhelming strength of the enemy, was
mostly on the defensive … but only up until the bloody Battle of Marsaglia.
Marsaglia is located near the French border area, between Turin and Genoa,
in north-west Italy
The Battle of Marsaglia was fought in Italy, on 4 October 1693. Catinat,
advancing from Fenestrelle and the city of Susa in north-west Italy, to the relief
Pinerolo, which was defended by René de Froulay, Comte de Tessé, a French Marshal,
while the Duke of Savoy was besieging Pinerolo. Catinat took up a position in formal
order of battle north of the village of Marsaglia, near Orbassano. Here, on 4
October, the Duke of Savoy made a frontal attack against the French forces with his
whole army. But the greatly superior regimental efficiency of the French army, plus
Catinat’s minute attention to details in arraying them, gave the new French Marshal a
truly brilliant victory. The Piedmontese and their allies lost a combined total of about
10,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners-of-war … while Catinat’s French and Irish
suffered a total of 1,800 casualties.
The town of Pinerolo, in the shadow of the Italian Alps
Catinat had amongst his men some outstanding Irish troops. Chief amongst
them was Clare’s Regiment, which had been especially seconded to face the Duke of
Savoy. To reinforce Regiment Clare, there were many Irish veterans who had fought
at the two sieges of Limerick … and their dash and daring turned the tide of battle
after an initial success by the Duke of Savoy. One Irish unit killed more than 1,000 of
the enemy with their swords and clubbed muskets. It was in this battle that the Irish
used a dramatic artifice reminiscent of the Battle of Benburb … which had been
fought during the Cromwellian ‘War of the Three Kingdoms’, between the CatholicIrish forces of under Owen Roe O’Neill and a Lowland Protestant Scottish army
under Robert Munro, and resulted in a major Catholic victory during 1646 in
northern Ireland. At Marsaglia, an Irish regiment commanded by General Arthur
Dillon found itself out-flanked by the enemy … so, turning their muskets upside-down
with the butt ends facing upwards, the Irish continued their advance. The enemy,
thinking the Irish intended to surrender, allowed them to approach, whereupon the
demeanour of the Irish soldiers changed suddenly to a terrifying force, which put the
enemy to flight and helped secure victory.
A particularly memorable feature of the Battle of Marsaglia was that the Irish
were so eager to come to grips with the troops of William of Orange, they exceeded
their orders, and Catinat, seeing there was no recalling them, commanded the whole
French army to follow the Irish.
The Irish pursued so swiftly, that their infantry overtook some of the hostile cavalry.
The Duke of Savoy narrowly escaped with only 10 horsemen, into his capital city of
Turin.
Of the Irish officers who were killed that day, having fought with great valour at
the head of their regiments, were Brigadier Thomas Maxwell; Brigadier John
Wauchop; Brigadier Francis O’Carroll; and others, all worthy of lasting memory.
Daniel O’Brien, 4th Viscount Clare, was acting as Colonel of his family regiment and
was so severely wounded that he subsequently died at Pignerol. James de Lacy, of the
family of Ballingarry-Lacy in county Limerick, a Brigadier, Quarter-Master-General,
and Colonel Commandant of the ‘Prince of Wales Regiment of Ireland’, was likewise
mortally wounded. His young nephew, Peter de Lacy, who had been an Ensign under
him in Ireland when only 13 years old, and whom, after the Treaty of Limerick, he
brought with him to France, was in this battle as a Lieutenant in the Regiment of
Athlone. Ultimately he became Field-Marshal de Lacy in the service of Russia, and
father of the celebrated Field-Marshal von Lacy who achieved great fame in the
service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Duke of Schonberg, whose father had
been killed while fighting the Irish at the Battle of the Boyne, was also slain at this
battle.
During the years 1692 to 1792, the Irish Brigade of France covered itself with
glory at many of the famous battlefields of northern Europe – including Namur,
Steenkirk, Staffardo, Ramillies, Blenheim, Landen and more. Their bold enterprises
were celebrated in song and story in Ireland for generations.
The old city of Namur
The Old City of Namur
Siege of Namur 1695, by Jan van Huchtenburg
Siege of Namur 1695, by Jan Van Huchtenburg
Finding themselves in the service of opposing kingdoms, the Irish regiments of
the Spanish army tragically clashed with the Irish regiments of the French army
during the European Nine Years War … the first such clash was probably during the
French invasion of Spain, at Ter in Catalonia, called after the river of the same name.
When the Spaniards were defeated at Ter and suffered the loss of some 4,000
men killed, on the French side, among the officers praised by the French Marshal
Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme for having been “several times
distinguished” during the day, was Charles O’Brien, 5th Viscount of Clare. One of
the puzzles arising from this reference is the fact that on the Spanish side and serving
in Catalonia at the time was an Earl Clare. It would be interesting to know how
closely they were related and if, in fact, a son was fighting his father.
Charles O’Brien, 5th Viscount of Clare
The Spanish campaign in which the Irish were so deeply involved reached its
climax in 1697 at the Siege of Barcelona, which was defended by the Austrian Field
Marshal, Prince George Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had 11,000 regular infantry,
1,500 cavalry, and about 4,000 civic militia. The defences of the city were
formidable; to add to the strength of the walls and buttresses the Viceroy of
Barcelona, Count de Velasco, was encamped about 6 miles away with 3,000 cavalry
and sundry other troops amounting to 20,000 men. Also adjacent to the town was
the Fort of Montjuich. In effect, this meant that the town could not be surrounded
and that there would was also an open approach to bring supplies to the town.
The Fort of Montjuich
With the French forces were Simon Luttrell’s Two Dublin-raised battalions, as
well as a battalion of the Clancarthy infantry regiment, plus an Irish unit under the
command of Roger MacElligot. The Honourable Arthur Dillon was there also,
together with a battalion of his regiment (the famous Regiment Dillon of the original
Irish Brigade of France), as was Colonel Oliver O’Gara, who was commanding a force
of Irish Dismounted Dragoons. The performance of the Irish troops on that
important battlefield has been recounted by the French in words of glory, when
celebrating their capture of that city. Even the famous English writer of those times,
Foreman, provided the following unbiased report: “That, in the siege of Barcelona, in
the year 1697, the great Vendome was so charmed with their courage, and so amazed
at the intrepidy of their behaviour, that the particular esteem and notice with which he
distinguished them, even to the day of his death, is yet very well remembered in
France.”
John Cornelius O’Callaghan, the well-known 19th Century author of the
‘History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France’, continues: “And this assertion,
concerning the high opinion of the Irish as soldiers by Vendome, is corroborated by
the testimony of the Chevalier de Bellerive, who afterwards fought under that great
commander with the Irish in Spain, and who, noticing their gallantry there, under
him, in 1710, says:
“M. de Vendome, who had a particular esteem for this warlike nation, at whose
head he had delivered so many combats, and gained some many victories, confessed
that he was surprised at the terrible enterprises which those ‘butchers of the army’ (it
is thus that he named them) achieved in his presence.”
“Among the garrison of 10,000 men, placed in Barcelona by Vendome, was the
Regiment of Dillon; in connection with which, the veteran Peter Drake of Drakerath,
in the County of Meath, observes – “And here I cannot omit the mention of a very
extraordinary event. The sentinels placed on the breach confidently affirmed that
they saw, in the night, numbers of dreadful apparitions, who were wont to engage one
another as in an attack; furiously crying ‘kill’, ‘advance’, and such like expressions,
commonly used on those occasions; and what added the greater authority to these
assertions was that several sentinels on that post were found dead without any visible
marks of violence, and so supposed to have died of their fears. This occasioned
orders for doubling the sentinels, and, being sometimes of the number, imagined I
both heard and saw the like.”
Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme
However, the dashing-hero of Barcelona was Dillon; but for his daring in
dislodging the Spaniards from the neighbouring hills, French victory would not have
been achieved.
The Spanish defeat at Barcelona ended this multi-national European war
against France’s King Louis XIV, and the Treaty of Ryswick* resulted in 1697. This
peace treaty was signed by Holland, Spain, England, and the German Emperor.
* The Treaty of Ryswick or Ryswyck was signed on 20 September 1697 and named
after Ryswick (now known as Rijswijk) in south Holland. The treaty settled the
‘Nine Years War’, which pitted France against the ‘Grand Alliance’ of England,
Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the United Provinces (Holland). The basis of
the peace was that all towns and districts seized since the Treaty of Nijmegen (1679)
should be restored. Then France surrendered the German towns of Freiburg,
Breisach and Philippsburg - to the Holy Roman Empire, although France kept the
city of Strasbourg in the Alsace region bordering Germany. On the other hand,
France was granted the territory of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola (later to become Haiti) and regained the south Indian colony of
Pondicherry (after paying the Dutch a sum of 16,000 pagodas) and Nova Scotia in
eastern Canada, while Spain recovered the 4 provinces that make up the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, as well as the barrier fortresses of Mons (south
Belgium), Luxembourg (bordering France, Belgium, and Germany) and Kortrijk
(north Belgium). The Duchy of Lorraine (bordering France, Luxembourg, and
Germany), which for many years had been in the possession of France, was restored
to Leopold Joseph, a son of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, and the Dutch were to be
allowed to garrison some of the chief fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands (south
Holland and Belgium), including Namur (central Belgium) and Ypres (northern
Belgium). France’s King Louis XIV undertook to recognize William of Orange as
King William III of England, and promised to give no further assistance to the
exiled King James II of England … one of the Treaty’s conditions was that James’s
Irish army be disbanded. This was duly done and the various units of the Irish
‘army-in-exile’ were assimilated into the army of Louis XIV. These ‘Wild Geese’, as
they were known - created a gallant and glorious tradition which was to continue up
to the time of the French Revolution, as successive generations of young Irish
Catholics fled religious persecution at home to seek their fortune in the ranks of the
Irish Brigade of the French army.
