Midlands Campaign
Perry and the surviving column then left Wexford and reached the Wicklow hills on July 5, having fought off a pursuit led by General James Duff (perpetrator of the Gibbet Rath massacre) at the battle of White Heaps/Ballygullen. Some rebels took to the hills to fight on in a protracted guerrilla war; some returned to their homes; but the bulk set off on a march into the midlands to revive the rebellion under the effective leadership of Perry and Fr. Mogue Kearns. Crossing into Kildare on July 9, the rebels captured a keg of gunpowder near Newbridge and linked up with remnants of the Kildare rebels under William Aylmer. Following consultation with their Kildare comrades, it was then decided to swing northwards and attack Clonard in County Meath, partly because they believed stores of arms were located there, but also to elude the thousands of soldiers combing Kildare for rebels.
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Famous quotes containing the words midlands and/or campaign:
“Sunday night meant, in the dark, wintry, rainy Midlands ... anywhere where two creatures might stand and squeeze together and spoon.... Spooning was a fine art, whereas kissing and cuddling are calf-processes.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The winter is to a woman of fashion what, of yore, a campaign was to the soldiers of the Empire.”
—HonorĂ© De Balzac (17991850)