The progress of the rebels towards the south-west was checked by their repulse at Carlow ; but the city of Dub lin was still partially blockaded by them. To complete the plan for its relief, Sir James Duff made a rapid march with 600 men from Limerick, and arriving at Kildare, opened the communication between the capital and the country.
On the 26th of May, the insurrection broke out in the county of Wexford, where it was not apprehended that the insurgents were in great force. They were headed by a priest of the name of Murphy, a ferocious and ignorant fa natic. On the 27th, two bodies of them made their ap pearance at Oulart and Kilthomas. At the latter place they were defeated by 200 or 300 yeomen ; but at the for mer place, where 1\lurphy himself commanded, they were victorious. Murphy immediately proceeded to linniscor thy, of which, by the assistance of the Catholic inhabitants, he gained possession. The inhabitants of the city of \Vex ford were now in great alarm, as they could plainly distin guish the flames of the burning houses at Enniscurthy. As they were little prepared for defence, they resolved to nego elate with the insurgents, or rather to endeavour to per suade them to return peaceably to their homes. For this purpose, two gentlemen, who had been arrested on private information, were sent to them ; but they kept one of these to be their leader, and sent the other back to \Vexford. Against this place they now determined to proceed. Its small garrison took a position outside, but afterwards re turned into the town, which was almost immediately eva cuated, and taken possession of by the rebels. Their force was about 15,000 men ; and by the capture of \Vexford, the southern parts of the county, as well as the eastern and western, were at their mercy. They now divided into two bodies ; one of which directed itv march to Gorey, in the northern part of the county, in hopes of thus forcing a pas sage to the capital; and the other to New Ross, by reduc ing which they would be enabled to enter the counties of Kilkenny and Waterford. The inhabitants of Gorey were apprised of their danger, hut they trusted it would be avert ed by the arrival of troops under General Loftus and Colo nel Walpole, which immediately marched by different routes to attack the insurgents, who were posted on a hill seven miles from Gorey, under the command of a priest of the name of Roche. This man seems to have been pos sessed of great military talents, for he immediately resolv ed to quit his position with his whole force, upwards of 10,000 men, and attacked \Walpole while separated from Loftus's troops. He came up with him at Clough, and, at tacking him quite unexpected, the British were defeated, with the loss of their artillery. Loftus, in the mean time,
following the insurgents to Gorey, ignorant of the defeat of Walpole's corps, found them posted so strongly that he durst not attack them, but retreated into the county of Car low.
The body of the rebels who had marched towards Ross were not so fortunate : They had chosen for their leader a person of the name of Harvey, whom they had liberated from Wexford jail. He formed a plan of attacking three separate parts of the town of Ross at the same time : The attack was accordingly made in a furious but irregular man ner. At first the rebels gained some advantages, but they were soon thrown into confusion ; and General Johnson, who commanded a strong party of the regular army in the town, took advantage of this circumstance, and, after a des perate resistance from some divisions of the rebels, while others were totally without discipline or management, he succeeded in completely defeating then), and in saving the place. Enraged at this defeat, the rebels massacred, in cold blood, mot e than 100 of their Protestant prisoners at Wexford.
The insurgents who had defeated Walpole's corps re mained inactive for some time afterwards. At length, on the 9th of June, they advanced to the north to join another body of insurgents, and, when united, to attack Al klow. The garrison in this place, not conceiving themselves strong enough to defend it against the rebels, left it, but afterwards returned, in consequence of their not attempting to seize it. The rebels, however, changed their plans, and advanc ed against it ; but on the very day of attack, there arrived the Durham fencible regiment. The royal force now con sisted of 1600 men, and being arranged in lines, with artil lery in front, they were enabled to cover three sides of the place, a river protecting the other side. The force of the insurgents amounted to more than 20,000, but only about 4000 or 5000 of these had guns. They advanced with great impetuosity to the cannons' mouths, but they were in eve ry assault driven back with immense slaughter. The bat tle lasted four hours ; and though, during the whole of that time, the Durham fencibles bore the brunt of it, yet they stood firm and undaunted. The pikemcn of the insurgents had not, however, yet come into action,and General Need ham, apprehensive that the fencibles, wearied out with re peated attacks, would not be able to withstand these formi dable assailants, sent directions to Colonel Skerret, who commanded the fencibles, to retreat. This, however, he refused to do ; and though it was now dark, and the insur gents might have profited by this circumstance, they dis continued the attack, and retreated.