Post
by Forlorn Hope » Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:14 pm
I couldn't find the previous thread on "Cannon's Irish" but please find below details from my own research.
Originally, James promised the Scots Jacobites Irish reinforcements as early as April 1689. This was to be a brigade of foot, under Maj Gen Thomas Buchan, consisting of the Earl of Antrim's, Cormac O'Neill's and Brig Gen Ramsay's regiments. However, the siege of Londonderry precluded their despatch.
In early May, a second detachment of 1,200 was about to be sent to Kintyre in small coastal craft. This plan was thwarted by the Williamites, who despatched 8 companies of foot (560), under Capt William Young, by sea and land to Kintyre on 7th May. They fought a skirmish with about 300 Scots Jacobites at Loup on 15th May and saw them off.
Finally in early July, James ordered three, on loan, French frigates to transport a force from Carrickfergus to the Scotiish mainland. This is where it gets slightly complicated - This force under Brig Gen Alaxander Cannon (former colonel of the The Queen Consort's Regiment of Dragoons 1687-1688) was said to consist of Col James Purcell's Regiment of Foot (400 raw recruits) and part of Cannon's own regiment of dragoons [these may have been three trops of Colonel Nicholas Purcell's Regiment of Dragoons] plus 79 unattached officers - There is reference to both James Purcell's and Nicholas Purcell's dragoon regiments. Both would have been dismounted (and dismouted dragoons are, effectively, infantry).
The force sailed on 10th july but was intercepted by the Scots Navy, who destoyed/captured two of the French frigates and most of the dragoons. The remainder made landfall at Lochaber on 17th July and, together with some 400 MacPhersons, joined Dundee before his advance on Perth.
I'm not sure of the uniform details of James Purcell's regiment but it may have been grey and about 300 were reported to have been in the Jacobite centre at Killiecrankie. I also believe the "yellow" dragoons were at the Boyne and certainly Nicholas Purcell was in Ireland for the whole of the Irish Campaign (and his regiment was at the capitulation)
Hope this helps (but may muddy the waters even more).
Regards
Tom