Preparations
On 4 June 1798, the rebels advanced from their camp on Carrigbyrne Hill to Corbet Hill, just outside New Ross town. The battle, the bloodiest of the 1798 rebellion, began at dawn on 5 June 1798 when the Crown garrison was attacked by a force of almost 10,000 rebels, massed in three columns outside the town. The attack had been expected since the fall of Wexford town to the rebels on 30 May and the British garrison of 2,000 had prepared defences both outside and inside the town. Trenches were dug and manned by skirmishers on the approaches to the town while cannon were stationed facing all the rapidly falling approaches and narrow streets of the town to counter the expected mass charges by the rebels, who were mainly armed with pikes.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of New Ross (1798)
Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
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—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Jane Austen (1775–1817)