Battle of Dungan's Hill
| date | August 1647 |
|---|---|
| place | Dungan's Hill ( Cnoc Dhongan ), near Summerhill, County Meath |
| output | English victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Irish Confederate Leinster Army |
English Parliamentarians Army |
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 6,000 | 6,000 |
| losses | |
|
over 3,000 |
low |
The Battle of Dungan's Hill ( English Battle of Dungan's Hill , Irish Cath Chnoc Dhongan ) took place during the Irish Confederation Wars in August 1647 between the Army of the Confederation of Ireland and the English Army of Parliament in the east of Ireland . The Irish army was intercepted and destroyed on their march towards Dublin . Although the battle itself is relatively unknown in Ireland, it was relatively bloody (with over 3,000 dead) and had a major political impact that eventually led to the collapse of the Irish Confederation in 1649 .
background
In 1647 the Irish Confederation controlled all of Ireland with the exception of a few parliamentary enclaves around Dublin and Cork , as well as a Scottish outpost in Ulster . A year earlier, the Confederation had refused a treaty with the English royalists to first drive the remaining British troops out of Ireland.
In August 1647 the Confederate Army from Leinster under Thomas Preston was on the way to Dublin to defeat the English parliamentary garrison there under Michael Jones and to recapture Dublin. Jones's army was at Trim Castle to support the garrison there. Preston, who had Jones watched, tried to seize the opportunity to reach Dublin before Jones. However, he managed only about 20 km and so it came 40 km from Dublin at Dungan's Hill (near the present-day town of Summerhill, on the main road between Trim and Maynooth ) to fight the armies of around 6,000 men.
The battle
From a parliamentary perspective, victory was almost given to them by the incompetence of the Irish commanders . Preston was indeed a veteran of the Thirty Years' War , when he Spanish garrison at Leuven commanded, but had no experience with open warfare or the use of cavalry - in contrast to Jones. Preston tried to get his riders into position over a narrow path, but they came under fire without being able to defend themselves. Demoralized, the riders fled, leaving the Irish infantry behind.
The Confederate infantry were armed mainly with pikes and heavy muskets , and their preferred formation ( tercio ) resembled those of Spanish troops, which were difficult to break through, but also very rigid and immobile. In addition, the Irish cavalry was missing to protect the flanks of the formation. Worse, however, was that Preston positioned his army within a large, stone-walled field so that they could easily be surrounded by enemy units. Just under half of the infantry, including Preston, managed to break through the ranks of the English cavalry and flee to a nearby moor where the enemy riders could not follow them.
The remaining Irish infantry were able to repel a few attacks on their position before attempting to follow their comrades into the safe moor. In doing so, however, they dissolved their position, which gave the British riders the opportunity to split the troop and eventually encircle it. What exactly happened after that is not fully understood. Parliamentary sources speak simply of the destruction of the Irish force. Irish sources say the troops surrendered but were then massacred. Another source, Catholic monk O Meallain , claims the bodies of Irish foot soldiers were found with their feet tied together. A study from 2001 (Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War , Cork 2001) considers the following scenario to be the most likely: The Irish tried to surrender, which according to the rules of war in the 17th century did not have to be accepted. In this case, the parliamentarians refused and massacred the Irish soldiers. Approx. 3,000 Confederate soldiers died at Dungan's Hill - most in the massacre at the end of the battle. The few prisoners that were taken were mostly officers for whom you could ask for a ransom or exchange them for your own prisoners. Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconell (later Earl of Tyrconnell and Lord Deputy of Ireland ) was among the prisoners .
Immediately after this battle, the Ulster Confederate Army under Eoghan Rua Ó Néill went south to protect the areas in Leinster from parliamentary troops. But the best trained and equipped army of the Confederation had been defeated and the chance to win this war without the help of the English royalists was lost .