Who told the rebels to take
the night off? And why?
But, once again, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We have to pop back to a decision that may have been made by Lalor that was a real ripsnorter, and spelled doom for the miners' cause at Eureka. Among a whole raft of stupid decisions, this one was probably the worst. Sometime in the late afternoon of 2 December, the Saturday, pressure was brought to bear on Lalor to allow his men to visit their families for the Saturday night. At least, this is the commonly told story. As we'll see, Lalor told a different tale which appeared to involve McGill.
The excuse was that the stockade was ill-suited to house so many men, and, of course, the incredibly civilised British army would never attack on a Sunday! Goodness only knows what the sanitary arrangements were. And as for food and water, one wonders if there were any apart from what kindly-disposed people brought in during the day.
And the civilised British army? Had none of these men studied any British history, especially the English subjugation of its colonies, including Ireland? For Lalor, if this was his decision, with his upbringing, it was unforgivable considering Ireland, along with Wales and Scotland, had more experience of English perfidy by far than anywhere else. How on earth could he have believed that Sunday would in some way be sacrosanct to the British army?
But, there you go. That's what seems to have happened, history is jam packed with stories of military leaders who make ineffably stupid decisions. In fact, as far as we can see they seem to be among the most common military stories, at least those told by members of the leaders' forces. So now only 150 men or so were left in the stockade.
The excuse was that the stockade was ill-suited to house so many men, and, of course, the incredibly civilised British army would never attack on a Sunday! Goodness only knows what the sanitary arrangements were. And as for food and water, one wonders if there were any apart from what kindly-disposed people brought in during the day.
And the civilised British army? Had none of these men studied any British history, especially the English subjugation of its colonies, including Ireland? For Lalor, if this was his decision, with his upbringing, it was unforgivable considering Ireland, along with Wales and Scotland, had more experience of English perfidy by far than anywhere else. How on earth could he have believed that Sunday would in some way be sacrosanct to the British army?
But, there you go. That's what seems to have happened, history is jam packed with stories of military leaders who make ineffably stupid decisions. In fact, as far as we can see they seem to be among the most common military stories, at least those told by members of the leaders' forces. So now only 150 men or so were left in the stockade.