5 June 1646: Owen Roe O’Neill defeats a British Army at the Battle of Benburb.
General Owen Roe O’Neill met and defeated a superior enemy force at Benburb on this day. He had deliberately chosen a defensive position on which to meet the British Army under Major-General Robert Monro whose men had marched many miles in the days preceding the battle. He had over 6,000 men, made up of six Scottish and four English regiments of foot and around 600 horse. Monro's infantry was two-thirds musketeers and one-third pikemen. O’Neill’s Army consisted of about 5,000 foot, half of whom were pikemen and half musketeers, and 500 horse, many of whom were lancers. The Irish had no artillery available but Monro had six light cannon.
The battle did not begin until late in the day when the British attacked the Irish lines and were beaten off. Once this attack had been checked O’Neill gave the order to advance with the exhortation to his men ‘Let your manhood be seen by the push of your pike’ and the troops went over to the attack with the cry ‘Santa Maria’ on their lips. After about an hours heavy fighting late in the evening the British lines began to buckle and eventually broke. Monro was lucky to escape with his life and he lost probably half his men, most of his baggage and all of his artillery. Irish casualties were in the low hundreds and they were the masters of the field as the sun went down. It was the greatest Irish Victory of the War of the Confederation.
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