In 1698**, when peace had returned to Europe, following the Treaty of
Ryswick, and Louis XIV’s recognition of William of Orange as sovereign of Britain,
the French army was ‘reorganised’. The Irish army-in-exile of James II was
disbanded. Henceforth, the Irish Jacobite regiments were transferred into a ‘foreign
legion’ in the service of the King of France. As a result of this military reform, the
Irish infantry were reduced to eight regiments; leaving a total Irish infantry force of
5,600. The regiments were named after their colonel-proprietors; being Albermarle,
Berwick, Burke, Clare (O’ Brien), Dillon, Dorrington (Rothe, Roscommon, Walsh),
Galmoy and Lee. The Irish cavalry were reduced to one regiment of two squadrons,
commanded by Dominic Sheldon. These Irish troops came to be respected and
trusted for their courage and their strength. Evidence in the French contrôles de
troupe supports this positive image of the Irish ‘Wild Geese’. They tended to be
taller, stronger, and well-built according to the French records. Throughout the
French troop registers there are physical descriptions of these Irish soldiers attesting to
their rude health and imposing physique: “joues rougatres, belles jambs, belle poitrine,
beau visage”.
**By1698 over one third of King James’ Irish army-in-exile was either dead or crippled, and when
the treaty of Ryswick ended the war between Louis and William, James‘ soldiers were disbanded,
unemployed, and homeless. Some became beggars or highway-men, but many joined the Irish Brigade
in the Spanish army, while others went to Austria and entered the Catholic Corps.
In 1715, the Irish regiments of France were ‘re-organised’ (and reduced) yet
again, this time into just five one-battalion regiments: the regiments of Dillon,
Berwick, O’Brien (Clare), Lee and Dorrington. Nugent’s Irish Cavalry regiment was
also in the French pay. In 1744, Thomas Arthur Lally formed another infantry
regiment and King Louis XV directed the Irish regiments to reduce in size from
seventeen companies of forty men each, to thirteen companies of fifty men. By this
time, the Irish regiments included those of Dillon, Clare, Berwick, Rothe, Lally, and
Bulkeley. FitzJames’ Cavalry (formerly known as Sheldon’s, then Nugent’s) was
attached to a French royal household cavalry brigade.
Colonel, Regiment Berwick, 1770 (left)
Carabinier, FitzJames Horse, 1762 (right)
FitzJames Cavalry – Trooper’s Uniform, 1753
The FitzJames Cavalry regiment had been initially raised in 1691 as “Roi
d’Angleterre” by King James II enlisting Irish Jacobite exiles in France; the regiment
was then placed under the command of Dominique Sheldon. The regiment was first
stationed on the coast of Normandy. In 1693, it was transferred to Flanders where it
fought at the Battle of Landen on 29 July. (In 1698, the regiment was incorporated
into the French army, along with many other Irish ‘Wild Geese’).
During the War of the Austrian Succession, the regiment initially served in
Germany during 1701 before being transferred to Italy where it took part in the Battle
of Luzzara on 15 August 1702. In 1703, it was back on the Rhine where it took part
in the Sieges of Brisach and Landau. In 1704, the regiment was transferred to
Flanders where it fought in the Battles of Ramillies (23 May 1706), Ourdenarde (11
July 1708), Malplaquet (11 September 1709), Denain (24 July 1712) and took part in
the Siege of Douai in 1712. In 1713, the regiment returned to the theatre of
operation of the Rhine where it took part in the Sieges of Landau and Fribourg. In
1714, it remained in camp on the Lower Meuse.
During the War of the Polish Succession*, the FitzJames Cavalry regiment
served on the Rhine.
* The War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738) was a major European war for
princes' possessions sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II,
King of Poland that other European powers widened in pursuit of their own national
interests. France and Spain, the two Bourbon royal families, attempted to check the
power of the Austrian Habsburg royal family in western Europe, as did the Kingdom
of Prussia; whilst in the East, the German State of Saxony and Russia mobilized to
support the eventual Polish victor. The minimal amount of fighting in Poland
resulted in the accession of Augustus III, who in addition to Russia and Saxony, was
politically supported by the Habsburgs. The war’s major military campaigns
occurred outside Poland. The Bourbons, supported by Charles Emmanuel III of
Sardinia (ruler of Savoy, which is on the French-Italian border, plus the island of
Sardinia, which is in the central Mediterranean between the island of Corsica and
North Africa), moved against isolated Habsburg territories. In the Rhineland (which
is located along the German-Dutch border) France successfully took the Duchy of
Lorraine; and in Italy, Spain regained control over the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily
(lost in the 1701 – 1714 War of the Spanish Succession), while territorial gains in
northern Italy were limited despite bloody campaigning.
During the War of the Austrian Succession, the FitzJames Cavalry regiment
initially took part in the relief of the Army of Bohemia in 1742. In 1743, the
regiment was back in Alsace. In 1745, it served in the campaigns of Flanders, taking
part in the Sieges of Tournai, Ourdenarde and Termonde. The same year, the
FitzJames Cavalry regiment was sent to Scotland to help the Pretender (‘Bonny Prince
Charlie’). However, it was intercepted at sea and 3 of its 4 squadrons were captured
by the British. The remaining squadron reached Scotland and, on 16 April 1746,
took part in the Battle of Culloden. After defeat at Culloden, FitzJames Cavalry
retreated to Inverness where it surrendered and, unlike their Highlander-Scots allies,
these Irish professionals were treated honourably as ‘French’ prisoners-of-war by the
English. These Irish prisoners-of-war were then exchanged for English prisoners in
France. Upon their return to France, FitzJames Cavalry was then reconstituted and
sent to Flanders, taking part in the Battle of Rocoux on 11 October 1746. On 2 July
1747, it fought in the Battle of Lauffeld then, from July to September, the regiment
covered the Siege of Berg-op-Zoom. From April to May 1748, FitzJames Cavalry
was at the Siege of Maastricht.
Cavalry Action at Ramillies, 1706
The Irish Brigade, pride of the French Army, served under General Montcalm
in the French - English Wars in North America. The first battle was on the 8th of
September 1755 between 3,000 of the Irish Brigade of France and 9,000 of the
British General William Johnson’s forces. The British were left demoralized by their
loss. Incidentally, Johnson was himself an O’Neill descended from a Shane O’Neill
whose son adopted the surname MacShane which was eventually changed to Johnson. A small group of the Irish Brigade had fought in the decisive Battle of the Plains of
Abraham*, though their regimental flags were not present (possibly because they
weren’t suppose to be there ‘by treaty’). General Wolfe's army recognized them by
their distinctive red and green uniform jackets. Unfortunately Montcalm did not wait
for the full force of the Irish Brigade of France to assemble before going into this
battle. If he had, the outcome may have been quite different. Members of the Irish
Brigade of France in Quebec are recorded with such names as ‘de Macarti’ (MacCarthy), ‘de
Patrice’ (FitzPatrick), ‘Forcet’ (Forsyth), ‘de Harennes’ (O'Hearn), ‘de Klerec’ (O'Cleary),
‘Sylvain’ (O'Sullivan), and ‘Riel’ (Rielly/O'Rielly as in Louis Riel who was descended from
Jack ‘Devil may care’ Rielly, one of Patrick Sarsfield’s ‘Wild Geese’). These families have
since been absorbed into French-Canadian communities and today, many do not know their
Irish roots. One name that seems to not have changed was O'Neill.
* The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, (Bataille
des Plaines d’Abraham or Première bataille de Québec, in French) was a pivotal
battle in the ‘Seven Years’ War’ (referred to as the ‘French and Indian Wars’ in the
U.S.A). The battle, which began on 13 September 1759, was fought between the
British Army and Navy, and the French Army, on a plateau just outside the walls of
Quebec City, on land that was originally owned by a farmer named Abraham
Martin, hence the name of the battle. The battle involved fewer than 10,000 troops
between both sides, but proved to be a deciding moment in the conflict between
France and Britain over the fate of ‘New France’, influencing the later creation of
Canada. The culmination of a three-month siege by the British, the battle lasted
about 15 minutes. British troops commanded by General James Wolfe successfully
resisted the column advance of French troops under Louis-Joseph de MontcalmGozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran, using new tactics that proved extremely effective
against standard military formations used in most large European conflicts. Both
generals were mortally wounded during the battle; Wolfe received a blow that would
end his life within only a few minutes of engagement and Montcalm died the next
morning after receiving a bullet wound just below his ribs. In the wake of the battle,
France's remaining military force in Canada and the rest of North America came
under increasing pressure from British forces. While the French forces continued to
fight and prevailed in several battles after Quebec was captured, the British did not
relinquish their hold on the fortress. That tenacity carried over to other areas in
North America; within four years, most of France's possessions in eastern North
America would be ceded to Great Britain.
Drawing by a soldier of Wolfe's army depicting the easy climbing at Quebec,
by the time the sun rose over the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe's army had a
solid foothold at the top of the cliffs
In 1762, the Lally Irish infantry regiment was disbanded. The FitzJames
Cavalry was annihilated in the same year at the Battle of Wilhemstahl, and was
subsequently disbanded on 21 December 1762 … with the mention “has served
gloriously on all occasions”. The other Irish regiments were reduced to nine
companies, each company to be less than seventy-five men.
