“Their advance to the first onset was far different from a faction fight.  There existed a silence here, that powerfully evinced the inextinguishable animosity with which they encountered.  For some time they fought in two compact bodies, that remained unbroken so long as the chances of victory were doubtful.  Men went down, and were up, and went down in all directions, with uncommon rapidity; and as the weighty phalanx of Orangemen stood out against the nimble line of their mountain adversaries, the intrepid spirit of the latter, and their surprising skill and activity soon gave symptoms of a gradual superiority in the conflict.  In the course of about half an hour, the Orange party began to give way in the northern end of the town; and as their opponents pressed them warmly and with unsparing hand, the heavy mass formed by their numbers began to break, and this decomposition ran up their line until in a short time they were thrown into utter confusion.  They now fought in detached parties; but these subordinate conflicts, though shorter in duration than the shock of the general battle, were much more inhuman and destructive; for whenever any particular gang succeeded in putting their adversaries to flight, they usually ran to the assistance of their friends in the nearest fight—­by which means they often fought three to one.  In these instances the persons inferior in numbers suffered such barbarities, as it would be painful to detail.

“There lived a short distance out of the town a man nicknamed Jemsy Boccagh, on account of his lameness—­he was also sometimes called ‘Hop-an’-go-constant,’ who fell the first victim to party spirit.  He had got arms on seeing his friends likely to be defeated, and had the hardihood to follow, with charged bayonet, a few Ribbonmen, whom he attempted to intercept, as they fled from a large number of their enemies, who had got them separated from their comrades.  Boccagh ran across a field, in order to get before them in the road, and was in the act of climbing a ditch, when one of them, who carried a spade-shaft, struck him a blow on the head, which put an end to his existence.*

* Fact.  The person who killed him escaped to America where he got himself naturalized, and when the British government claimed him, he pleaded his privilege of being an American citizen, and he was consequently not given up.  Boccagh was a very violent Orangeman, and a very offensive one.

“This circumstance imparted, of course, fiercer hatred to both parties,—­triumph inspiring the one, a thirst for vengeance nerving the other.  Kelly inflicted tremendous punishment in every direction; for scarcely a blow fell from him which did not bring a man to the ground.  It absolutely resembled a military engagement, for the number of combatants amounted at least to four thousand men.  In many places the street was covered with small pools and clots of blood, which flowed from those who lay insensible—­while others were borne away bleeding, groaning, or staggering, having been battered into a total unconsciousness of the scene about them.