Derry and Limerick
recruits; many of the captains had been "cobblers, tailors, and footmen;" on the whole, a brave, but careless and ignorant lot. Their General, Hamilton, had never before seen a siege. Maumont and Pusignan had been killed early in the struggle. Pointis, the artillerist, had no siege train. Soon after his arrival De Rosen had written to James that his heart bled at the negligence which supplied his troops with arms, the greater part of which were damaged, while there was not in the army a gunsmith to mend them. His strongest battalions of foot had but 200 effective men, his strongest troops of cavalry but fourteen. The army, too, he pointed out, was weakened by the withdrawal of Berwick's detachment, watching Enniskillen. The river, moreover, hindered free communication. In addition to these sources of weakness, the preliminary operations of the besiegers were aimless; they did not realise the determination of the opposition, and were slow in converting the siege into a blockade. More artillery might have been procured. Such as they had was not used to the best effect, its fire was not sufficiently concentrated, and the poor opposition to the relief gave rise to suspicions of treachery. The boom, too, or a second one, should have been placed under the guns of Culmore Fort, while one or two
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