Battle of the Eureka Stockade

The Battle of the Eureka Stockade was fought in Ballarat, Victoria, on 3 December 1854, between gold miners and the colonial forces of Australia. It was the culmination of the 1851–1854 Eureka Rebellion during the Victorian gold rush.[6] The fighting resulted in at least 27 deaths and many injuries, the majority of casualties being rebels. The miners had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced.[7][8]

This article is about the military conflict primarily. For political and social developments, and the origin and aftermath, see Eureka Rebellion. For the site of this battle, see Eureka Stockade Memorial Park.
Battle of the Eureka Stockade
Part of the Eureka Rebellion

Eureka Stockade Riot by John Black Henderson (1854).
Date3 December 1854
Location
Ballarat East (now Eureka), Ballarat, Colony of Victoria
Result Miners' rebellion defeated by the Victorian authorities
Belligerents

United Kingdom Colony of Victoria

 Stockade rebels
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Charles Hotham
United Kingdom Robert Rede
United Kingdom J. W. Thomas
United Kingdom Charles Pasley		 Peter Lalor (WIA)
Henry Ross (DOW)
Strength
276[1] 120–150+[1]
Casualties and losses
6+ dead (2 KIA)[1][2]
11–30 wounded[3]		 22–60+ dead (14+ KIA)[4][5]
12+ wounded[4]
120+ prisoners (including non combatants)[1]
This article is part of a series on the
Eureka Rebellion
Eureka FlagUnion Jack
Eureka Stockade Riot by John Black Henderson (1854)
Origins
Ideologies
The Eureka Rebellion
High Treason trials
Legacy
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Background
Further information: Eureka Rebellion

The Port Phillip District was partitioned on 1 July 1851,[9] as Victoria gained autonomy within the British Empire after a decade of de facto independence from New South Wales.[10] Approval of the Victorian constitution by the Imperial parliament was pending, with an election held for a provisional legislative council consisting of 20 elected and ten appointed members subject to property-based franchise and membership requirements.[11]

Gold prospectors were offered 200 guineas for making discoveries within 320 kilometres (200 mi) of Melbourne.[12] In August 1851, the news was received worldwide that, on top of several earlier finds, Thomas Hiscock, outside of Buninyong in central Victoria, had found still more deposits.[13] As gold fever took hold, the colony's population increased from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853.[14] Among this number was "a heavy sprinkling of ex-convicts, gamblers, thieves, rogues and vagabonds of all kinds."[15] The local authorities soon found themselves with fewer police officers and lacking the infrastructure needed to support the expansion of the mining industry. The number of public servants, factory and farm workers leaving for the goldfields to seek their fortune led to a chronic labour shortage that needed to be resolved. The response was a universal mining tax based on time stayed, rather than what was seen as the more equitable option, being an export duty levied only on gold found, meaning it was always designed to make life unprofitable for most prospectors.[16] Licence inspections, known as "digger hunts," were treated as a great sport and "carried out in the style of an English fox-hunt"[17] by mounted officials who would receive a fifty per cent commission from any fines imposed.[18] Many recruits were former prisoners from Tasmania and prone to brutal means, having been sentenced to serve in the military.[19] Miners were often arrested for not carrying licences on their person because of the typically wet and dirty conditions in the mines, then subjected to such indignities as being chained to trees and logs overnight.[20]

