Battle of Enniscorthy

Thirty or forty headstrong cattle, goaded by pikemen, crashed through the British line at the Duffry Gate on 28 May 1798, breaking a defence that musket fire alone had held. The rebels had come from Carrigrew Hill through Camolin and Ferns, swollen by west-bank men at Ballyorrill, and they struck at noon with muskets centre and pikes flanking. When the cattle charged and thatched houses caught fire behind the gate, the garrison fell back street by street to the Slaney bridge, where Thomas Synnott waded in from Blackstoops and helped drive them out. A hundred British soldiers died, perhaps five hundred rebels, and the town emptied in a panic of women, children and defeated red coats running for Wexford.