Statements as to the number of (and the elements composing) the government force which faced the French at Castlebar on Monday morning, 27 August 1798, differ widely and some of them are surprising. A history of the Irish rebellion published in 1898 by F. W. Palliser puts the number of the government troops at 16,000 or 17,000. Dr Richard Hayes gives the number as 5,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry. Fortescue speaks of Lake arriving at Castlebar ‘ where Hutchinson had already assembled four thousand men chiefly militia and fencibles ‘, but he also speaks of his having been next morning at the time of the attack ‘ in a strong position with some 1,700 men ‘. The aggregate strength is by many writers stated as relatively ‘ more than thrice ‘ that of the French; a contemporary example of this is in the Annual Register for 1798.
The Cataclysmic Desire for Power: The Irish Rebellion of 1641