In 1774, the remaining Irish regiments were ‘reorganised’ once more. They
were divided into two-battalion regiments, one battalion consisting of a grenadier and
four fusilier companies, the other of a chasseur (light-infantry) and four fusilier
companies. The Clare Regiment merged with that of Berwick … and Bulkeley’s
Regiment was incorporated into Dillon’s Regiment.
By 1777 only three Irish infantry regiments remained in the French army – Dillon,
Berwick, and Walsh.
The Irish Brigade of France ceased to exist as a separate and distinct entity on 21 July
1791. Along with the other non-Swiss foreign units, the Irish regiments were
transferred into the regular French Army as ‘infantry of the line’, losing their
traditional Irish titles and uniforms. The initial (1791) restructuring of the army saw
the Dillon Regiment become the 87e Regiment, the Berwick Regiment became the
88e Regiment, and the Walsh Regiment became the 92e Regiment. (These 3
regiments in today’s French army, still honour their ‘Irish’ heritage and origins.)
The soldiers of the Irish Brigade of France had historically sworn loyalty to the
King of France, not to the French people or their new republic of 1792. In 1792
elements of the Brigade who had rallied to the French émigré Royalist forces were
presented with a ’farewell banner’, bearing the device of an Irish Harp embroidered
with shamrocks and fleurs-de-lis. The Count de Provence (afterwards King Louis
XVIII) made the presentation: “Gentlemen, we acknowledge the inappreciable
services that France has received from the Irish Brigade, in the course of the last 100
years; services that we shall never forget, though under an impossibility on requiting
them. Receive this Standard as a pledge of our remembrance, a monument of our
admiration, and our respect, and in future, generous Irishmen, this shall be the motto
of your spotless flag: 1692-1792, Semper et ubique Fidelis.” Of the two senior Dillon
officers who remained in the French army at that time, Theobald was killed during a
retreat in 1792 and Arthur was executed in 1794 during reign of mob violence called
‘The Terror’, which occurred during the onset of the French Revolution. In 1793,
Regiment Dillon was split into the 157e and 158e infantry regiments of the French
army.
Uniforms of Napoleon’s Irish Legion (Légion Irlandaise), 1803 - 1815
In 1803, the Irish Legion (Légion Irlandaise) was formed by Napoleon
Bonaparte. The Legion was established on 31 August, in Morlaix, which is a town in
the French-Celtic department of Brittany. Bernard MacSheehy was assigned to form
the regiment; he was an Irish ‘Wild Geese’ Adjutant-General in Napoleon’s army.
The Irish Legion had its own flag, and in December 1805 received an ‘eagle’. The
French Imperial Eagle (Aigle de drapeau, literally, “flag eagle”) refers to the figure of
an eagle on a staff carried into battle as a standard by the French regiments of
Napoleon’s Grande Armée during the Napoleonic wars. The Irish Legion was the
only group of foreign soldiers in the French military whom Napoleon ever entrusted
with an ‘eagle’. Wearing a green uniform, the Irish Legion’s maximum size was about
2,000 men.
The Irish Legion was greatly assisted from 1807 by Napoleon’s Minister of
War, General Henri Clarke, who was of Irish ‘Wild Geese’ descent. In August 1811
the Irish Legion was renamed the 3e Regiment Etranger (3rd Foreign Regiment).
The original purpose of the Legion was to align Irish hearts to the French cause
during the imminent invasion of Ireland. General Pierre Augereau had been
appointed to lead the invasion, and wanted Irishmen to serve in his army. However,
the naval battles of Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar in 1805 made a safe sea-crossing
uncertain at best, and Napoleon was forced to abandon his plans for Ireland. He
then shifted his focus towards Austria and Eastern Europe, and launched the Austerlitz
campaign in late 1805. On 2 December the French army, commanded by Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte, decisively defeated a Russian and Austrian army, commanded
by Tsar Alexander I and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, after nearly nine hours
of difficult fighting. The battle took place near the town of Austerlitz (now called
Slavkov u Brna), which is about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) south-east of Brno in
Moravia, at that time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the town is now located in the
present day Czech Republic). The battle is regarded as a tactical masterpiece.
British ships prevail over the combined French and Spanish fleets at
Trafalgar, 21 October 1805
Napoléon at Austerlitz, 2 December 1805
The Irish Legion was later expanded from a battalion to a regiment, and it won
distinction in the Walcheren Campaign, as well as wining further glory in Spain
during Napoleon’s ‘Peninsula War’.
The first officers of the Irish Legion included former political-prisoners of the
British, taken during the Irish 1798 Rebellion*, who were then freed during the short
peace effected by the Treaty of Amiens … on condition they were exiled from Ireland.
As a part of Napoleon’s planned invasion of Britain in 1803-05, the Irish Legion was
to provide the indigenous core for a much larger invasion force of 20,000 ... which was
to be known as the Corps d'Irlande.
* The Irish Rebellion of 1798, also known as the ‘United Irishmen Rebellion’, was,
like many other Irish rebellions before and afterwards, aimed at ending British rule in
Ireland. The ‘United Irishmen’, a republican revolutionary group, were the main
organising force behind this rebellion. Since 1691 and the end of the ‘Williamite
War’, Ireland had been controlled by the minority ‘Protestant Ascendancy’ rulingclass, who had benefited hugely from the wholesale confiscation of land from the Irish
Catholics. England ruled Ireland through a form of institutionalised sectarianism,
codified in the ‘Penal Laws’ which discriminated against both the majority Irish
Catholic population as well as non-Church of England Protestants (for example
Presbyterians). In the late 1700s, liberal elements among the Anglo-Irish ruling-class
were inspired by the example of the American Revolution (1776–1783) and sought to
form a common cause with the Catholic populace to achieve reform and greater
autonomy from Britain. Most of Protestants in Ireland, as well as all Catholics, were
barred from voting because they did not pass a property-ownership threshold.
Another grievance was that Ireland, although nominally a separate and sovereign
kingdom governed by the monarch and Irish Parliament, in reality had less
independence than most of Britain’s North American colonies, due to a series of laws
enacted by the English, such as Poynings’ law of 1694 and the Declaratory Act of
1720, the former of which gave the English parliament veto power over Irish
legislation, and the latter of which gave the English Parliament the right to legislate for
Ireland. The prospect of reform inspired a small group of Protestant liberals in
Belfast to found the ‘Society of United Irishmen’ in 1791. The organisation crossed
the religious divide with a membership comprising Roman Catholics, Presbyterians,
Methodists, other Protestant ‘dissenters’ groups, and some even came from the Church
of England’s ‘Protestant Ascendancy’ ruling-class. The outbreak of war with
Revolutionary France earlier in 1793, following the execution of King Louis XVI,
forced this Society underground and towards taking-up armed-insurrection (with
French military aid). The avowed intent of the United Irishmen was to "break the
connection with England"; the organisation spread throughout Ireland and had at
least 200,000 members by 1797. It linked-up with Catholic agrarian resistance
groups, known as the ‘Defenders’, who had started raiding houses for weapons in early
1793. The British ‘Establishment’ responded to widespread disorders by launching a
counter-campaign of martial law from 2 March 1797. It used terror-tactics including
house burnings, torture of captives, ‘pitchcapping’, and murder … particularly in
Ulster, as it was the one area of Ireland where large numbers of Catholics and
Protestants (mainly Presbyterians) had effected unity in a common cause. In 1798,
the residential districts of Dublin rose in rebellion as planned, and were then swiftly
followed by most of the counties surrounding Dublin.
Battle of Rofs, “Come on Boys, her mouth’s stopt.”
The first clashes of the 1798 rebellion took place just after dawn on 24 May.
Fighting quickly spread throughout the province of Leinster, with the heaviest fighting
taking place in County Kildare where, despite the British Government being able to
successfully beat almost every rebel attack, the rebels nonetheless gained control of
much of the county as British military forces in Kildare were ordered to withdraw to
the town of Naas, for fear of their isolation and destruction by the Irish rebels, as at
the town of Prosperous ( where a rebel force, only about 60 strong, targeted the British
garrison consisting of Cork militia and a detachment of a Welsh regiment, the
‘Ancient Britons’ - the garrison were trapped in the upper floors of their barracks
which was then torched, causing the desperate soldiers to leap from windows onto the
waiting rebel pikes below.) However, rebel defeats at Carlow and the Hill of Tara in
County Meath, effectively ended the rebellion in those areas. In County Wicklow,
news of the rising spread panic and fear among English-loyalists; they responded by
massacring rebel suspects held in custody at Dunlavin Green and in Carnew. In
Wicklow, large numbers of Irish rose in rebellion, but they were chiefly engaged in a
bloody rural-guerrilla war against the British military and loyalist forces. Rebelgeneral Joseph Holt led up to 1,000 Irish guerillas in the Wicklow Hills, and forced the
British to commit substantial forces to this area until his capitulation in October. In
the north-east, mostly Presbyterian rebels, led by Henry Joy McCracken, rose in
County Antrim on 6 June. They briefly held most of the county, but the rising there
collapsed following their defeat at Antrim town. In County Down, after initial success
at Saintfield, rebels led by Henry Munro were defeated at Ballynahinch, in the longest
battle of the 1798 rebellion. The rebels had most success in the south-eastern county
of Wexford, where they seized control of the county; but a series of bloody-defeats at
the ‘Battle of New Ross’, the ‘Battle of Arklow’, and the ‘Battle of Bunclody’
prevented the effective spread of the rebellion beyond the county borders. 20,000
British troops eventually poured into Wexford, inflicting a decisive defeat on the Irish
at the 21 June ‘Battle of Vinegar Hill’. The dispersed rebels spread in two columns
through the Irish midlands, Kilkenny, and finally towards Ulster. The last remnants
of these forces fought on until their final defeat on 14 July at the battles of
Knightstown Bog in County Meath and Ballyboughal in County Dublin.
