Dundalk Camp was a

military camp A military camp or bivouac is a semi-permanent military base, for the lodging of an army. Camps are erected when a military force travels away from a major installation or fort during training or operations, and often have the form of large cam ...

which served as the headquarters of the

Williamite A Williamite was a follower of King William III of England (r. 1689–1702) who deposed King James II and VII in the Glorious Revolution. William, the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, replaced James with the support of English Whigs. O ...

Army under

Marshal Schomberg Friedrich Hermann von Schönberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg, 1st Count of Mertola, (french: Frédéric-Armand; pt, Armando Frederico; 6 December 1615 – 1 July 1690) was a Marshal of France and a General in the English and Portuguese Army. He was ...

in Autumn 1689 as part of the

Williamite War in Ireland The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; ga, Cogadh an Dá Rí, "war of the two kings"), was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called th ...

. The camp rapidly became notorious for the great loss of life suffered by soldiers due to the exposed conditions, shortage of supplies and inadequate medical facilities. Following victories including the

relief of Derry The siege of Derry in 1689 was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland. The siege was preceded by a first attempt against the town by Jacobite forces on 7 December 1688 that was foiled when 13 apprentices shut the gate ...

and the capture of Carrickfergus, Schomberg marched his forces south from

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. Arriving on 7 September 1689, Schomberg established his camp close to the town of

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, M ...

. He did not originally intend to stay long there, but instead use it as a

staging post A stage station or relay station, also known as a staging post, a posting station, or a stage stop, is a place where exhausted horses could be replaced by fresh animals, since a long journey was much faster without delays when horses needed rest ...

on the way to the capital at

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. However a shortage of supplies led to delays. Between September and November, 5,674 troops died of illness.Bartlett & Jeffrey p.195 After a stand off with the Jacobite

Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The A ...

under James II ended without a major battle being fought, Schomberg abandoned any plans of a further advance. His troops went into winter quarters, dispersed across Ulster. William of Orange was angered by Schomberg's lack of activity and decided to personally take command in Ireland the following year. For the 1690 campaign thousands of reinforcements had to be shipped in to replace those lost at Dundalk. This Army then went on to victory at the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ga, Cath na Bóinne ) was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and J ...

in July and the capture of

References

Bibliography

* Childs, John. ''The Williamite Wars in Ireland''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. * Bartlett, Thomas & Jeffrey, Keith. ''A Military History of Ireland''. Cambridge University Press, 1996. {{Ireland-stub 1689 in Ireland Dundalk