Colonel Clifford Walton (1)

The relevant extracts from the chapters dealing with the war in Ireland up to the Boyne, from Colonel Clifford Walton's 'A History of the Uniforms of the British Army 1660-1700' (references at end where applicable)

*It may interest some readers to know that the uniform of "Lord Galmoy's Regiment of Horse in Ireland" consisted of "light grey coats, brass buttons and lined red." "a black hat laced with galoon and a buff shoulder-belt; the arms, carbine, pistols and sword." "Some of the horses were grey." Londonderry Gazette 27. April 1688: 52

*Regular Irish establishment troops (Jacobite):

Tyrconnell's, Russell's, Galmoy's (Horse)
An un-named dragoon regiment
MacCarthy's, Clancarty's, Newton's (Foot) 52

Montjoy's Foot split, "the Protestants under Colonel Lundy and Major Gustavus Hamilton joined the garrison of Londonderry." 52

*"All the regular troops siding with James were well armed and equipped" 53

Jacobite levies "far from perfectly equipped" 53

*No Williamite regulars in Ireland save for "six out of the thirteen companies of Mountjoy's Regiment" 53

*Three Regiments of Foot were subsequently embodied out of the Derry men, namely Mitchelburne's, White's and St. John's." True and exact account of the Regiments of Horse and Foot in the Service of King William and Queen Mary, and also an account of the Irish forces under the late King James, &c. Lisburn, 26. May, 1690 54

*They [people fleeing French pillagers elsewhere in Ireland] met together [in Inniskilling], elected officers and formed themselves into a stong body of Horse with an adjunct of Foot. Gustavus Hamilton, lately of Mountjoy's, became Colonel, and Thomas Lloyd Lieutenant-Colonel. Such was the origin of that still choice Regiment the Inniskilling Dragoons which was draughted from amoung those troops after the battle of Newton-Butler [31. July 1689], and was then placed under the command of Sir Albert Cunningham. Captain Wynne of the Ninth Foot was sent down from Londonderry to embody another Regiment of Dragoons and this... was equally famous as the Fifth Royal Irish Dragoons." 55

*"The minority of the Sixth [Dragoons] were originally from Donegal" 55

*"Owsley's Horse" was the third of the cavalry Regiments raised at Inniskilling. True and exact account... 55

*"The efforts of the brave Inniskilling men did not stop here. They presently organsied three Regiments of Infantry, of which a representative survived in Colonel Zacharias Tiffin's corps, now the Twenty-Seventh Inniskilling Regiment." "The three Inniskilling infantry Regiments were Tiffin's, Gustavus Hamilton's, and Lord George Hamilton's (or Colonel Lloyd's)" History of the Wars in Ireland by an Officer in the Royal Army, London 1689 55

*"Shortly before the final relief of Derry, Colonel Wolseley... was sent to assume command of all the Inniskilling forces, and to regiment and brigade them." 56

*"The Twenty-Seventh, led by Colonel Tiffin [in 1689]." 59

*Many of the regiments [raised by William in England] consisted of troops so raw that they were not even in uniform, while some had not yet been furnished with their arms." Schomberg's despatch 3. March 1690 62

*Schomberg signed his name 'Schonberg' and "his seat on horseback was the envy of every cavalry officer" 62

*Reference to "Colonel Maxwell" 63

*"The Inniskilling Horse and Fifth and Sixth Inniskilling Dragoons" described as "volunteer irregulars, some on big horses, some on small, some furnished out with a very fair imitation of a regular trooper's equipments, others with nothing military but their arms; some had holsters, while others carried their pistols stuck into their belts; and the majority of the privates had their servants riding up behind on small ponies called 'garrons.'" Schomberg's despatch 20. August 1689 66

*When they [the 27th] had reduced a body of James' troops to surrender at Belturbet in June they made it an especial condition that the enemy should surrender all the 'red coats' they had: and they obtained on that occasion enough red coats to clothe two companies; but when they got their new uniform from england it turned out to be grey." 66

*"The uniform of the Inniskilling Dragoons was also probably grey in 1691; it was at all events apparently peculiar, for Sir Albert Conyngham, asking for the clothing at Belfast, writes 'for I think no-one else will desire them being the livery of "my regiment"'" 66 Conyngham to Clarke 16. March 1691

*"When at Dundalk in September/October 1689, there was a skirmish between the Irish outposts and an English outpost consisting of 300 men of the Twenty-Seventh Foot, 'every man [of the 27th] stripped off his coat so that instead of a grey regiment they appeared in white, being their usual way of fighting.'" 66 True and impartial account...

