Following their success at Windmill Hill, the defenders spent some days strengthening their forward positions. Lundy’s original line of outposts was improved to become a defensive line with redoubts across Windmill Hill from the low ground in the west to the river in the east; a second arm at a right angle to this provided cover from the west and the bog.107 The new fortifications were intended to protect the soldiers manning them from cannon fire from the other side of the river and to provide a base for sorties from the city. At first it was decided that the line would be garrisoned by the city’s regiments in turn but this plan was superseded when suspicions were expressed about one of the commanding officers. Fearing that an entire regiment might defect with disastrous consequences, the plan was changed to create an ad hoc defensive unit made up from detachments of each regiment in the garrison.108
Those who manned this line of outposts had to be on constant alert as was shown when, on 10 May, Colonel Blair’s detachment was ‘nearly surprised by a large body of the enemy’s troops’. Blair was holding that part of the line on the right flank which adjoined the boggy terrain. His troops were posted in the ditches on low-lying ground as the enemy cavalry approached and they did not notice the horsemen. However, Adam Murray, watching from the city walls, saw what was about to happen and immediately mounted his horse, galloped through Butcher’s Gate, down Bog Street and on to Blair’s position where he warned the latter of his danger. Blair was thus able to withdraw his men with no loss although one officer, Captain Ricaby, received a bullet wound in his arm. Murray returned unhurt although he had to pass Jacobite infantry who had taken up position in the hedges.109
On the day after this engagement a force marched out of the city to attack the Jacobite camp at Pennyburn. By now, however, some Jacobite artillery had been deployed there and these guns opened up on the attacking Williamites. In the face of heavy fire the attempt was abandoned and the force returned to the comparative safety of the walls. On the 12th a number of sorties were made against ‘strolling parties of the enemy’. Some Jacobite soldiers and officers in those parties were shot, while, that night, some cavalry scouts from the garrison were attacked on the edge of the bog opposite the Royal Bastion. There was a spirited exchange of fire in which a Jacobite officer was said to have been killed.110
Both sides maintained artillery fire over the next three days during which a boy lost his leg to a cannon ball in Pump Street, close to the city centre; the round then rebounded and struck the cathedral, lodging in the wall.111 At the same time the Jacobite army moved its main headquarters from St Johnston to Ballougry Hill, some two miles from the city. A second grand division encamped at Pennyburn and a third at Stronge’s orchard, from which entrenchments now extended along the ridge on the east side of the river. Some effort at circumvallation was being made and the Jacobite army was closing in on the city, in spite of their setback at Windmill Hill. It was noted that the enemy had ‘taken possession of several strong positions, so as to intercept all communications between the town and the country’.112 To make matters worse, the water supply within the walls had become polluted and undrinkable, forcing rationing of water. Drinking water had now to be drawn from wells outside the walls, including St Columb’s well, which is still in existence, on the verge of the bog.113
Small actions continued to be the principal story around the city, with a Williamite sergeant and four Jacobite soldiers killed between 16 and 19 May.114 But not only was water in short supply, forage for the horses was also running very low. This imperilled Murray’s Regiment by threatening the horses with starvation. In an effort to alleviate the situation a foraging party was sent out towards Creggan on 18 May. (This is not the modern housing estate of that name, which is actually built on the townlands of Edenballymore and Ballymagowan, but a townland to the north-west of the city beyond the Rosemount area.) Three officers, Captains Cunningham, Noble and Sanderson, commanded the party, which, on the outward journey, drove the Jacobites from a small fort. However, on the return trip the party was intercepted by a Jacobite cavalry detachment commanded by Lord Galmoy (Piers Butler). In the ensuing action, seventeen Williamites were taken prisoner, including Captain Cunningham. There followed an incident that must have caused considerable revulsion in the Williamite ranks. Proposals were made for an exchange of prisoners but these were refused by the Jacobites after which Cunningham and his companions ‘were treacherously and barbarously butchered’. Some of the defenders believed that Galmoy was among the Jacobite wounded but this proved false. Cunningham’s body was subsequently brought to the city where he was buried with full military honours on the 20th.115
