"The Battle of the Yellow Ford" Topic

We have been discussing tactics on this board recently and I thought members might be interested in a little known pictorial account of the Battle of the Yellow Ford in Ireland. The artist was an English officer who survived the fight. I'm hoping my photographs of it will be clear enough.

Ok that's not bad.

This is just a section of the battle but we can see the leading English battle hemmed in by Irish cavalry, shot and targeteers. Behind them we see a traffic jam at the trench the Irish had dug to impeed the march.

Behind the Irish shot we see the Irish pike

I opened the pic in a new window and expanded it but I am still having a hard tome seeing what is going on. I am assuming the Irish shot are between R and H in the middle of the picture with the pike directly behind them? Also of note, is the large number of- what I assume are- Irish skirmishers that look to be armed with a shield and targe.

I'll post a few more where the detail may be be clearer.

Yeah those guys have sword and targe. I presume they have dispersed to avoid being shot. Shortly they will close up and charge in supported by the Irish cavalry at X and the Irish pike. The Irish shot are at V.

We can see the English shot flanking bot sides of the column at Y and fronting the column at I. There are also English shot protecting the Saker. There are more Irish shot at T F in the right hand top quarter.

Copy the illustration into a picture manager like Microsoft Picture manager or the equivalent one in Windows . Lower the brightness and raise the contrast and the picture will clear up Don't expect much as most of the figures are little stick men

The next part of the picture here. You can orient by fixing on the saker.

We can see swarms of Irish shot and targeteers.

Where is the painting now? What is the name of the officer/artist?

Druzhina
Illustrations of Irish Costume & Soldiers

Its not a painting as such. more of a report. I believe it was required for the investigation into the defeat. The destruction of the English army was a big deal. I currently do not know the officers name though like you I would like to. I'm sure it would be possible to find out.

So far as I know these are the first clear(ish) images of it in the public domain since the late 1970s. More to follow shortly. It appeared in a 'Tudor' Coffee Table book and that is how its in my posession. The book is long gone but I kept the image. Last week I photographed it.

Very interesting!

Yeah it is. There are another two similar images of other battles. I have often wondered if it was the same arist. Anyhow another section.

Here we see the end of the English column and the English camp which in itself is an interesting example and rarely depicted.

Note the Irish cavalry.

We can pretty much see the whole of the battle in this photo.

Note the large body of Irish cavalry in the top of the image.

The camp is interesting; a mix of round and rectangular tents. What is clearly a pack mule string but no wagons depicted.

I found a version at the O'neill country historical society but there is not much information about the map.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Yeah I've seen that and a small version occurs in one of the books I have-no info on the artist though. I'm sure Hiram Morgan will know or Thomas Bartlett or Nicholas Canny.

Or someone needs to trawl through the State Papers for Ireland.

BTW you might be interested in Tom Lee's portrait here.

link

That's a very short tunic…

Its hiked up in his belt. Its a fancy version of the Irish leine. It would be just above the knee unbelted. He was Captain of the Queen's Kern hence the strapped spear and targe on his back. Suspected of poisoning people including his wife and acting as a double agent he came to a sticky end. Interesting lad.