CHAP. VI. BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. THE morning of Tuesday the 1st of July, 1690, was calm and bright. About six o'clock William's right wing, under Douglas and Count Schomberg, marched towards Slane; it consisted of twenty-four squadrons of horse, and six battalions of infantry: on their march to the right they discovered several shallows of the river, and crossed without proceeding to the point of Slane. This movement was effected without any serious resistance, the Irish having upon this part of the river only some scattered skirmishers, who fell back as the British advanced. Douglas and Schomberg now put their divisions into order, and reconnoitred the enemy; they soon perceived the French battalions and great part of the Irish cavalry, forming the left wing of James's army, drawn up in two lines. The countenance and disposition of the enemy made them halt, and send for reinforcements; these speedily arriving, the generals changed the order of battle; they extended their line to their right, so as to outflank the Irish, supporting their cavalry by alternate battalions of infantry; in this order they moved forward again. The Irish light infantry continued to retreat before them, skirmishing as they fell back, and taking advantage of every position to impede and annoy the advancing enemy. This they were enabled to do with considerable effect, the ground being divided into small fields, fenced by high and substantial ditches, which afforded secure lying to the skirmishers, and exposed the British to a galling fire as they scrambled over them. At length the right wing having passed this difficult ground, arrived at a plain of considerable extent; but it was a bog or morass, which effectually covered the left of the Irish army, and showed that, relying upon the natural strength of their position, the Irish had no intention of bringing their left into action. William was guilty of an error in ordering the movement he did, without knowing the nature of the ground upon the left of the Irish. He waited the time when he thought his right wing must have reached the enemy's left, and then ordered his centre to advance and cross the Boyne at Old Bridge. The Dutch guards, William's main strength, moved to the river-side with drums beating a march. Having arrived at the water's-edge, the drums ceased, and the soldiers plunged into the river; the stream rose shoulders of the grenadiers; but they moved on with much regularity, preserving their arms from the wet by holding them over their heads. On the opposite bank, the hedges which ran close to the brink of the river were lined with Irish infantry. In the rear of these hedges, in a hollow formed by some little hills, a solid body of foot were drawn up, consisting of seven regiments of Irish guards. These were supported by ten troops of horse guards, and by Tyrconnel's regiment of cavalry. This force was protected by their position from the fire of the English batteries, which passed over them. Here the brunt of the battle was expected to be fought. The Dutch troops continued their way unmolested till they had reached the middle of the river, when a hot fire was opened upon them from the Irish bank; but the Dutch moved on without being shaken, and soon gained the bank; here they formed rapidly, the skirmishers retiring before them. Those fine troops had hardly formed their squares when the Irish horse advanced at full speed, and charged them with great impetuosity. They stood the charge unbroken; and for several hours they had to sustain repeated charges, gallantly made, and bravely withstood. The Dutch guards were then the best infantry in Europe. William hastened to relieve his favourite troops. Two French hugonot regiments, and one British were pushed across the river to their assistance. Further down the stream, Sir John Hanmers and Count Nassau's regiments were crossing also to support the Dutch guards. To meet these, General Hamilton advanced at the head of a body of Irish infantry to the water's edge, and encountered the advancing enemy even in the stream. "It seemed," says an eye witness of the battle, "as if men and horses rose out of the earth by magic, so thick did the Irish battalions and squadrons come on, where a little before, nothing was visible but the grass and the brush wood." Hamilton, after a short conflict, fell back with his infantry before the French guards, and opening to the right and left, permitted the Irish horse to charge them. They advanced at full speed, passed through La Callimot's regiment, wheeled and charged them in flank, and scattered, and trampled them in the river. Callimot himself was killed, and a few of his regiment escaped to the opposite bank. While this was passing, the Dutch guards, now reinforced, were advancing slowly, but in close order, and fighting their way every inch of ground; the Irish infantry having the advantage of the hedges and brush wood to annoy their enemy. As they advanced, and as the ground charges from the bold cavalry, who seemed alone equal to contend with those fine troops to whom William owed his victory. The action now became close and general. In the centre, where the hottest of the battle raged, the Dutch guards still maintained their ground unbroken, and William continued to make repeated efforts to relieve and support them. After the French were broken, he pushed forward the Danish horse; they crossed the river, but had no sooner gained the bank than they were charged by the Irish cavalry, broken and driven back into the water; they fled across the stream in disorder, and dispersed in all directions. The superiority of the Irish horse was now so decided, and the want of British cavalry became so apparent, that the stragglers of William's army, who were spectators of the combat, and the flying soldiers, set up a general cry of “Horse, horse!" The cry passed along the British line, now broken in many parts and in great disorder, and was mistaken for an order to halt. The Irish ca This increased the confusion. valry had been every where victorious; they had broken and destroyed the Danish horse and the French infantry. The Dutch guards alone remained unbroken in the field. The Danish horse, who had made their escape across the river, continued their flight when they had passed, and spread the report of Wil 20 |