The Battle of the Yellow Ford Part 2

 

The English column proceeded accompanied by the constant attentions of the Irish skirmishing shot.  To this was added the trial of the Saker it weighed 2,500 lbs and normally it required 5 horses or 24 men to move it.  An exasperated English officer noted it got stuck every 120 yards or so.  

Leading the Van Sir Richard Percy raced ahead of his paired regiment. He was a younger son of the Earl of Northumberland and was accompanied by his personal flag which was “Heavy with the silver crescents of the Percies”.  Sir Richard was the most aristocratic of the English commanders that day and seems to have had little regard for the Marshal. At the subsequent inquiry into the conduct of the battle he squarely put the blame on Bagenal for failing to keep up with him.

Marshal Bagenal’s regiment stopped to once again extricate the Saker from the mud.  Sir Richard wouldn’t wait and simply left him to it.  The carefully maintained distance between the regiments was thus disrupted.  Something similar was happening at the Rearward where more committed Irish attacks had forced colonels Billings and Cuney to stand while the Battle marched on. 

Soon Percy’s regiment were confronted by a trench four-foot-wide and five feet deep backed by a five feet high embankment topped with thorns.  There was no question of going around it as it stretched for a mile in length.  As field works went it was not a particularly formidable barrier and significantly no Irish shot lined the parapet.  It was undefended but unavoidable and for the rest of the battle it was to have a mesmeric effect on the English commanders.

On Percy’s flank the Irish shot had begun to close the range and casualties began to accrue.  Sir Richard ordered out his loose shot only to see them driven in again. At this stage he could have waited for the Marshal’s regiment to catch up and add to the English fire power. Perhaps Sir Callisthenes Brook’s cavalry could have driven in the Irish shot. Sir Richard chose not to wait. 

Spurred on by the casualties his regiment was taking Percy ordered his men over the trench and with difficulty they cleared it arriving in disorder at the other side.  We should understand that handling 15-foot pikes while wearing half armour is not conducive to climbing.  The calivers and muskets would have gone first in that order. No doubt they had their match burning and bullets in their mouths.

Once over and reordered they marched on uphill. The besieged garrison of the Blackwater fort could see the flags of the regiment and threw their caps in the air and set up a cheer.  They were commanded by that formidable old Welsh soldier Captain Williams.  We are told that “They hoped their supper might be better than their dinner”.  They had been on short rations for a long time.

Percy’s men were immediately assailed by more Irish shot who once more drove in the English shot.  English pike men began to get shot at close range and squadrons of Irish Horse now sought to break into the regiment’s formation.  This had the effect of forcing Percy’s soldiers closer together hampering their good order.  Irish targeteers now charged in. Using their big shields to push up the protective English pikes they got among the soldiery and started killing. 

 

Sir Henry had abandoned the still stuck Saker and now he reached the trench.  From his side of it he could hear that something had gone wrong.  His full face helmet meant he could not properly see the extent of the problem.   

There was no succour for Percy’s regiment. The supporting Horse that could have saved them were on the wrong side of the Irish field work and could neither get through it or ride around it. 

Now Bagenal’s regiment was coming under increasingly heavy fire from the Irish shot who advanced seconded by their supporting pike.  

Soon survivors of Percy’s regiment were pouring back over the embankment with many men landing in the trench and being trampled by those behind them.  Plainly something had gone very wrong. 

The Marshal quickly ordered his own regiment over the trench and to the rescue. They came back just as speedily having been roughly handled. We should understand that they would have arrived there in disorder and found themselves amid hostile troops and  panicking fleeing comrades.  

Bagenal's regiment faced English soldiers running pell-mell down hill into their front.  Behind the fugitives Irish targeteers were stabbing and slashing.  On their flanks the Irish Horse were spearing the running men.  Meanwhile the Irish shot had moved to close range.  Bagenal's soldiers had neither the time or the space to form up. There was nothing useful to be done on the far side of the trench and sensibly they retired.

In an effort to better assess the rapidly deteriorating situation Sir Henry raised the visor of his helmet and was fatally shot in the face.

Further down the column Sir Thomas Maria Wingfield had reached the abandoned Saker.  He ordered men from the Battle to extricate it.  The six oxen that had pulled it presumably had been shot. Their owner certainly subsequently claimed their value from the Queen.

The Rearward continued to fight off Randall McSorley and Brian McBarron’s troops who were now supported by cavalry.

Tyrone, O'Donnell and Maguire, the latter commanding the Irish cavalry, had their troops well in hand.  

By contrast the English Army was falling into disarray.  The carefully ordered line of march designed for rapid conversion into line of battle by the simple expedient of a three quarter turn-was gone.  Bagenal had thought the Irish attack would come from the flank.  If it had the English would have turned and faced it with six mutually supporting regiments laced with cannon and flanked by cavalry.  

Instead the Irish had defeated the Van in detail inflicting heavy casualties.  The Rearward of the English column was effectively pinned and Bagenal was now dead.  

Further disaster was imminent.  A soldier of the Battle seeking to replenish his powder flask dropped his lit match into the powder wagon.  The resulting explosion killed many soldiers and disrupted the surrounding regiment's formation. 

The Irish shot now came in close shooting down the pike men.  At this point some 300 English soldiers deserted to the enemy.  Most, but not all of them, were Irish in English employ.

Amid the chaos the surviving English officers agreed that Colonel Sir Thomas Maria Wingfield should take command of the army.