Siege of Drogheda

Siege of Drogheda (1649)
Part of the Irish Confederate Wars
Date 3–11 September 1649 Location Drogheda, eastern Ireland Result English Parliamentarians take town and massacre the garrison.
Belligerents
Irish Catholic Confederate and English Royalist troops	English Parliamentarian New Model Army
Commanders and leaders
Arthur Aston	Oliver Cromwell
Strength
c.3,100	12,000
Casualties and losses
c.2800 soldiers killed, 200 captured.	150 killed.
unknown no. of civilians killed, estimates ~ 7–800

The siege of Drogheda (3–11 September 1649) at the outset of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The town of Drogheda in eastern Ireland was held by a combined English Royalist and Irish Catholic garrison when it was besieged and stormed by English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell. In the aftermath of the assault much of the garrison and an undetermined but "significant number" of civilians were killed by the Parliamentary troops.^[1]

Historians debate the legality of Cromwell's killing of the garrison of Drogheda and the extent to which civilians were targeted during the massacre after the taking of the town.

Drogheda was also besieged in 1641–42, during the Irish rebellion of 1641 when an insurgent Catholic force under Phelim O'Neill tried but failed to take the town. See Siege of Drogheda 1641

Background to the siege

Oliver Cromwell

See also: Irish Confederate Wars and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland in August 1649 to re-conquer the country on behalf of the English Parliament. The Parliamentarians were opposed in their aims by an alliance between Royalists defeated in the English Civil War, and an Irish Catholic movement the Confederate Catholic Association. The alliance was made in 1648 to oppose the Parliamentarians.

Just before Cromwell's landing, Dublin had been secured for the Parliament at the Battle of Rathmines. After their defeat the Royalists, under the Earl of Ormonde, retreated in disarray. Some of their Protestant regiments defected to Parliament and Ormonde had to try and rally the remaining "dispersed forces" so as to put together a new field army.^[2]

On 23 August the Royalists held a council of war at Drogheda, present at which were the Earls of Castlehaven and Westmeath, Sir Arthur Aston, Sir Thomas Armstrong (Quartermaster-General of Horse), Sir Robert Stewart and other Royalist leaders. It was resolved that the town should be held and four regiments were chosen for the defence. The garrison was composed of both English Royalists and Irish Confederate troops under Arthur Aston—with a total strength of about 3,100. The army was half Catholic, including some English Catholics, and half English and Irish Protestants.^[3][4] Ormonde's strategy was not to confront the Parliamentary forces in battle but to retain the towns in the east of Ireland and to, "let his allies hunger and sickness weaken the invaders".^[5]

Cromwell's tactics at Drogheda were determined by a need to take the port towns on Ireland's east coast quickly to ensure re-supply for his troops. The normal "campaigning season", when armies could live off the land, ran from spring to autumn. Cromwell had landed in Ireland late in the year and campaigning through the winter meant securing a constant re-supply from the sea.^[6] Cromwell therefore favoured rapid assaults on fortified places over time-consuming blockades to secure the all-important ports.^[7]

The Storming of Drogheda

A typical cannon of the period, as used in the siege of Drogheda

Cromwell arrived before Drogheda on September 3 and his siege guns, brought up by sea, arrived two days later.^[8] His total force was around 12,000 men and eleven heavy, 48-pounder, siege artillery pieces.^[9]

Drogheda's defences consisted of mediaeval curtain walls. These were high but relatively thin rendering them vulnerable to cannon fire. Most of the town was situated on the northern bank of the river Boyne but its two main gates, the Dublin and Duleek gates, were in an enclave south of the river.^[10]

Cromwell positioned his forces on the south side of the river Boyne in order to concentrate them for the assault, leaving the northern side of the town open and covered by a small screen of cavalry.^[11] In addition a squadron of Parliamentarian ships blockaded the harbour of the town.^[12]

In a letter to William Lenthall, Speaker of the English House of Commons, written shortly after the storming of the town, Cromwell explained why he did not fully invest the town—an action that would have left his divided command vulnerable to an attack by a relieving force and a simultaneous sortie by the garrison—but rather concentrated his troops on the south side of Drogheda for a swift assault.

The officers and soldiers of this Garrison were the flower of their Army. And their great expectation was, that our attempting this place would put fair to ruin us: they being confident of the resolution of their men, and the advantage of the place. If we had divided our force into two quarters to have besieged the North Town and the South Town, we could not have had such a correspondency between the two parts of our Army, but that they might have chosen to have brought their Army, and have fought with which part 'of ours' they pleased,—and at the same time have made a sally with 2,000 men upon us, and have left their walls manned; they having in the Town the number hereafter specified, but some say near 4,000.