Battle of Vinegar Hill
The aftermath of almost every British victory during the rising was marked by the massacre of
captured and wounded rebels, with some on a huge scale such as at Carlow, New Ross, Ballinamuck
and Killala. The British were responsible for particularly gruesome massacres at Gibbet Rath, New
Ross, and Enniscorthy; burning rebels alive in the latter two. As they were regarded as traitors to the
Crown, those rebels who were taken alive in the aftermath of battle were not treated as prisoners of
war, but were executed, usually by hanging. In addition, large numbers of non-combatant civilians
were murdered by the British, who also perpetrated many instances of rape, particularly in County
Wexford. Many individual instances of murder were also unofficially carried out by aggressive local
Protestant-Irish Yeomanry militia units before, during, and after the rebellion, as their local knowledge
led them to attack suspected rebels. And, ‘pardoned’ rebels were a particular target for these ProtestantIrish Yeomanry militia. Small fragments of the great rebel armies of the Summer of 1798 survived
for a number of years and waged a form of guerrilla or ‘fugitive’ warfare in several counties. In
County Wicklow, rebel-general Joseph Holt fought on until his negotiated surrender in Autumn 1798.
It was not until the failure of Robert Emmet’s rebellion in 1803 that the last organised rebel forces
under Captain Michael Dwyer capitulated. Small pockets of rebel resistance had also survived in
County Wexford, and the last rebel group under James Corocoran was not vanquished until February
1804. The 1798 rebellion was possibly the most concentrated outbreak of violence in Irish history,
and resulted in many thousands of deaths over the course of just three months. Contemporary
estimates put the death toll from as low as 20,000 (British government figures) to as many as
50,000; of which 2,000 were military and 1,000 loyalist civilians.
Half-Hanging* of suspected ‘United Irishmen’ by British troops
* ‘Half-hanging’ is a method of torture, usually inflicted to force information from
the victim, in which a rope is pulled tightly around the victim’s neck and then
slackened when the victim becomes unconscious. The victim is revived and the
process repeated.
Captain Richard Longford Swayne, commander of the City of Cork Militia,
‘pitchcapping’** suspected Irish rebels.
** The process of ‘pitchcapping’ involved pouring hot pitch, or tar (mainly used at
the time for lighting purposes), into a conical shaped paper ‘cap’, which was forced
onto a bound suspect’s head and then allowed to cool. Less elaborate versions
included smearing a cloth or piece of paper with pitch and pressing onto the head of
the intended victim. The ‘pitchcap’ was then torn off, taking lumps of skin and flesh
with it, which usually left the victim disfigured for life. The torture was usually
preceded by the crude shearing of the victim’s hair, and many accounts report that
ears were often partly or fully severed during the cutting. Refinements to the torture
included unbinding the victim’s feet to allow the spectacle of them running about in
agony and, in some cases, deliberately smashing their own heads in an attempt to end
the torment. Another variation involved adding highly-inflammable turpentine-spirits
or gunpowder to the ‘pitchcap’ when cooled then setting it alight. The torture was
probably devised as a response to the short ‘cropped’ hairstyle popular in Ireland at
the time (hence the nickname ‘croppy’ given to Irish rebels), which was inspired by the
French Revolutionary style, a repudiation of the long hair and wigs of the aristocracy.
The effect on the skull of this controlled form of local boiling somewhat resembles
scalping, earlier known from the North American colonies.
Is it any wonder the Catholic powers of Europe were able to attract such great legions
of the Irish ‘Wild Geese’??? ... who were, of course, always eager to fight the English
on foreign battlefields!!!
‘Wild Geese’ Fusilier of Légion Irlandaise
In 1808, the Second Battalion of Napoleon’s Irish Legion fought in Spain and
Portugal during the ‘Peninsula War’, helping to subdue the Spanish city of Madrid
during the Dos de Mayo Uprising. On 2 May, the people of Madrid had rebelled
against the occupation of the city by French troops, provoking a brutal repression by
the French … which then triggered the ‘Peninsula War’.
Spanish defenders at Madrid make a last-stand against attacking French
The Irish Legion also won distinction at the Siege of Astorga, leading the
charge that captured that Spanish fortress-city. Astorga was located on the flank of
the French invasion of Spain and Portugal, and it was meant to be used as a French
headquarters during this campaign. The French stormed the city on the evening of
21 April 1810. However, their first attack was repulsed by the Spanish at the cost of
300 French casualties. Those of the storming company who were not killed, then
took cover just inside the wall and desperately held their position for the night. The
next morning, the Spanish surrendered as the Irish Legion was preparing for another
attack. During the battle, Captain John Allen’s company’s drummer-boy continued to
beat the charge after having lost both legs, for which he was awarded the French
Legion of Honour.
Legion of Honour
In June 1810 the Second Battalion of the Irish Legion was reassigned to
France’s Army of Portugal , which was commanded by Marshal André Masséna, 1st
Duc de Rivoli and 1st Prince d’Essling; and so the Irish fought at the Battle of
Fuentes de Oñoro in 1811. At Fuentes de Oñoro, the British and Portuguese Army
under command of Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington (an Irishman) checked the
French Army’s attempt to relieve the besieged city of Almeida.
The First Battalion of the Irish Legion saw its initial action against a British
expeditionary force at the Battle of Flushing in Holland, during the Walcheren
Campaign of 1809. While the Irish Legion suffered many casualties during this
campaign, the British were decisively defeated.
Walcheren Campaign was fought in the Zeeland coastal areas of southwestern Holland
The Irish Legion then went on to join General Jacques-Pierre-Louis-MarieJoseph Puthod's 17th French Division during the German campaign of 1813. At the
Battle of Lowenberg the Irish Legion formed squares to repel a cavalry attack and
then became easy targets for enemy cannon fire, losing 400 men. In a skirmish near
and during the Battle of Kulm, Puthod’s men were caught by the enemy with their
back to the Bóbr River in flood, but held their position until the ammunition ran out,
and then they tried to swim to safety. The Irish Legion suffered heavy casualties from
the subsequent bayonet assault, and from drownings, and from pursuit by roaming
Cossack patrols; losing about 1,500 men.
Russian Cossack Cavalry
Battle of Kulm
The Irish survivors managed to save their ‘eagle’ and then retired to Bois-leDuc. In the ensuing Napoleonic retreat the Irish Legion took part in the Siege of
Antwerp in 1814, and then retired to the city of Lille in northern France, where it
remained until Napoleon’s abdication in April 1814. Between 1805 and 1815, eleven
of the Irish Legion’s officers were awarded the Légion d'honneur, including their
colonels; William Lawless and James Blackwell. The Irish Legion remained loyal to
Napoleon, and was therefore not trusted by the new French King. Consequently the
Irish Legion was officially disbanded by King Louis XVIII on 28 September 1815;
the Legion’s flags were burned and its eagle destroyed.
Regimental Flag and ‘Eagle’ of Légion Irlandaise
Because of their wide renown for valour and honour, the Irish were always
much sought after on the Continent by all the Catholic powers of Europe. Spain
accorded them equal rights to Spanish citizens, and many Irishmen descended from
Gaelic-chieftains and the Catholic Norman-Irish aristocrats (also known in Ireland as
the ‘Old English’) were accepted into the Spanish nobility.
During the early 1700s, the Irish military community exiled throughout Europe
became embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which was
fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible
unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one monarch from the
Bourbon* royal family.
*
Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre – a small kingdom which occupied lands on
either side of the Pyrenees mountains alongside the Atlantic Ocean – and France in
the 1500s. By the 1700s, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in
Spain, Naples (on the east coast of southern Italy), Sicily, and Parma (in the north of
Italy). Spain and Luxembourg still currently have Bourbon monarchs.
As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a
unification would have drastically altered the European balance of power. The War
of the Spanish Succession was fought primarily by forces supporting the unification –
being the Spanish loyal to King Philip V, France, and the Electorate of Bavaria –
against those opposing unification – being the Spanish loyal to Archduke Charles, the
Holy Roman Empire (centered on the Kingdom of Germany and neighboring
territories), Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, and the Duchy of Savoy (to
the north-west of Italy). The forces were known as the Two Crowns and Grand
Alliance, respectively. This war, over a decade long, was concluded by the treaties of
Utrecht in 1713 and Rastatt in 1714. As a result, Philip V remained King of Spain
but was removed from the French line of succession, averting a union of the two
kingdoms. The Austrians gained most of the Spanish territories in Italy and the
Netherlands. France’s hegemony over continental Europe was ended and the idea of
a balance of power became a part of the international order.
Western Europe’s borders after the Treaty of Utrecht and the Treaty of Rastatt
On the 1st of November 1709, King Felipe (Philip) V of Spain decided to
commission the first permanent Irish regiments in the Spanish army, and collected all
the Irish units into one brigade. The MacAuliffe (Ultonia) Regiment came under the
command of Diarmuid Mac Amhlaoibh (Dermot MacAuliffe), the Marquis of
Castlebar, who had previously distinguished himself while defending Cork City from
the Williamite forces in Ireland during 1690-1.