This incident was unusual in the conduct of the conflict at Derry thus far. Those Jacobites taken prisoner at the battle of Windmill Hill were treated with dignity and accommodated within the city and the Williamites might have expected this to be reciprocated. However, the incident was almost inevitable given the involvement of Galmoy, a man who had already gained a reputation for barbarity in Fermanagh. There Galmoy had negotiated with the defenders of Enniskillen to exchange Captain Woolston Dixie, of the Enniskillen garrison, for Captain Brian Maguire, a Jacobite officer held prisoner in Enniskillen. Although Maguire was released, Galmoy had Dixie and another Williamite officer, Edward Carleton, hanged from a signpost in Belturbet. This was bad enough but the bodies were then decapitated and, allegedly, used by Galmoy’s soldiers in a grisly game of football in the local market place. Galmoy’s explanation for hanging Dixie, the eldest son of the Dean of Kilmore, was that a commission from William to raise troops was found on him for which offence he was tried by court martial, found guilty and sentenced to death.116 However, it is entirely likely that Galmoy knew of the commission and intended to court martial and execute Dixie while he was conducting the negotiations for the exchange. This would have made his behaviour much more reprehensible to the Enniskillen defenders. His behaviour at Creggan did not even have the patina of the due process of military justice about it that he could claim for the Dixie hanging. The behaviour of Galmoy and the murders of his prisoners can only have inspired fear and loathing in the defenders of the city.
Siege warfare includes periods when little seems to happen even though people such as engineers and pioneers, or labourers, may be kept busy. As one chronicler of the siege commented, ‘Nothing considered very important in the way of warfare’ occurred between 21 and 26 May, although he goes on to note that five Jacobites were killed.117 The circumstances of these deaths are not described but it may be assumed that they perished as a result of some form of military action. Here is a parallel to Remarque’s comment that on the day the central character in his story was killed the official communiqués noted that it was ‘all quiet on the Western front’.
These days of quiet were marked by particular religious observance, the Presbyterians holding a solemn fast with sermons ‘preached accordingly’ while the Anglicans also held a fast and they, too, had ‘appropriate sermons’.118 One wonders if these fasts and sermons were inspired in any way by the fate of Captain Cunningham and his men.
Far from the besieged living together in a state of harmony, there were tensions. As we have already noted, there was an underlying tension between Anglican and Dissenter but there was also tension between some of the most experienced soldiers of the garrison. Henry Baker, the governor, and Jonathan Mitchelburne, the commanding officer of one of the regiments in the city, had ‘some sharp words’ which led to a scuffle between the two. According to Mackenzie, this arose from suspicions about Mitchelburne that were entertained by Baker and the garrison in early May. The governor decided to confine Mitchelburne to his chamber but the latter struck out with his sword when he was apprehended. In the ensuing clash he was wounded, just above the left ankle, by Baker. The dispute is not mentioned at all by Walker while Ash dismisses it summarily although Mackenzie provides a little more detail but comments that the grounds of the suspicion ‘were too tedious to relate’. There is, however, an account from Mitchelburn
e himself, who recorded that he had been instructed by Baker to oversee the issue of a tobacco ration to the garrison but that he, Mitchelburne, decided to provide only a half ration to the companies of Baker’s Regiment since these were only at half strength. This seems sensible but some of the soldiers complained to Baker, who described Mitchelburne as a ‘rascal’ and ordered him to be confined.119 Following the contretemps between the pair, Mitchelburne was placed under house arrest but Baker seems to have thought better of his original suspicions as, when he was taken ill subsequently and confined to his quarters, he nominated Mitchelburne, now recovered from his wound, to act as governor in his place. Macrory suggests that the original suspicion arose from one of those rumours that ‘so easily arise when men are cooped up behind walls and surrounded by an enemy’.120 In this case it was not a rumour but a grievance without substance. But Macrory is certainly correct when he asserts that Mitchelburne’s record was such that his loyalty to the defenders’ cause was not in doubt.121
But Mitchelburne was not the only prominent member of the garrison on whom suspicion fell at this time. George Walker also found himself being investigated for his behaviour. Naturally, this is not mentioned in his own account of the siege, which may also explain why he did not mention the suspicions about Mitchelburne. The Reverend John Mackenzie, Presbyterian chaplain to Walker’s own regiment, enlightens us about this episode, however:
