Frenchmen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says the French and General Humbert were "too late again" at Killala Bay. He fights at Castlebar, where 700 Frenchmen help chase Lord Roden's cavalry, and when Cornwallis drives the French out, leaving Tone and Teeling to be martyred.
AUTHOR: Pete St John (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: army battle rebellion France Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 1796 - The French fleet is driven from Bantry Bay by "near-hurricane weather"
August 22, 1798 - A French force of 1070 French troops, under General Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert lands at Killala Bay and defeats a garrison at Kilalla, County Mayo.
August 27, 1798 - The French and rebels route the British, "notably the Fraser Fencibles and Roden's Dragoons," at Castlebar, County Mayo.
September 8, 1798 - With Cornwallis guarding Dublin and under attack by General Lake at Ballinamuck, County Longford, the greatly outnumbered Humbert surrenders. The French prisoners were sent to Dublin and then repatriated. The Irish officers, including Teeling [and Matthew Tone], were hanged as traitors.
(source: "In the Footsteps of General Humbert: The French Invasion of Ireland, 1798" by Bill Peterson in _The Napoleonic Wargaming Club Newsletter_, Sep 2001, at the Wargames Club site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 116, "The Frenchmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Men of the West" (subject: The landing of General Humbert) and references there
cf. "Henry Munroe" (character of Bartholomew Teeling)
NOTES [38 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: The song was written in the 1980s. - BS
For the story of General Humbert's invasion, see the notes to "The Men of the West." For the overall strategic situation, see "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
File: Moyl116

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