In the years leading up to the Eureka Stockade, several mass public meetings were held to address the miner's grievances. The Bendigo Petition received over 5,000 signatures and was presented to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe by a miner's delegation in August 1853. There were also delegations received by the Ballarat gold commissioner Robert William Rede and La Trobe's successor Charles Hotham in October and November 1854. However, the ever-present "physical force" faction of the mining tax protest movement would gain the ascendancy over those who advocated "moral force," including John Basson Humffray, after a judicial enquiry into the murder of miner James Scobie outside the Eureka Hotel. There was no finding of guilt regarding the owner James Bently, who was deeply suspected of involvement, with the case being presided over by a police magistrate accused of having a conflict of interest.[21] Then there was an uproar over the arrest of Catholic Father Smyth's disabled Armenian servant Johannes Gregorious. He was subjected to police brutality and false arrest for licence evasion even though it was revealed he was exempt from the requirement. Gregorious was instead convicted of assaulting a constable and fined 5 pounds despite the court hearing testimony to the contrary.[22] Eventually, the discontent would begin to spiral out of control when a mob of many thousands of aggrieved miners put the Eureka Hotel to the torch on 17 October 1854.[23] On 28 November, there was a skirmish as the approaching 12th Regiment (East Suffolk) had their wagon train looted in the vicinity of the Eureka lead, where the rebels ultimately made their last stand.[24] The next day, the Eureka Flag appeared on the platform for the first time, and mining licences were burnt at the final fiery mass meeting of the Ballarat Reform League – the miner's lobby. The league's founding charter proclaims that "it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called upon to obey" and "taxation without representation is tyranny,"[25] in the language of the United States Declaration of Independence. On 30 November, there was further rioting where missiles were once again directed at military and law enforcement by the protesting miners who had henceforth refused to cooperate with licence inspections en masse.[26] That afternoon there was a paramilitary display on Bakery Hill. The oath-swearing ceremony took place as the military companies formed were gathered around the Eureka Flag. In the preceding weeks, the men of violence had already been aiming musket balls at the barely fortified government camp during the night.[27]

Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross by Charles Doudiet (1854).

The rebels, under their commander-in-chief Peter Lalor, who had left Ireland for the goldfields of Australia, were led down the road from Bakery Hill to the ill-fated Eureka Stockade. It was a crude "higgledy piggledy"[28] battlement erected between 30 November and 2 December that consisted of diagonal spikes and overturned horse carts. In the ensuing battle that left at least 22 rebels and seven soldiers and police dead, the stockade was besieged and captured by the advancing government forces. They briefly wavered, with the 40th Regiment (2nd Somersetshire) having to be rallied amid a short, sharp exchange of ranged fire lasting around 15 minutes at dawn on Sunday, 3 December. The Victorian police contingent led the way over the top as the forlorn hope in a bayonet charge.[29][30]

Fortification of the Eureka lead
Main article: Eureka Stockade (fortification)
An exhibit in the 1855 Victorian High Treason trials being a plan of the Eureka Stockade.

After the oath swearing ceremony, about 1,000 rebels marched in double file from Bakery Hill to the Eureka lead behind the Eureka Flag being carried by Henry Ross, where construction of the stockade took place between 30 November and 2 December.[31][32] The stockade itself was a ramshackle affair described in Carboni's 1855 memoirs as "higgledy piggledy."[28] There were existing mines within the stockade,[33] and it consisted of diagonal wooden spikes made from materials including pit props and overturned horse carts. It encompassed an area said to be one acre; however, that is difficult to reconcile with other estimates that have the dimensions of the stockade as being around 100 feet (30 m) x 200 feet (61 m).[34] Contemporaneous representations vary and render the stockade as either rectangular or semi-circular.[35]

According to Lalor, the stockade "was nothing more than an enclosure to keep our own men together, and was never erected with an eye to military defence."[36] However, Peter FitzSimons asserts that Lalor may have downplayed the fact that the Eureka Stockade may have been intended as something of a fortress at a time when "it was very much in his interests" to do so.[37] The construction work was overseen by the German Fredrick Vern, who had apparently received instruction in military methods. John Lynch wrote that his "military learning comprehended the whole system of warfare ... fortification was his strong point."[38] Les Blake has noted how other descriptions of the stockade "rather contradicted" Lalor's recollection of it being a simple fence after the fall of the stockade.[39] Testimony was heard at the high treason trials for the Eureka rebels that the stockade was four to seven feet high in places and was unable to be negotiated on horseback without being reduced.[40]

