Another Lalor blooper?
Moving on, it's very highly probably Rede's spies told their noxious paymaster about the departure of almost all the rebels, the arrival and departure of the Creswick crew, and the arrival, then apparent departure of McGill and his Brigade, or at least most of his Brigade. If, indeed, that departure at that time is, in fact, what happened. So Rede and his army accomplices would have been aware of the tiny number of rebels remaining and their general lack of preparedness.
The best complexion one can put on Lalor's decisions that evening, if he really was responsible, is that he seriously underestimated his enemy. Even with the troops who had recently marched into Ballarat under sporadic fire from the miners, the British force was small for an attack on a prepared defensive position. Even such a poor one as the stockade was.
It's possible Lalor thought the British would only attack when they had overwhelmingly superior forces. In which case, his thinking might have gone, they would await the arrival of reinforcements which were, in fact, on the way. Of course, it's not known whether these were the reinforcements McGill claimed later to have been planning to ambush, or whether his had been imaginary on that Saturday evening, and it was just a coincidental and logical probability that real reinforcements were on their way. Or, as many on the miners' side claimed, the whole story of the reinforcements and their location that night was rigged by Rede. Or, indeed, that McGill and/or Lalor actually knew of the approaching artillery, and possibly also of the following soldiers. Goodness!
But if Lalor's thinking was along these lines, what did he believe the British would make of an extremely shoddy stockade manned by only 150 or so mostly militarily untrained miners? Ah, but the next day was a Sunday, wasn't it? The British army was renowned for being full of gentlemen who would never attack on a Sunday, wasn't it? Well, actually, as we've discussed ad nauseum, no!
The best complexion one can put on Lalor's decisions that evening, if he really was responsible, is that he seriously underestimated his enemy. Even with the troops who had recently marched into Ballarat under sporadic fire from the miners, the British force was small for an attack on a prepared defensive position. Even such a poor one as the stockade was.
It's possible Lalor thought the British would only attack when they had overwhelmingly superior forces. In which case, his thinking might have gone, they would await the arrival of reinforcements which were, in fact, on the way. Of course, it's not known whether these were the reinforcements McGill claimed later to have been planning to ambush, or whether his had been imaginary on that Saturday evening, and it was just a coincidental and logical probability that real reinforcements were on their way. Or, as many on the miners' side claimed, the whole story of the reinforcements and their location that night was rigged by Rede. Or, indeed, that McGill and/or Lalor actually knew of the approaching artillery, and possibly also of the following soldiers. Goodness!
But if Lalor's thinking was along these lines, what did he believe the British would make of an extremely shoddy stockade manned by only 150 or so mostly militarily untrained miners? Ah, but the next day was a Sunday, wasn't it? The British army was renowned for being full of gentlemen who would never attack on a Sunday, wasn't it? Well, actually, as we've discussed ad nauseum, no!