The Hibernia Regiment, commanded by Lord Castlebar; the Irlanda
Regiment, commanded by John Wauchope; the Limerick Regiment, commanded by
the Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duc de Vendome, a relative of the Spanish king and the
only non-Irish commander in the Irish Brigade; and the Waterford Regiment
commanded by Colonel John Comerford, were then combined to form Spain’s
‘Brigade of Irish Infantry of Castelar’, which played a distinguished part in the Battle
of Saragossa and later engagements. The commanders of these famous Irish
regiments earned distinction by leading from the front. While many thousands of
Irishmen had served in the Irish regiments of the Spanish army since the 1500s, those
earlier regiments had lacked continuity, being raised only for particular campaigns and
then disbanded when that war was over.
Soldiers of the Irish Brigade of Spain
The Irish Brigade of Spain soon distinguished itself during the Wars of
Spanish Succession, especially during the Siege of Barcelona in 1710 and capture of
Palma, capital of Majorca in 1711. Don Tadeo (Tadhg) MacAuliffe succeeded
Dermot as colonel of the MacAuliffe Regiment (Ultonia Regiment), in 1715.
“The Irish in 1710, signalized themselves in Spain, where Phillip V and his
Austrian competitor, the Archduke Charles, were early in the field....
Among the royal regiments were two of Irish infantry, newly formed ... in Catalonia
and Portugal. These regiments were commanded by Don Demetrio (Dermot) MacAuliffe and Colonel Don John de Comerford, the former the head or chief of the ancient sept of the MacAuliffes, of the barony of Duhallow, in the north-west of
the County of Cork.” (O’Callaghan: ‘History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of
France’)
The Ultonia Regiment’s battle flag
The Ultonia Regiment’s Colonel’s standard
Uniform of a soldier of the Ultonia Regiment
The Siege of Barcelona, 1714
The Siege of Barcelona took place towards the end of the War of Spanish
Succession (1701–1714), which pitted Archduke Charles of Austria (backed by
England and Holland), against Philip V of Spain (backed by France) in a contest for
the Spanish crown. During the early part of the war, Barcelona had fallen to the
forces of Austrian Archduke Charles: his fleet had anchored in the port on 22 August
1705, landing troops which surrounded the city. These troops later captured the hillfort of Montjuïc, and used it to bombard the city into its submission on 9 October of
that year. Even though the freshly-defeated Catalan court then supported the
Archduke against Philip V, the Franco-Spanish forces were not strong enough to
attempt a recapture of the city until 1713. By 25 July of that year, the city was
surrounded by Bourbon forces, but attacks upon it did not succeed due to the scarcity
of artillery. The Bourbons then waited for a 20,000 man reinforcement, which
arrived in April–May 1714. The assault was renewed under the command of the
Duke of Berwick (son of the exiled King James II), and after entering the city on 30
August, the Bourbons finally triumphed on 11 September. This defeat is now
commemorated as the National Day of Catalonia, also known as ‘La Diada Nacional
de Catalunya’.
Regiment MacAuliffe (Ultonia Regiment) took part in later engagements as
part of Spain’s war with England and Austria, including an attack on Sicily in 1718, in
which the regiment’s colonel, named only as Colonel MacAuliffe, was mortally
wounded. D. H Allen speculates that this may have been Teige, or it could have been
Michael MacAuliffe, the last reputed chief of the clan. Michael is said to have died in
battle in 1720 while colonel of a regiment of the Spanish army, most likely the
MacAuliffe Regiment, which by then had been renamed the Ultonia Regiment. The
change of the regiment’s name was made in 1718 when, by decree of the King, every
unit of the Spanish army was to be given a permanent title. Thus Regiment
MacAuliffe became the Ultonia Regiment. Over the next hundred years or more, the
Ultonia Regiment saw service in various parts of Europe and in Spain’s South
American colonies ... and the MacAuliffe name continued to appear frequently in
Spanish military records for the period.
Uniform of the Irish Brigade of France, at the time of Cremona
On the 1st of February 1702, the ‘Wild Geese’ soldiers of the Irish Brigade of
France earned distinction and a place in history when they took part in an event which
ranks with the defence of the Pass of Thermopylae by the Greeks, or the heroic
Roman stand of Horatius at the Tiber Bridge, as one of the most daring deeds in
history … that event came to be renown throughout Europe as “the surprise of
Cremona”. The Battle of Cremona occurred during the War of Spanish Succession.
Five months after repulsing the French at the Battle of Chieri (Chiari) in the
northern Italian region of Lombardy, Prince Eugene of Savoy retook the offensive,
moving westward with the Austrian army of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, to the
city of Cremona on the Po River. On the 1st of February 1702, Eugene conducted a
night attack that caught the French garrison, under command of Marshal François de
Neufville, 2ème duc de Villeroy, completely by surprise.
Panorama of Cremona
All through the winter, the walled city of Cremona, in what is now northern
Italy, had been in the hands of the French … and, as the winter was drawing to a
close, the French troops had become lax, thinking that their foe, the Austrians, were
still in their winter quarters.
The plan of attack was an infiltration in a commando-style assault, while at the
same time a larger force under Austrian Field Marshal Charles Thomas de Lorraine,
prince of Vaudémont, would attack and capture the walled-city of Cremona’s vital Po
Gate.
Using information given by a former inhabitant of the town, and helped by a
priest in Cremona, who hid the Austrians, Eugene had infiltrated 400 Austrian soldiers
into the town through a large sewer-pipe over several days. With the Austrians who
infiltrated Cremona was Captain Francis MacDonnell of the Austrian army,
descended from an ancient Galloglass clan of County Mayo in Ireland. In a surprise
dawn-attack under command of Eugene of Savoy himself, the Austrians succeeded in
entering the city of Cremona with a force about equal in number to the defending
French garrison. By mid-morning, the Austrian attackers had captured all the city
gates except two, which were still held by a handful of Irishmen from Regiment Burke
and Regiment Dillon - all together about six hundred Irishmen. Major Daniel
O’Mahony, who would later win fame in Spain, commanded the battalion of Dillon’s
regiment that day, in Colonel Lally’s absence.
The French commander, Marshal Villeroi, rushed from his quarters and tried
to rally his troops. He was captured and would probably have been killed, but
Captain MacDonnell of the Austrian army intervened at the last moment and saved
his life. As Villeroi was being conducted to captivity, he twice offered MacDonnell
handsome rewards, even command of a French regiment, if he would take Villeroi
back to the French forces, but MacDonnell refused. A number of other high-ranking
French officers were also captured … and about 1,000 French soldiers were killed
during the attack, many of them in their sleep.
François de Neufville, 2ème duc de Villeroy
However the Austrian plan didn’t succeed completely as the force under
Vaudemont was held up by the difficult terrain and arrived later than planned. They
were too late to surprise the citadel of Cremona, thanks to the valiant defence of the
Po Gate by the Irish Brigade … the Irish also blew up a vital bridge of boats across the
river that the Austrian attackers had been relying on capturing intact.
La Loggia dei Militi, Cremona
So sure were the Germans and Austrians of their victory over the French,
Prince Eugene had already set up his headquarters in the Cremona town-hall. The
Austrians then called on the Irish to surrender, but the Irish refused.
Palazzo del Comune (City Hall), Cremona
What had looked to be a dazzling victory for Eugene and his Austrians as the
sun came up was turning into a debacle as the sun prepared to go down. Finally, after
some 12 hours fighting, and with French reinforcements on the way, Eugene realized
that the city was rapidly becoming a possible death-trap, rather than a prize; and so,
reluctantly, Eugene evacuated his army.
There had been approximately 600 men in the two Irish battalions at Cremona
– 350 of them became casualties, which is close to 60 percent. Two hundred and
twenty-three of those were killed, a much higher killed-to-wounded ratio than
normally found in battles of those times.
Major O’Mahony was selected to take the news of this great battle to King
Louis XIV in Paris. The French King promoted O’Mahony to colonel on the spot,
and later promoted several of the other Irish officers who had commanded that day.
The pay of all the Irish regiments in French service, even those not at Cremona, was
raised to the high level they had enjoyed before the Treaty of Ryswick. King Louis,
who had so recently, and callously, cast aside these brave men, had once again been
reminded of the fighting ability of the Irish Brigade, who shed their blood so freely so
far from their homes. He now called these men "mes braves Irlandais." (“my brave
Irish.”)
The English writer Forman later wrote of Cremona, "The Irish performed
there the most important piece of service for Louis XIV, than, perhaps, any King of
France ever received from so small a body of men since the foundation of that
monarchy. This action by the Irish, by any impartial way of reasoning, saved the
whole French army in Italy." At the British Parliament, news of the part of the Irish
in this battle elicited this comment from a member: "Those two regiments [Dillon and
Burke] did more mischief to the High Allies than all the Irish abroad could have done
had they been kept at home and left the entire possession of their estates."
The tenacity and bravery of the Irish, in holding the city-gates, inspired the
French to rally and to drive the Austrians out of the city. Their triumph was hailed in
France and Spain, and when news of their deed reached Ireland it gave heart to their
people bowed-down under the harsh Penal Laws, and caused consternation to the
English.
News, news, in Vienna! - King Leopold's sad.
News, news, in St. James, King William is mad.
News, news, in Versailles! - "Let the Irish Brigade
Be loyally honoured and royally paid."