*"To crown all, [Schomberg's] army was without shoes for men or horses, and was even insufficiently clothed." Schomberg's despatches 3. & 8. October, 26. December 1689 72


* "In the last year of the reign of Charles the Second the independent companies with which Ireland was at that time garrisoned were regimented. All the regiments then formed either clung to King James on the Revolution or else (with a single exception [the 18th]) were disbanded by William. 78

*The Twentieth, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth (as well as the Nineteenth) had all been raised since the arrival of William in England." 79

*"The Twenty-Fourth['s] uniform was blue." 79

*"The Seventh Dragoon Guards... [appear] to have been, for the first year of [its] existence [1688], clothed in blue." 79

*"Drogheda's... uniform was the same as that of the Twenty-Third." 79

*"Lisburne's men... wore blue coats and orange or dark buff facings." 79

*"Lord Kingston's... red" 79

*"Ingoldsby's... wore blue coats and red stockings" 79

*"Rosscommon's... wore red coats" 79

*"The Duke of Bolton's wore blue." 79

*Raisings:

20th - Exeter
23rd - Wales and bordering counties
24th - Shropshire
7th DGs - Derbyshire
Lisburne's - "Principally from Herefordshire"
Kingston's - Warwickshire
Ingoldsby's - Staffordshire
Rosscommon's - Wiltshire
Drogheda's - Wales

*Confidential inspection reports made at the review at Dundalk, 28. October 1689:

"Kirke's (2nd Foot), men pretty fine, but very badly clothed, many sick; Lieutenant-Colonel, Major, and some of the Captains ''assez bons officiers, mais les subalternes ne sont pas des messieurs, et beaucoup de jeunes gens.'

Beaumont's (8th Foot), Major very assiduous, but the Lt-Col. neglects the regiment; pretty well clothed.

Stewart's (9th Foot), Colonel good, but his officers not of the best.

Hanmer's (11th Foot), very badly clothed.

Wharton's (12th Foot), good Colonel, well clothed, has sent into Scotland for surtouts: but much bad company, and debauchery, and drinking.

Meath's (18th Foot), best regiment in all the army, both as regards clothing and good order, and the officers generally good. The soldiers being all of this province, the campaign is not so hard on them as on others.

Bellasyse's (22nd Foot), hardly any good Officers, and an entire absence of good order, clothing not good; but Brigr. Bellasyse expected to work reforms.

Herbert's (23rd Foot), Colonel very assiduous, but too easy to the Officers, who are the most negligent that can be imagined. Often he is the only Officer present with the regiment, which he never quits; yet the regiment is in a bad condition; clothing good, but arms almost useless.

Dering's (24th Foot), regiment has fine men and fairly clothed: but, except the Major (Ramsay) the rest of the Officers 'n'est pas grand chose,' and know nothing of their Companies, which is the case in many other regiments: the Colonel dead and his brother, next in command, always absent from the regiment.

Lloyd's Inniskillingers, and Tiffin's (27th ditto), men fine, but not clothed, and without swords, as are the great part of the English regiments: officers good fellows, but with no experience.

Ingoldsby's, Colonel ill, and as incapable as are almost all the other Officers, who are usually absent and are so greedy of money that the soldiers can scarce get paid; very badly clothed, and without shirts; as bad a regiment as possible, except Drogheda's which is worse.

The regiments are not complete, and yet the Commissary passed them as complete only five days ago." 79-80

*"Schomberg had spent the winter [1689-90] in restoring health and discipline to his shattered forces. Five regiments were broken up to recruit the rest." These being "Drogheda; Ingoldsby's; Zauchy's; Rosscommon's; and Hamilton's [the un-numbered Hamilton's, I assume]. But Drogheda's and Hamilton's can have been only partly so as they shared in the subsequent campaign." 84

*"Sir John Lanier, Colonel of the First Dragoon Guards." 85

*"With difficulty did James obtain from France a contingent of seven thousand three hundred men thouroughly armed and equipped, and even for these he had to send back in excahnge an equal number of Irishmen." 88

*"The Irish officers were all natives, differing little from the soldiers." King James II Autiobiography 88

*"The Fifth and Sixth Foot" Accompanied William in 1688 from Holland

*"Count Maynard Schomberg" 106

*"The writer describes the Danes as 'well disciplined, well clothed, arms bright as silver, all firelocks and cuttock boxes, their colour green lined red, blue lined red, and blue lined white, grey lined blue, and every man a cloak or such a coat as the Dutch Guards wear, and you shall not see a man with a hole in any part of his clothing: those I see of the Horse are white lined white and buff waistcoats.'" Letter from Belfast, 13. March 1690 107

*"The soldiers of the two armies were dressed so much alike that it was found necessary to adopt some emblems of distinction; every English soldier wore a green twig in his hat; while James's people were distinguished by white cockades." 108

*"The Dutchmen walked into the water ten abreast" 111

*"The on-rushing wave of Irish cavalry shattered itself against this immoveable rock bristling with seventeen-foot pikes [of Cutts']." 116

*"Cutts's Regt. was subsequently disbanded: its uniform was red, with Isabella[sort of yellowish-grey]-coloured facings and linings and breeches, and with loops of black and white for the Granadeers." Londonderry Gazette 1689-90 116