Battle of Antrim

Battle of Antrim

On the morning of June 7, Major Seddon at Antrim Castle learned (from Gen. Nugent's messengers) that an attack on the town was imminent and that reinforcements had been dispatched. The drums at Antrim Castle beat the call to arms.

80 of the Antrim Yeomanry - the local defence group, loyal to the Crown - assembled almost at once. Lieut. Arthur Macartney (son of Antrim vicar, Dr. Macartney) marshalled his small force of Royal Irish Artillery.

Seddon imposed a curfew on the town and ordered an immediate search of the Presbyterian Scotch Quarter (now Church Street).

News arrived that the entire countryside about Antrim was moving with men in arms. The yeomanry were assigned to positions in the main street in front of the castle's battlemented garden 'Battery' wall.

Troops arrived, escorting magistrates from Ballymena (Robert Gamble and Jas. S. Moore, respectively- a lieutenant and captain of the Dunseverick cavalry). They had no knowledge that anything other than the county magistrates' meeting was planned for Antrim that seventh day of June. They did not know that General Nugent had cancelled the meeting; but then, neither did the United Irishmen!

Yeomanry searching Antrim's Presbyterian Scotch Quarter discovered that known radicals were absent from their homes. Then, several pike-heads hidden in a garden were uncovered. Lieut. Arthur Macartney promptly torched the property, which fire eventually gutted seven other of the thatched cottages. A dense pall of smoke engulfed the district.

Sentries posted east of the town (in the Belfast direction) reported sightings of thousands of heavily armed United Irishmen heading towards Antrim.

By the Quaker graveyard, about a mile east of Antrim, McCracken unfurled the green banner of the United Irishmen.

When McCracken's force arrived on the hill above Antrim town - on the Moylinny Road - the unexpected sight of fires raging through the Scotch Quarter bewildered them. (Many deserted, including almost a quarter of the Ballyclare contingent- whose banner boasted 'Fear No Danger'!)

For thirty minutes McCracken's 'Army of Ulster' hesitated from proceeding farther; a half hour which would later prove decisive in determining the outcome of this day's events!

The stage was now set for Henry Joy McCracken to activate the historic Battle of Antrim...