About the end of May, most of the officers having been for some time suspicious of Governor Walker, drew up several articles against him, some of which were to the effect following, according to the account I had of them from the memories of some of the officers then present.122
The first complaint against Walker was that, about 18 April, he, and others, had a secret meeting at which they decided to seek terms from King James and sent a messenger to the Jacobite camp to this effect. Next on the list of complaints came Walker’s involvement in the later escape of this messenger who, on his return to the city, had been confined on suspicion of dealing with the Jacobites. Then it was said that, at the end of April, while defending troops were outside the walls, Walker and others conspired ‘to shut the gates upon them, to facilitate a surrender’. He was also accused of stealing or embezzling the stores, of offering to betray the town for £500 in hand and a pension of £700 a year from King James, which offer was approved by James, and of abusing officers who went to the stores. Mackenzie also notes that there was another complaint against Walker, ‘relating to personal vices, [but which] I shall not mention’.123
Over a hundred officers of the garrison signed a resolution asking that Walker be prosecuted and that he be removed from ‘all trust either in the stores or in the army’. This led to a proposal, to which Baker gave his assent, that the stores and garrison be henceforth administered by a council of fourteen with Baker as its president. No decisions were to be made without the council being consulted, which was likely to lead to an extremely unwieldy conduct of the city’s defence. This proved to be the case, as the council’s meetings were interrupted frequently by bombs and, although the council remained the ruling authority until the end of the siege, it seems that Baker was able to conduct affairs effectively without having to call meetings.124
This period of relative calm ended about midnight on the 27th when there was another engagement close to the windmill. This followed a double sally by the defenders with about 150 moving out from the windmill towards Ballougry and another party of equal strength making for Pennyburn. These detachments were commanded by Lieutenant Green and Ensign Dunbar although it is unclear who commanded which. However, the party that ‘went the way of Ballougry did nothing’ but the second party engaged with Jacobite troops near a fort that the latter had erected. As a result of this encounter two Williamites were killed and four wounded. Although they had ‘shot briskly’ at the enemy, no effect was claimed for their efforts. Ash notes that the defenders’ artillery later killed a Jacobite captain and wounded two men.125
Subsequently the garrison’s guns on the Double Bastion fired on a troop of Jacobite dragoons who were making their way towards Pennyburn and claimed to have killed three of them, an incident which Ash confirms and for which he notes that Governor Baker gave the gunners half a cob (a loaf of bread). Whether in retaliation or not, the Jacobites fired eighteen shells into the city that night, prompting an order to move 107 barrels of gunpowder from the cathedral into dry wells where they were safer.126 Some Jacobite reinforcements appeared with two regiments of horse and foot that arrived from Strabane. These stopped to rest near Captain Stuart’s house, on the east bank of the Foyle, but were persuaded to move on when five cannon fired at them from the Church Bastion.127
The morale of the defenders was lifted on the 31st when it was learned that Jacobite despatches to Dublin, captured from a messenger the previous day, claimed that their losses thus far totalled almost 3,000 men.128 Yet another skirmish took place close to the windmill although no casualties were noted, and a shell, presumably from a mortar, burst near the city’s main magazine, on the site of Docwra’s fort, previously O’Doherty’s fort.129 (This is the site of the modern Tower Museum which incorporates a 1980s’ reconstruction of the fort.)
The artillery continued to fire both cannon and mortars, and a number of the rounds fired by the Jacobites are recorded together with their results or lack thereof. A large shell weighing nineteen pounds struck the cathedral but did little damage, whereas two men lost their legs to another round that fell on a cabin at the rear of the bishop’s house. In both cases the rounds are probably mortar bombs, which is borne out by the statement that they were ‘thrown into the town at night’.130 Additional works had been carried out on the defences with new gun platforms built at the end of May on which six more guns were placed.131 There is, however, no explanation of where these extra guns came from; it is probable that they had been in the city all along but had hitherto not been emplaced.