—Oliver Cromwell,^[13]

Summons to surrender

The Parliamentary commander set up his batteries at two points near the Duleek gate, either side of St Mary's Church, where they would have an interlocking field of fire. Having opened two breaches in the walls, one to the south the other to the east of the church, he called on the Royalists to surrender.^[14]

On Monday 10 September Cromwell had a letter delivered to the governor, the English Royalist, Sir Arthur Aston which read:^[15]

Sir, having brought the army of the Parliament of England before this place, to reduce it to obedience, to the end that the effusion of blood may be prevented, I thought fit to summon you to deliver the same into my hands to their use. If this be refused, you will have no cause to blame me. I expect your answer and remain your servant,

—O. Cromwell

The contemporary laws of war were clear: if surrender was refused and a garrison was taken by assault, then the lives of its defenders could be forfeit. That is; acceptance of a surrender of the besieged after the storming of the breach was at the discretion of the attacker.^[16]

Aston, the Royalist commander, refused to surrender.^[17] The garrison of Drogheda was critically short of gunpowder and ammunition. Their hope was that Ormonde, nearby at Tercroghan, with some 4,000 Royalist troops would come to their relief.^[9]

The assault

At 5pm on September 11, Cromwell ordered simultaneous assaults on the south and east breaches in the walls of Drogheda. Three regiments attacked the breaches, gaining a foothold in the south but being beaten off in the east. Cromwell had to reinforce the eastern attack with two more regiments before it succeeded, the second wave climbing over "a heaped pile of their comrades' corpses".^[18] At the southern breach the Royalists counter attacked. The death of their commander, Colonel Wall, caused them to fall back, allowing further Parliamentary reinforcements to be funneled into the breach. In the fighting at the walls some 150 New Model Army troops, including a Colonel, Castle, were killed.^[19]

After the death of Colonel Wall, and with more and more Parliamentary soldiers streaming into the breaches, Royalist resistance at the walls collapsed. Their surviving troops tried to flee across the river Boyne into the north of the town, while Arthur Aston and 250 others took refuge in Millmount Fort which overlooked Drogheda's southern defences. Others remained stranded in the towers along the town walls, while Cromwell's troops surged into the town below them.^[20]

With up to 6,000 Parliamentary troops now inside the town, Drogheda had been taken.

The massacre

A 19th century representation of the Massacre at Drogheda, 1649

Cromwell, upon riding into the town, was enraged by the sight of heaps of Parliamentarian dead at the breaches. Morril states "it was the sight of fallen comrades that was the occasion of Cromwell issuing the order for no quarter".^[21] In Cromwell's words, "In the heat of the action, I forbade them [his soldiers] to spare any that were in arms in the town...and, that night they put to the sword about two thousand men".^[22]

After breaking into the town the New Model soldiers pursued the defenders both through the streets and into private properties, sacking churches and defensible positions as they progressed.^[23] A drawbridge existed that would have blocked access to the northern side from the south side, but the defenders had no time to pull it up behind them and the killing continued in the northern part of town.^[24]

Killing of prisoners

Some 200 Royalists under Arthur Aston, the garrison commander, had barricaded themselves in Millmount Fort overlooking the south-eastern gate, while the rest of the town was being sacked.^[25] Wary of trying to storm the fort, which Cromwell described as, "a place very strong, and of difficult access, being exceeding high, having a good graft, and strongly palisaded",^[26] Parliamentary Colonel Axtell, "offered to spare the lives of the governor and the 200 men with him if they surrendered on the promise of their lives, which they did".^[27]

According to Axtell, the disarmed men were then taken to a windmill and killed about an hour after they had surrendered.^[27] Arthur Aston was reportedly beaten to death with his own wooden leg which the New Model Army soldiers believed had gold hidden in it.^[28] Cromwell wrote of the incident, "our men getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword".^[26]

Another group of about 80 Royalist soldiers sought refuge in St Peter's church at the northern end of Drogheda. Parliamentarian soldiers led by John Hewson, on Cromwell's orders, set fire to the Church.^[23] Some 30 of the defenders were burned to death in the fire and 50 more were killed outside when they fled the flames.^[29]

Drogheda from the south. In the foreground is the river Boyne, which the defenders fled over. Centre is St Peter's Church where around 80 Royalists soldiers were killed in the sack of the town.