News, news, in old Ireland! - high rises her pride,
And high rises her wail for her children who died;
And deep is her prayer; "God send I may see
MacDonnell and Mahoney fighting for me."
The Irish Brigade of France continued to serve for the next hundred years,
being continually recruited from Ireland. Despite it being made illegal by the English
– under pain of death – for able-bodied Irishmen, who might fight in foreign armies
(or train as priests), to travel overseas, legions of Irishmen were nonetheless smuggled
out under the noses of the English for the next hundred years; the ships’ logs showing
them as ‘wild geese’, an approved export. The name stuck, and the men of the Irish
Brigades became known as the ‘Wild Geese’. The original meaning of the term
applied to those who left Ireland to serve in European armies during the 1500s, 1600s,
1700s, and 1800s but eventually it took on a wider meaning and was applied to all
those Irish who had established themselves in Europe. More latterly, some have
applied the term to all who became part of the World-wide Irish Diaspora.
During the period 1740 – 1748, the Irish military community exiled throughout
Europe became embroiled in the War of the Austrian Succession … which included
the ‘King George’s War’ (1744–1748) in North America (which was the third of the
four ‘French and Indian Wars’, fought in the British provinces of New York,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia); the ‘Anglo-Spanish War’; the
‘War of Jenkin’s Ear’ (a conflict between Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to
1748; its unusual name, relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship,
who exhibited his severed ear in Parliament following the boarding of his vessel by
Spanish coast guards in 1731); and two of the three ‘Silesian Wars’ … this ‘world war’
involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of empress Maria Theresa’s*
succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.
* Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was sovereign of Austria, Hungary,
Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands
and Parma.
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina
A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the Battle of Mühlberg
(1547) as depicted in ‘The Cambridge Modern History Atlas’ (1912); Habsburg
lands are shaded green, but do not include the lands of the Holy Roman
Empire* over which they presided, nor the vast Castilian holdings outside of
Europe, and particularly in the Americas.
* the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ was centered on the Kingdom of Germany, and
included neighboring territories, which at its peak included the Kingdom of Italy
and the Kingdom of Burgundy. For much of its history, the Empire consisted of
hundreds of smaller sub-units, principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities,
and other domains.
Amphibious landing of New England troops at Fortress Louisbourg, Nova
Scotia, 1745
Prussians attack during Battle of Hohenfriedeberg
This Europe-wide war began under the pretext that Empress Maria Theresa
was ineligible to succeed to the Habsburg thrones of her father, Emperor Charles VI,
because ‘Salic Law’ precluded royal inheritance by a woman — though in reality this
was a convenient ‘excuse’ put forward by Prussia and France to challenge Habsburg
power. Austria was supported by Britain and the Dutch Republic, the traditional
enemies of France, as well as by the Kingdom of Sardinia and Saxony. France and
Prussia were allied with the Electorate of Bavaria. Spain entered the war to reestablish its influence in northern Italy, further reversing an Austrian dominance over
the Italian peninsula that had been achieved at Spain’s expense as a consequence of
Spain’s own war of succession earlier in the 1700s. This war ended with the Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.
Because England was at war with France and Spain during this period, the men
of the Irish Brigades of France and Spain found themselves once more facing their old
English foes on the battlefield, much to the delight of the exiled ‘Wild Geese’.
In the service of France’s King Louis XIV, the Irish ‘Wild Geese’ helped the
French to win many a great victory over the English. Most memorable for the Irish
was the battle fought at Fontenoy on 11th May 1745.
Fontenoy is located in Belgium, between Tournai and Mons
The French had besieged the city-fortress of Tournay, and a strong combined
force of English and Dutch troops under the Duke of Cumberland advanced to break
the siege. Several attacks were beaten back by the French until the Duke placed his
best regiments of veteran English soldiers in a single attacking column, with cannon at
its head and flanks. The French failed to halt this advance, and the English assault
looked like succeeding until the French commander brought up the Irish Brigade of
France under Lord Clare (an O’Brien). Eager to face the English and urged on by the
call "Cuimhnigidh ar Liumneac" (“Remember Limerick”), the Irish charged in with
such ferocity that the English, stunned by the shock-action of this attack, broke and
fled in panic and disarray.
'Battle of Fontenoy' 1745
Irish displaying captured British soldiers and captured British regimental standards
The Irish Brigade of France had saved the day and they were personally
thanked by France’s King Louis. Exiled from their homeland and angered by the
news of the harsh treatment being inflicted on their people at home after the English
treachery following the Treaty of Limerick, the Irish army-in-exile fought with
particular ferocity whenever they found themselves facing English forces in any part of
the world. That feeling is portrayed in the following verse from a poem by Davis
about the Battle of Fontenoy:-
"Lord Clare,' he says, 'you have your wish:
there are your Saxon foes!'
The Marshal almost smiles to see,
so furiously he goes!
How fierce the smile these exiles wear, who're
wont to look so gay;
The treasured wrongs of fifty years are
in their hearts today.
The treaty broken ere the ink wherewith
'twas writ could dry,
Their plundered homes, their ruined shrines,
their women's parting cry,
Their priesthood hunted down like wolves,
their country overthrown!
Each looks as if revenge for all were
staked on him alone.
On Fontenoy, on Fontenoy, nor ever
yet elsewhere,
Pushed on to fight a nobler band than those
proud exiles were."
Irish Brigade – French Army 1745
Irish Post Office Commemorative Stamp
It is ironic that only in the service of others were the Irish able to put aside
historic tribal differences and unite against their common foe, the English - firstly in
the Irish army of Patrick Sarsfield, which was raised in the service of England’s King
James II, and then afterwards as the Irish Brigade in the service of France, and as Irish
regiments in the army of Spain. This irony must not have been lost on Patrick
Sarsfield himself, whose last words – after being mortally wounded at the Battle of
Landen, while leading a victorious charge of the Irish Brigade of France against the
expeditionary army of England– were said to be, "Oh, that this were for Ireland."
By the time of the America Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), all that remained
of the Irish army-in-exile in France was the elite Irish Brigade of France. The units
of this Irish Brigade included: Regiment Dillion; Regiment Berwick; and Regiment
Walsh. Dillon’s Regiment saw the most service on the American side of the Atlantic;
however elements of Walsh’s regiment were the first to aid the American cause when
they were assigned as marines to John Paul Jones’s USS Bonhomme Richard. John Adams Reviews Jones' Marines, 13 May 1779
by Charles Waterhouse
HMS Serapis (left) in action against USS Bonhomme Richard
The first USS Bonhomme Richard, formerly ‘Duc de Duras’, was a warship in
the American Continental Navy. She was originally a ‘French East India Company’
merchant ship built in France during 1765, for service between France and the Far
East. She was placed at the disposal of American Naval Captain John Paul Jones (a
Scotsman), on 4 February 1779, by France’s King Louis XVI. On 23 September
1779, they encountered the British ‘Baltic Fleet’ of 41 ships, under convoy protection
of ‘HMS Serapis’ and ‘Countess of Scarborough’, off the north coast of England.
The sea-battle took place off Flamborough Head
in the North Sea off the coast of Yorkshire, north-east England
After 6pm, Bonhomme Richard engaged Serapis … and an exceedingly bitter
engagement ensued during the next four hours that cost the lives of nearly half the
British and American crews (including their Irish Marines). At first, a British victory
seemed inevitable as the more heavily armed Serapis used its firepower to rake
Bonhomme Richard with devastating effect … killing Americans and Irish by the
score. The British Commanding Officer of Serapis then called on Jones to surrender,
who replied, “Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!” Jones eventually succeeded in
lashing the two ships together, nullifying his opponent’s greater maneuverability and
attempting to take advantage of the greater size and considerably larger crew of
Bonhomme Richard.
An attempt by the Americans and Irish to board Serapis was repulsed, as was
an attempt by the British to board Bonhomme Richard. Finally, after another of
Jones’s ships joined in the fight (uncaringly causing serious collateral damage aboard
the Bonhomme Richard) the British captain surrendered at about 10:30 p.m.
Bonhomme Richard, shattered, on fire, and leaking badly, defied all efforts to save her;
she sank about 36 hours later, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday 25 September 1779. John
Paul Jones sailed the captured HMS Serapis to a Dutch port for repairs.
Although Bonhomme Richard sank subsequent to the battle, the outcome of this
battle convinced the French King of the wisdom of backing the American colonies in
their fight to separate from British authority.
In 1779, British troops and American ‘loyalist’ militia (‘loyal’ to the British
King) dominated the southern colonies. Savannah, Georgia, was the key port of the
area, and General Benjamin Lincoln, commander of the American colonies’
Continental Army in the south, was determined to capture it. At this time, a French
fleet was attacking British-controlled colonies in the Caribbean, and Lincoln asked its
commander for help. French Admiral d’Estaing then sailed north to Savannah with
part of his fleet, leaving the rest to guard newly conquered islands of Grenada and
Guadalupe. The famous Regiment Dillon from the Irish Brigade of France was part of
the French expedition to the Caribbean, and its 1,400 Irish ‘Wild Geese’ took part in
the conquest of Grenada. About 500 of them eagerly volunteered to accompany
d’Estaing north to fight more British. Members of the Dillon family had been in
command of this elite Irish regiment since it was formed in 1690. In 1779, the
commander was Dublin-born Count Arthur Dillon, who later lost his head to the
Guillotine during the French Revolution. At least part of Walsh’s regiment also was
with d’Estaing in the Caribbean, and a company of this famous Irish regiment is
believed to have been with Dillon’s regiment at Savannah (because officers known to
be in that regiment were commended in a surviving French dispatch).
