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3 unusual facts about Daniel Axtell


Daniel Axtell

After the towns walls and the internal earthworks had been successfully stormed by English Parliamentarians, Arthur Aston, the Royalist governor of Drogada, and others retreated to a citadel on Windmill Mount, which was heavily fortified and could not easily be taken by assault.

On 25 October 1650 Axtell led the Parliamentarian army to victory at the battle of Meelick Island (a Crannog on the Shannon, on which the Connaught Irish army was camped) after launching a sudden attack on the Irish army under cover of darkness.

It is possible that Axtell was a scapegoat; Cromwell had committed similar atrocities a year earlier at Drogheda and at Wexford, in the sense that no quarter had been offered.



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