Hotham feared that the "network of rabbit burrows" on the goldfields would prove readily defensible as his forces "on the rough pot-holed ground would be unable to advance in regular formation and would be picked off easily by snipers," considerations that were part of the reasoning behind the decision to move into position in the early morning for a surprise attack.[41] Carboni details the rebel dispositions along:

"The shepherds' holes inside the lower part of the stockade had been turned into rifle-pits, and were now occupied by Californians of the I.C. Rangers' Brigade, some twenty or thirty in all, who had kept watch at the 'outposts' during the night."[42]

However, the location of the stockade has been described as "appalling from a defensive point of view," as it was situated on "a gentle slope, which exposed a sizeable portion of its interior to fire from nearby high ground."[43] A detachment of 800 men, which included "two field pieces and two howitzers" under the commander in chief of the British forces in Australia, Major General Sir Robert Nickle, who had also seen action during the 1798 Irish rebellion, would arrive after the insurgency had been put down.[44][45] In 1860, Withers stated in a lecture that "The site was most injudicious for any purpose of defence as it was easily commanded from adjacent spots, and the ease with which the place could be taken was apparent to the most unprofessional eye."[46]

At 4 am on the morning of 1 December, the rebels were observed to be massing on Bakery Hill, but a government raiding party found the area vacated. Again Rede ordered the riot act read to a mob that had gathered around Bath's Hotel, with mounted police breaking up the unlawful assembly. Raffaello Carboni, George Black and Father Smyth meet with Commissioner Rede to present a peace proposal. Rede is suspicious of the chartist undercurrent of the anti-mining tax movement and rejects the proposals as being the way forward.[47]

The rebels sent out scouts and established picket lines in order to have advance warning of Rede's movements. Messengers were dispatched to other mining settlements, including Bendigo and Creswick, requesting reinforcements for the Eureka Stockade.[48] The "moral force" faction, led by Humffray, withdrew from the protest movement the previous day as the men of violence moved into the ascendancy. The rebels continued to fortify their position as 300-400 men arrived from Creswick's Creek to join the struggle. Carboni recalls they were: "dirty and ragged, and proved the greatest nuisance. One of them, Michael Tuohy, behaved valiantly."[49] The arrival of these reinforcements required the dispatch of foraging parties, leaving a garrison of around 200 men behind. Teddy Shanahan, a merchant whose store on the Eureka lead had been engulfed by the stockade, said the rebels immediately became very short on food, drink, and accommodation and that by the evening before the battle:

"Lalor was in charge, but large numbers of the men were constantly going out of the Stockade, and as the majority got drunk, they never came back ... The 500 or 600 from Creswick had nothing to eat, and they, too, went down to the Main Road that night ... Lalor seeing that none would be left if things went on, he gave orders to shoot any man who left."[50]

Vinegar Hill blunder: Irish dimension factors in dwindling numbers at stockade
See also: Chartism and the Eureka Rebellion, Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion, Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion, and Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade
Oath swearing scene from the 1949 motion picture Eureka Stockade featuring the Union Jack beneath the Eureka Flag.
Extract of Argus report, 4 December 1854.
Extract of affidavit by Hugh King, 7 December 1854.