The final major concentration of Royalist soldiers was 200 men, who had been stationed in two towers. They stayed in the towers during the sack of the town but surrendered the following day, September 12. All of the officers and one in every ten ordinary soldiers were killed by being clubbed to death The rest were deported to Barbados.^[30]

The heads of 16 Royalist officers were cut off and sent to Dublin, where they were stuck on pikes on the approach roads.^[31] Any Catholic clergy found within the town were killed by being clubbed to death or, "knocked on the head", as Cromwell put it,^[32] including two who were executed the following day.^[33]

Cromwell wrote on 16 September 1649: "I believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defenders. I do not think 30 of the whole number escaped with their lives; those that did are in safe custody for Barbados".^[34] Specifically, he listed Royalist casualties as 60 officers, 220 cavalry troopers and 2,500 infantry.^[35]

However Colonel John Hewson wrote "those in the towers being about 200, did yield to the Generals mercy, where most of them have their lives and be sent to Barbados.” Other reports spoke of 400 military prisoners.^[36] Some of the garrison escaped over the northern wall, while according to one Royalist officer, Dungan, "many were privately saved by officers and soldiers", in spite of Cromwell's order for no quarter.^[37] Richard Talbot, the future Jacobite Duke of Tyrconnell was one of the few members of the garrison to survive the sack.

Civilian casualties

It has not been clearly established how many civilians died in the sack of Drogheda. Cromwell listed the dead as including, "many inhabitants" of Drogheda in his report to Parliament. Hugh Peters, an officer on Cromwell's council of war, gave the total loss of life as 3,552, of whom about 2,800 were soldiers, meaning that between 700–800 civilians were killed.^[36] John Barratt wrote in 2009, "there are no reliable reports from either side that many [civilians] were killed".^[38]

The only surviving civilian account of the siege is from Dean Bernard, a Protestant cleric, though a Royalist. He states that during the sack while some 30 of his parishioners were sheltering in his house Parliamentarian troops fired in through the windows killing one civilian and wounding another. They then broke into the house firing their weapons, but were stopped from killing those inside when an officer known to Bernard identified them as Protestants. The fate of less fortunate civilians may therefore have been worse.^[39]

The week after the storming of Drogheda, the Royalist press in England claimed that 2,000 of the 3,000 dead were civilians—a theme that was taken up both in English Royalist and in Irish Catholic accounts. Irish clerical sources in the 1660s claimed that 4,000 civilians had died at Drogheda, denouncing the sack as "unparalleled savagery and treachery beyond any slaughterhouse".^[40]

Debates over Cromwell's actions

Cromwell justified his actions at Drogheda in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, as follows;^[41]

I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches, who have imbrued their hands with so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are satisfactory grounds for such actions which cannot otherwise but work remorse and regret.

Historians have interpreted the first part of this passage, "the righteous judgement of God", in two ways. Firstly as a justification for the massacre of the Drogheda garrison in reprisal for the Irish massacre of English and Scottish Protestants in 1641. In this interpretation the "barbarous wretches" referred to would mean Irish Catholics.^[33]

However, as Cromwell was aware, Drogheda had never fallen to the Irish rebels in 1641, or the forces of Confederate Ireland in the years that followed. The garrison was in fact English as well as Irish and comprised Catholics and Protestants of both nationalities. The first Irish Catholic troops to be admitted to Drogheda arrived in 1649, as part of the alliance between the Irish Confederates and English Royalists.^[42] Historian John Morrill has argued that in fact it was English Royalist officers who were singled out for the most ruthless treatment—being denied quarter, executed after being taken prisoner and whose heads were publicly displayed on pikes.^[43] From this viewpoint, he argued that by "barbarous wretches" Cromwell meant the Royalists, who in Cromwell's view had refused to accept "the judgement of God" in deciding the civil war in England and were unnecessarily prolonging the Civil Wars.^[44]

The second part of Cromwell's statement, that the massacre would, "tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future", is accepted to mean that such severity, including such terrorising tactics as clubbing to death and public display of heads, would discourage future resistance and prevent further loss of life.^[45] Another of Cromwell's officers wrote, "such extraordinary severity was designed to discourage others from making opposition". Indeed the neighbouring garrisons of Trim and Dundalk surrendered or fled when they heard the news of what had happened at Drogheda.^[46]

Several recent analyses by historians, particularly by Tom Reilly, have claimed that Cromwell’s orders were not exceptionally cruel by the standards of the day, which were that a fortified town that refused an offer of surrender, and was subsequently taken by assault, was not entitled to quarter.^[47] However, other historians have argued that, while, "Arthur Aston had refused a summons to surrender, thereby technically forfeiting the lives of the garrison in the event of a successful assault...the sheer scale of the killing [at Drogheda] was simply unprecedented."^[48]