Irish ‘Wild Geese’ (left and centre) attacking British positions (right) at
Savannah
The Siege of Savannah was a disaster for the attacking French and Irish
regiments. About 4,500 French (which included the Irish ‘Wild Geese’ of the Dillon
and Walsh regiments) plus 2,200 of General Lincoln’s Americans, surrounded
Savannah’s fortifications; which were defended by 2,500 English troops and ‘loyalist’
militia. A lengthy siege of the British positions was ruled out because d’Estaing,
fearful of hurricanes threatening his French fleet, would not commit to more than two
weeks. Count Arthur Dillon was second-in-command of the French force and led one
of the attacking columns, which was spearheaded by his own Irish troops. The
combined French-Irish-American force was beaten-back by ‘grapeshot’ from British
artillery, with some of the heaviest casualties of this war — 637 French & Irish plus
457 Americans killed or wounded, including 63 of Dillon’s regiment. Within days,
d’Estaing had collected the survivors, loaded his ships, and sailed away.
While many Irish fought in the Continental Army, there were no all-Irish units
on the American side. However, 9 of George Washington’s generals were born in
Ireland — 2 major generals and 7 brigadier generals. Of these, only Brigadier
General Edward Hand from County Offaly was at Yorktown. ‘However’ … there
was another Irish general at Yorktown but, ironically, he was serving with the British
forces. Brigadier General Charles O’Hara, the illegitimate son of British General
James O’Hara, second Baron of Tyrawley, was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He was the
third general in his family, his grandfather having been Sir Charles O’Hara, first baron
of Tyrawley, who — although born in County Mayo — was said to have been of the
Sligo O’Hara family. Charles, the grandson, was second-in-command to British
commander Lord Cornwallis.
Sir Charles O’Hara, first baron of Tyrawley
The Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of
American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the
Comte de Rochambeau, over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General
Lord Cornwallis.
England’s Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Some historians place both the Dillon and Walsh regiments at Yorktown, while
others disagree; nonetheless, there are sufficient records surviving to indicate the
presence of some members of both of these famous Irish regiments.
The Americans and French built their first entrenchments parallel to those of
the British defenders, and then began the bombardment.
On 14 October 1781, with the British defence seriously weakened, General
Washington then sent two columns to attack the last major remaining British outer
fortifications. A French column captured redoubt #9 and an American column took
redoubt #10.
With these critical British defensive works captured, the American and French
allies were then able to finish their second, much closer, ring of parallel
entrenchments. With the American and French artillery much closer and more
intense than ever, the British situation began to deteriorate rapidly. Cornwallis talked
with his officers that and they agreed that their situation was hopeless. The British
asked for surrender terms on the 17th. After two days of negotiation, the surrender
ceremony took place on the 19th.
Cornwallis refused to meet formally with George Washington, and also refused
to come to the ceremony of surrender, claiming illness. With the capture of over
7,000 British soldiers, negotiations between the United States and Great Britain
began, resulting in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Signing of the preliminary Treaty of Paris, 30 November 1782
British General Charles O’Hara had the dubious honor of representing the defeated
Cornwallis at the surrender ceremony.
Brigadier General Charles O’Hara presented the sword of surrender to
Rochambeau. Rochambeau shook his head and pointed to Washington. O’Hara
offered it to Washington, but he refused to accept it, and motioned to his second-incommand, Benjamin Lincoln, who had been humiliated by the British at Charleston,
to accept it. The British soldiers marched out and laid down their arms in between
the French and American armies, while many civilians watched.
At this time, the British troops on the other side of the river, in Gloucester, also
surrendered.
British Surrender to the French (left) and Americans (right) at Yorktown
There were no all-Irish regiments in the British order-of-battle at Yorktown,
although there were many Irish among the rank-and-file of most of the British units,
and many British officers at Yorktown were from the Protestant-Irish upper-class. For
example, the roster of the 76th Foot, a Scottish regiment that was at Yorktown, listed
114 Irish among its soldiers. During the 1780s, the Dublin government was funding
a British military reserve of 12,000 soldiers, and Cork was the primary logistical base
for the British forces in North America. The Mayor of the City of Cork exhibited
loyalty to the British King by offering an enlistment bonus to Irish recruits. The
Roman Catholic citizens of Limerick also did so; offering one guinea (a ‘guinea’ had
the value of one Pound and one Shilling) to the first 500 to enlist there. There was
an all-Irish regiment serving in the British army in America, the 105th Regiment of
Foot – also called ‘The Volunteers of Ireland’. It was raised in the American city of
Philadelphia by an Irish officer in the British army (Lord Rawdon-Hastings) and it
took part in the 1779 battle for Charleston, but it was not at either Savannah or
Yorktown.
‘Volunteers of Ireland’ 105th Regiment of Foot, Loyalist Private
Mention should be made of yet another group of Irish who were peripherally
involved in the American Revolution in a manner that had an influence on the Battle
of Yorktown. At that time, Irish Brigade of Spain consisted of three elite infantry
regiments — the Ultonia (Ulster), the Irlanda, and the Hibernia. The Hibernia was
in Cuba at the time of the American Revolution and, in May 1781, 22 officers and
588 men from Hibernia participated in the Spanish conquest of Pensacola, Florida.
After British troops surrendered to the Spanish at Pensacola, they were allowed to sail
to join British forces in New York. This reinforcement of the British garrison in New
York influenced the American and French decision to march against Cornwallis at
Yorktown, rather than lay siege to New York.
Spanish grenadiers and militia pour into Fort George at Pensacola, Florida
In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and put his brother on the throne. The
Spanish fought back, in spite of 300,000 French troops and their allies pouring into
the country. The Spanish Minister for War in 1808, incidentally, was General Jose
O’Farrill (descended from the Irish ‘Wild Geese’ of Spain).
Battle-hardened Spanish terico (regiment) advancing to engage the French
(note Colonel’s personal flag on left)
In northern Catalonia stands the town and province of Girona (Gerona)
protected by the fortress of Montjiuch. It was a strategic entrance into north-east
Spain. At the time it was garrisoned by 800 men of the 1st Battalion of the Ultonia
Regiment. The battalion commander was Colonel Anthony O’Kelly from County
Roscommon. The Ultonians were reinforced by 102 grenadiers from the Hibernia
Regiment, commanded by Colonel Juan Sherlock (descended from another of the
Irish ‘Wild Geese’ families of Spain).
Girona is located in the north-east of Spain, directly above Barcelona
Among O’Kelly’s staff were Major Henry O’Donnell, Commandant John
O’Donovan, Captains MacCarthy, Sarsfield, and FitzGerald … and their senior
N.C.O. was Sergeant-Major Ricardo MacCarthy. Many officers and men had their
wives and children with them, as was the custom in those days.
th – 21st June 1808: ‘1st Siege of Girona’. French General Duhesme, with
19
one division (mainly Italians), tried a surprise attack against the city. The commander
of the regiment, Enrique O’Donnell (descended from another of the Irish ‘Wild
Geese’ families of Spain), with Irish grenadiers and the militia (‘Cruzada Gerundense’)
made a sortie and attacked the French at the towers of Sant Lluís, Sant Narcís and
Sant Daniel. The French then retreated towards Barcelona.
st July – 16 August: ‘2nd Siege of Girona’. In an aggressive sortie, troops of
21
the regiment spike the French artillery which was breaching the walls of Montjuic
Castle, thus provoking another French retreat.
7th November – 5th December: 8 officers and 118 soldiers are sent to defend
Roses (‘Rosas’ in Spanish) where they fight to the end, cut-off throughout the siege.
At the beginning of 1809 some 18,000 French troops, commanded by General
Jacques Duhesne, again laid siege to the town, demanding the surrender of the
Ultonia Regiment. O’Kelly refused. This third siege was to last eight months. The
Spanish defenders had only 5,600 men under arms. The French mounted 40 gun
batteries that over the next seven months fired some 20,000 explosive shells and
60,000 cannon balls into the city.
During this time, the wife of Captain Patricio FitzGerald (descended from
another of the Irish ‘Wild Geese’ families of Spain), Lucy, sought permission from the
Spanish Army High Command, to organise a women's unit, the 12th Company
(which became known as the Company of St Barbara, after the patron saint of
gunners) to take ammunition to the troops and care for the sick and wounded.
Permission granted, Lucy was elected commandant and the company consisted of the
wives of the Irish soldiers.
In August, the French captured the fortress of Montjuich, the main defensive point.
French artillery then fell with full force on Girona, but still there was no
surrender. French Lt. General, the Marquis de Gouvion Saint-Cyr was sent to
overwhelm the town with 33,000 French and Westphalian reinforcements. He
ordered Duhesne to make a final demand for surrender on the 19th of June. It was
made clear to O’Kelly that there would be little ‘quarter’ (mercy) given if surrender
was not forthcoming.
O’Kelly decided to put the matter to the town’s citizens and allow them a democratic
vote. The decision of the people of Girona was that they would not surrender.
The Great Day of Girona
by Ramon Martí i Alsina
Towards the end of September, General Gouvion Saint-Cyr left his command,
angered by the fact that he would soon be replaced at the head of the French and
Allied force. Saint-Cyr left the troops without an overall commander for several days,
in clear disobedience of the orders that he had received on 22 June, when he was
detailed to wait for the arrival of Marshal Augereau before quitting his command.
