Footnotes

Morres was a professional soldier who had served in the Austrian army. Hearing of the expected French invasion of Ireland, he had accepted a commission as ADC to General Dundas in May 1796, but disgust at the measures being adopted by the government induced him to join the United Irishmen in November 1796. He became county representative for Tipperary in May 1797 and colonel of the Nenagh Infantry, joining the General Military Committee of the United Irishmen in February 1798, serving as Adjutant-General for the Munster Region and appointed to head the final assault on Dublin. In the event, he was to see no action, and fled the country after Humbert's defeat in August 1798, taking refuge in Hamburg with the widow of his friend Lord Edward Fitzgerald. That this letter reads like a dispassionate report rather than rallying cry is not perhaps very surprising; for being sent by the public posts, the chances of its being intercepted and read must have seemed very high.

Included in the lot is an autograph letter signed by Samuel Madden, written from Kilkenny on 27 June 1798, to Lieut-Col Cumming Gordon of Leith: "yesterday morning, about two O'Clock, the troops here, march'd into the C: of Carlow against the grand body of the rebels, who had fled from the different engagements in the C: of Wexford. We were join'd by the Downshire Militia, who drove them into the mouth of our troops: the slaughter, above one thousand, was great indeed: all their ammunition, 12 canon, provisions, & plundering, taken; even Lady Ormonds Plate, taken out of Castle Comer house. My son Charles, in charging with the Cavalry, got a contusion in his knee... they were headed by two priests; Lady Asgill wears one of their crucifixes". Also included is an autograph letter by J.W. Belsches written from Edinburgh to his uncle at Dublin Barracks on 19 January 1797, referring to the French defeat.