According to John Morrill, the massacre at Drogheda, "was without straightforward parallel in 17th century British or Irish history". The only comparable case in Cromwell's previous career was that at Basing House, where 100 soldiers, out of 400 were killed after a successful assault. "So the Drogheda massacre does stand out for its mercilessness, for its combination of ruthlessness and calculation, for its combination of hot- and cold-bloodiness".^[49]

See also

• Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
• Drogheda
• Irish battles
• List of massacres in Ireland

References

1. ^ Micheal O Siochru, God's Executioner, p. 95
2. ^ OSiochru pp. 73–76
3. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 53.
4. ^ James Scott Wheeler, Cromwell in Ireland, pp. 80,81
5. ^ Scott Wheeler, p. 80
6. ^ O Siochru pp. 77–80
7. ^ Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, p. 175
8. ^ Scott Wheeler, p. 83
9. ^ ^{a b} O Siochru p. 81
10. ^ Scott Wheeler, pp. 83–85
11. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 58.
12. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 63.
13. ^ Cromwell letter to William Lenthall, Dublin, 17 September 1649
14. ^ Scott Wheeler, pp. 85,86
15. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 64.
16. ^ Levene, p. 119
17. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 59.
18. ^ John Morril, The Drogheda Massacre in Cromwellian Context, in Edwards, Lenihan, eds, The Age of Atrocity, p. 255
19. ^ Scott Wheeler, pp. 86,87
20. ^ Scott Wheeler, pp. 87,88
21. ^ Morril p 255
22. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 71.
23. ^ ^{a b} Reilly 1999, p. 75 quoting Perfect Diurnall, 8 October 1649
24. ^ Scott Wheeler p. 88
25. ^ Reilly 1999, pp. 73,74 quoting the Moderate Intelligencer, 4 October 1649
26. ^ ^{a b} S.E.A. p. 243
27. ^ ^{a b} Morrill p. 255
28. ^ Geoffrey Parker, Empire War and Faith in Early Modern Europe, p. 158
29. ^ Scott Wheeler p. 87
30. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 78.
31. ^ Morrill p. 256
32. ^ Reilly 1999, p. 79.
33. ^ ^{a b} O Siochru p. 84
34. ^ Sylvanus Urban (editor 1834), published by The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 155, January–June 1834, William Pickering, John Bower, Nicolas and Son. p. 150, footnotes. George Steinman Steinman (Jan 1834) "Memoirs Aruther Aston, Knt"
35. ^ Morrill p. 253
36. ^ ^{a b} Morrill p. 254
37. ^ O Siochru p. 87
38. ^ Sieges of the English civil wars by John Barratt published by Pen and Sword Books, 2009, in Orders Of The Daye The Sealed Knot re-enactment society, 2 March 2010
39. ^ O Siochru p. 89, "the implications of this sequence of events for the town's Catholics do not require any further explanation...according to the one surviving civilian account of the storming of Drogheda, the New Model Army deliberately attacked non-combatants in their homes".
40. ^ O Siochru p. 95
41. ^ Morrill p. 257
42. ^ Parker p. 158, O Siochru p. 84
43. ^ Morrill pp. 257,258
44. ^ Morrill p. 258
45. ^ Morrill p. 256; Parker p. 158; O Siochru p. 85
46. ^ Parker p. 158
47. ^ Reilly 1999^{[page needed]}
48. ^ O Siochru p. 85
49. ^ Morrill pp. 263–265

Bibliography

• Churchill, Winston. The curse of Cromwell, vol. 41, no. 21, Life, 19 November 1956
• Gentles, Ian. The New Model Army, Cambridge 1994, ISBN 0-631-19347-2
• Keegan, John & Ohlmeyer, Jane (editors). 'The Civil Wars, Oxford 1998. ISBN 0-19-866222-X
• Lenihan, Padraig. Confederate Catholics at War, Cork 2001, ISBN 1-85918-244-5
• Levene, Mark & Roberts, Penny (editors 1999) The massacre in history, Volume 1 of Studies on War and Genocide,Berghahn Series, Berghahn Books
• O Siochru, Micheal, God's Executioner, Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland, Faber & Faber 2008.
• Morrill, John, The Drogheda Massacre in Cromwellian Context, in Edwards, Lenihan, Tait, eds, The Age of Actrocity, Four Courts Press, 2007.
• Reilly, Tom (1999). Cromwell, An Honourable Enemy. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1 84212 080 8. 
• Parker, Geoffrey, Empire War and Faith in Early Modern Europe, Penguin, 2003.
• Scott Wheeler, James. Cromwell in Ireland, Dublin 1999, ISBN 978-0-7171-2884-6
• Hill, Christopher. God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution, New York 1970. ISBN 061316660
• S.E.A., Father John, or, Cromwell in Ireland, Henry Ferris, Liverpool 1842 Available on Google Books