Meanwhile the Spanish troops and population inside the city were beginning to
run short of vital supplies. Undeterred, the Irish and Spanish constructed barricades
and trenches inside the city, and battle raged for another four months.
Lucy Fitzgerald’s last despatch concerning her company of Irish women,
survives in the Spanish archives. It was dated the 10th of August 1809. For two
months the Irish had held back an overwhelming force:
“All ranks behaved with distinction. They administered untiringly to the needs of the
defenders at the various points of attack. They brought much needed water and
brandy to the fort of Montjiuch and carried back the wounded on litters and in their
arms. Despising the dangers of shells and bombs, which rained about them without
stop, they displayed heroic zeal, charity and supreme courage. Lucy FitzGerald,
Commandant.”
The Santa Bàrbara Company
by Ramon Martí i Alsina
A diarist who managed to survive the slaughter wrote: “In the square of San
Pedro were the Irish women of the company of St Barbara, noblest of their sex, who
only moments before were filing under a rain of shells, bombs and grenades to
administer to the needs of the defenders; with the silent eloquence of example, more
persuasive than any words, they communicated their spirit and courage to the soldiers;
in their arms they carried the wounded to the blood covered floors of the hospital.
Certainly Girona was that day the abode of heroines.”
When the French artillery finally pounded the shattered walls of Girona into
dust and overwhelmed the fortress, their infantry flooded into the city. Of the 800
Ultonians and 102 Hibernians, only 253 – mostly badly wounded – were taken
prisoner. Over 600 Irish soldiers, along with Colonel O’Kelly, perished at Girona.
Lucy died by the side of her husband, Patricio FitzGerald.
On 12 December, the city capitulated. It is estimated that some 10,000 people,
soldiers and civilians, had died inside Girona. French losses were around 15,000.
Girona’s resistance (rivalled only by the defenders of Saragossa) served the
Spanish strategy extremely well; due to the long delays and heavy losses
imposed on the French … and so the siege became something of a legend over
the course of the Peninsular War.
When a new battalion of the Ultonia Regiment was raised to replace the losses
they were given the battle honour ‘Disinguidos de Ultonia’ by Spanish King
Ferndinand, to put on their regimental flag.
The Irish Brigade of Spain was finally disbanded after the Napoleonic Wars,
due to pressure from the age-old enemy of our race, England (Spain’s most important
ally at that time). However, the Ultonia Regiment was then reformed as the 23rd
Regiment of Spanish Infantry and carried on its flag the legend ‘Irlanda el Famoso’.
When General Franco overthrew the Spanish Republic during the 1930s, even that
remembrance of their service to Spain was banned.
In 1815 the Irish Brigade of Spain was officially disbanded, but the regimental
flag of the Ultonia Regiment can still be seen in the town of Girona, in memory of
their heroic defence.
Private of the Ultonia Regiment, Siege of Girona 1809
The political movement to unify Italy (‘Risorgimento’) took hold in the 1850s
and included among its leaders Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini. Key to
their aims was the annexation of the Papal States, a territory situated like a wide belt
across the middle of the Italian peninsula. With no viable military force to protect his
lands, an increasingly worried Pope Pius IX issued a call to Catholics throughout
Europe for men and arms to raise an army in his defence.
Formed in 1860, the Pope’s Battalion of Saint Patrick attracted Irish volunteers
from all walks of life with farmers, lawyers and doctors who enlisted in a multinational
army of Pope Pius IX at a time when Italy was not a united sovereign nation but a
patchwork of small independent states, each influenced to varying degrees by
neighbouring powers such as France or Austria.
Religion was not the sole motivating factor, however. Anti-British feeling was
another, spurred on by vocal anti-papal elements within the British establishment. In
response to the success of the Catholic Church’s recruitment campaign in Ireland, the
British authorities passed the Foreign Enlistment Act, which prohibited British subjects
from joining a foreign army. Whatever Britain opposed, Irish nationalists were prone
to support - as another common rallying cry of the day demonstrated - ‘Mallacht Dé
ar an mbanrion, God curse the queen, it’ll be the pope for me’.
By March 1860, papal emissaries had arrived in Dublin to negotiate the sending of an
Irish battalion to Italy. At the forefront of this recruitment drive was an alliance
between Count Charles McDonnell of Vienna, a ‘chamberlain’ to the pope, and
Alexander Martin Sullivan, editor of ‘The Nation’. Within a matter of weeks, the
recruitment committee had organised rallies in support of the pope’s plight
throughout the country and over £80,000 was collected, most of it channelled to the
Vatican through the Irish Pontifical College in Rome. The call to arms that emanated
from St. Peter’s Square was echoed in sermons from pulpits the length and breadth of
the country.
The opposition of the governing British authorities necessitated shrewd
manoeuvring by the estimated l,400 Irishmen who journeyed to Italy. Many resorted
to travelling in groups of 20-40 accompanied by priests and calling themselves
pilgrims, emigrants or workmen.
By late June 1860, the majority of the Irish
battalion had gathered in Italy to begin a rushed form of training in the company of
volunteers from nine other nationalities. To make matters more difficult, English was
not among the three languages adopted by the papal army.
In command of the Irish unit, newly christened the Battalion of Saint Patrick,
was County Louth native, Major Myles O’Reilly (1825-80). In overall command of
the papal army was General Louis Christophe Leon Jucuault de Lamoricière, a
Frenchman, considered to be one of the finest soldiers in Europe and recently
returned from active service in Algeria with the French Foreign Legion.
Despite the quality of their commanders, the recently arrived Irish found the
military organisation of this hastily convened army to be shambolic.
General Lamoricière, who was not slow to criticise slack units in his cobbledtogether army, always spoke highly of his Irish recruits.
Papal Zouave of Major O'Reilley's St. Patrick’s Battalion 1860
with a .71 calibre Model 1842 French Rifle & sword bayonet
Piedmontese troops, 1860
An army from the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia crossed into the Papal
States on 11 September 1860.
On 13 September, the Irish company under the command of Captain James
Blackney, that was stationed in Perugia, went into action.
The engagement at Spoleto four days later was an entirely different – and
bloodier – affair. Two companies (more than 300 Irish volunteers) under their
battalion commander, Major Myles O'Reilly, again fought tenaciously against 2,500
veteran Piedmontese, including Victor Emmanuel's fearsome Bersaglieri.
Bersaglieri attack
The largest engagement in this short war took place on 18 September at
Castelfidardo.
As General Lamoricière moved the bulk of his multinational Papal army
towards the fortifications in the port town of Ancona, his path was blocked by General
Cialdini's Fourth Corps d'Armee. Lamoricière was forced to do battle, as were the
105 Irishmen who were in the field with him under the command of Roscommonborn Captain Martin Kirwan.
Battle of Castelfidardo
In command of the four Irish companies in Ancona was Captain Frank Russell
from County Louth, later honored with the title of Count by the Pope. The Irish
distinguished themselves by their gallant defense of the port city of Ancona, before it
was overcome on 29 September 1860. Battle of Ancona
After that battle, which ended the war, the Irish Battalion returned home, with
the exception of 46 men, who remained in the Vatican as part of the Papal Guard as
the green-uniformed "Company of Saint Patrick.". Every member of the Irish
Battalion received a Papal Medal, Pro Petri Sede, for defending the Throne of Saint
Peter.
‘Pro Petri Sede’ Papal Medal
Company of St. Patrick, Papal Army 1861
Some of the men of the pope’s Irish battalion went on to have distinguished
military careers, particularly in the Union army during the American Civil War.
Probably the best known of the pope’s Irishmen was Myles Walter Keogh.
His
impressive service in the Union ranks gained him a post-war captain’s commission in
the famed 7th Cavalry. Keogh was killed along with General Custer and 200 other
troopers fighting Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at the iconic ‘Battle of the Little Big
Horn’.
Lieutenant Myles Keogh, Papal Guard 1860
In closing, please consider the following small tribute to the Gaelic language of
those daring and recklessly brave ‘Wild Geese’ warriors of yore:
"In truth it was not the ‘Wild Geese’ who forgot the tongue of the Gael or let it
perish. We are told that the watchwords and the words of command in the ‘Brigade’
were always in Irish, and that officers who did not know the language before they
entered the service found themselves of necessity compelled to learn it. Many other
instances we have of these soldier-exiles’ love for their old tongue, and the old
literature. John O’Donovan, in the appendix of his edition of the Four Masters, has
an interesting tale to tell of a young Charles O’Donnell from County Mayo, who in
the middle of the 1700s went out to seek his fortune in Austria, where his uncle, Count
Henry O’Donnell, the "handsomest man in the Austrian service, and an especial
favourite with the Empress" had risen to high rank in the Imperial Army, and won a
princess of the royal house of Cantacuzeno for his bride. Poor Charles was on the
point of being packed home again because he answered in English when the General
addressed him in Gaelic. The kind Irish Friar to whom the young man related his
discomfiture, advised him to go back to the General and speak nothing but Gaelic,
and all would be well. The advice was taken, and the reassuring prophecy fulfilled,
young Charles in his turn rising to be a Major-General and a Count. His initial fauxpas was all the less excusable, because his uncle, writing to his father Manus, had
directed him to have whichever of his sons he intended sending to Austria carefully
educated in the Irish language, for Count Henry desired to have his nephew’s help in
instructing his own children in the language of their ancestors. "The tongue being
Irish, the heart must needs be Irish, too."From ‘The Story of The Irish Race’, a 1921
book by Seamus MacManus.
Erin Go Bragh!