By the end of May the situation of the besieged was worsening. Until then they had been able to keep some cattle, but forage was running out and the cattle began to die. Provisions for the garrison and the inhabitants were also becoming scarce and expensive although a rationing system was in place. Mackenzie commented that ‘where they could find a horse-a-grazing, near the Wind-Mill, they would kill and eat him’. Although there was a stock of oats, shelling – grain husks – and malt in the town, there was no way of milling these and they remained unusable for the time being.132
And still the Jacobite artillery pounded the city: on 3 June there was a heavy bombardment that damaged many houses and left ‘streets furrowed’ while three civilians, two men and a woman, were killed. One of the garrison, Major Graham, died from injuries he received while leaning over Ship Quay Gate where he was hit in the belly. That night another fifteen shells landed inside the city causing considerable damage to buildings and killing many, including seven soldiers of Colonel Lance’s Regiment who had been sitting in the house belonging to a Mr Harper in Shipquay Street.133
This bombardment followed the arrival of what Berwick described as ‘six pieces de gros canon’ which, it is reasonable to assume, were specialist siege guns. These had come overland from Dublin12 rather than being transported by water which was the preferred way of transporting such heavy weapons (and one of the reasons why France, The Netherlands and Russia have so many canals). However, they did not represent the entire additional complement of artillery that had been intended for the Jacobite army at Derry. The French commander of the Jacobite artillery and engineers, the Marquis de Pointis, a naval officer, had travelled south to Kinsale during May ‘to aid the bringing over of arms, but all in vain for the heavy battering guns became unserviceable’.134 It is not clear how these guns became unserviceable but this meant that the defenders of the city were spared the full weight of the siege artillery that their foes had hoped to deploy against them.
Meanwhile de Pointis had also been busy building a boom across the Foyle. The site chosen was almost
that of the modern Foyle Bridge, to the north of the city, but de Pointis’ first effort was little removed from a farce. He chose to have the boom made from oak of which there was a plentiful supply, but this boom was so heavy that it sank below the surface and was soon broken by the force of the tides.135 It was back to the design board for the Frenchman, who contrived a second boom, made from squared fir beams and articulated so that it could rise and fall with the tides – the Foyle is tidal as far as Strabane – and this appeared to be more successful. The ends of the beams were socketed, albeit roughly, and metal hooks were fitted to allow them to be linked together with cables, while a thick rope, about five or six inches in diameter, was fastened along the length of the boom, ‘like a rod in curtain rails’, to steady it; this rope was underwater to make cutting it more difficult.136 This new boom certainly floated, and its deterrent value was increased by the construction of artillery positions on the river banks at either end of the boom; these were supported by infantry posts designed to enfilade the boom. A feature of the design was that the boom ‘lay not directly athwart the flow of the Foyle but with its western end retracted to allow for the thrust of the flood and perhaps with calculation that boom, bank, following wind and incoming tide would provide a fatal pocket for any challenging vessel’.137 The principal defensive positions on either end of the boom were described as forts, that on the west bank being Charles Fort and its opposite number being Grange Fort. A third, small, fort was also built on the west bank. This was New Fort with a battery of two small guns.138
In length the boom measured some 200 yards and was ‘about five or six feet across’. On the west bank of the river it was held fast to a rock by a frame designed by de Pointis’ engineers, whereas the eastern end was secured by a great mound of rock and stones. Its designer was pleased with his work and reported this satisfaction to the French naval minister, Seignelay.139 Moreover, he told Seignelay that he intended to build a second boom which could be completed in two days. ‘With that it is admitted we shall be secure.’140 This was not built, nor is its proposed location known, but it would seem logical to have placed it closer to the city. Pointis was also concerned about his health, telling Seignelay that he had ‘got the fever again and the exertion I have given myself has apparently caused some bone splinters to become loose’.141 A much more effective obstruction to any relief fleet could have been achieved by sinking vessels in the channel. The Foyle is a shallow river and scuttling a ship, or ships, in the narrows close to Culmore would have denied access to the city for any vessels. That this was not done is believed to have been due to the intervention of James, who forbade the use of ‘a device which might have rendered the port unusable for an incalculable period’.142 Thus James made yet another in the litany of errors that lost him his kingdoms.
The Siege of Derry 1689 Page 16