The Argus newspaper of 4 December 1854 reported that the Union Jack "had" to be hoisted underneath the Eureka Flag at the stockade and that both flags were in possession of the foot police.[51] Peter FitzSimons has questioned whether this contemporaneous report of the otherwise unaccounted-for Union Jack known as the Eureka Jack being present is accurate.[52] Among those willing to credit the first report of the battle as being true and correct it has been theorised that the hoisting of a Union Jack at the stockade was possibly an 11th-hour response to the divided loyalties among the heterogeneous rebel force which was in the process of melting away.[53] At one point up to 1,500 of 17,280 men in Ballarat were garrisoning the stockade, with as few as 120 taking part in the battle.[54][55][56] Lalor's choice of password for the night of 2 December – "Vinegar Hill"[57][58][59] – causing support for the rebellion to fall away among those who were otherwise disposed to resist the military, as word spread that the question of Irish home rule had become involved. One survivor of the battle stated that "the collapse of the rising at Ballarat may be regarded as mainly attributable to the password given by Lalor on the night before the assault." Asked by one of his subordinates for the "night pass," he gave "Vinegar Hill," the site of a battle during the 1798 Irish rebellion. The 1804 Castle Hill uprising, also known as the second battle of Vinegar Hill, was the site of a convict rebellion in the colony of New South Wales, involving mainly Irish transportees, some of whom were at Vinegar Hill.[60] William Craig recalled that "Many at Ballaarat, who were disposed before that to resist the military, now quietly withdrew from the movement."[61] In his memoirs, Lynch states: "On the afternoon of Saturday we had a force of seven hundred men on whom we thought we could rely." However, there was a false alarm from the picket line during the night. The subsequent roll call revealed there had been a sizable desertion that Lynch says "ought to have been seriously considered, but it was not."[62] There were miners from Bendigo, Forrest Creek, and Creswick that marched to Ballarat to take part in the armed struggle. The latter contingent was said to number a thousand men, "but when the news circulated that Irish independence had crept into the movement, almost all turned back."[61] FitzSimons points out that although the number of reinforcements converging on Ballarat was probably closer to 500, there is no doubt that as a result of the choice of password "the Stockade is denied many strong-armed men because of the feeling that the Irish have taken over."[63] Withers states that:

"Lalor, it is said, gave 'Vinegar Hill' as the night's pass-word, but neither he nor his adherents expected that the fatal action of Sunday was coming, and some of his followers, incited by the sinister omen of the pass-word, abandoned that night what they saw was a badly organised and not very hopeful movement."[59]

It is certain that Irish-born people were strongly represented at the Eureka Stockade.[60] Most of the rebels inside the stockade at the time of the battle were Irish, and the area where the defensive position was established was overwhelmingly populated by Irish miners. Blainey has advanced the view that the white cross of the Eureka Flag is "really an Irish cross rather than being [a] configuration of the Southern Cross."[64]

There is another theory advanced by Gregory Blake, military historian and author of Eureka Stockade: A Ferocious and Bloody Battle, who concedes that two flags may have been flown on the day of the battle, as the miners were claiming to be defending their British rights.[note 1]

In a signed contemporaneous affidavit dated 7 December 1854, Private Hugh King, who was at the battle serving with the 40th regiment, recalled that:

"... three or four hundred yards a heavy fire from the stockade was opened on the troops and me. When the fire was opened on us we received orders to fire. I saw some of the 40th wounded lying on the ground but I cannot say that it was before the fire on both sides. I think some of the men in the stockade should-they had a flag flying in the stockade; it was a white cross of five stars on a blue ground. – flag was afterwards taken from one of the prisoners like a union jack – we fired and advanced on the stockade, when we jumped over, we were ordered to take all we could prisoners ..."[66]

There was a further report in The Argus, 9 December 1854 edition, stating that Hugh King had given live testimony at the committal hearings for the Eureka rebels where he stated that the flag was found:

"... rollen up in the breast of a[n] [unidentified] prisoner. He [King] advanced with the rest, firing as they advanced ... several shots were fired on them after they entered [the stockade]. He observed the prisoner [Hayes] brought down from a tent in custody."[67]

Blake leaves open the possibility that the flag being carried by the prisoner had been souvenired from the flag pole as the routed garrison was fleeing the stockade.[68][note 2]

Departing detachment of Independent Californian Rangers leaves small garrison behind

Amid the rising number of rebels absent without leave throughout 2 December, a contingent of 200 Americans under James McGill arrived at 4 pm. Styled as "The Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade," they had horses and were equipped with sidearms and Mexican knives. In a fateful decision, McGill decided to take most of his two hundred Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements coming from Melbourne. Many Saturday night revellers within the rebel garrison went back to their own tents, assuming that the government camp would not attack on the Sabbath day. A small contingent of miners remained at the stockade overnight, which the spies reported to Rede. Common estimates for the size of the garrison at the time of the attack on 3 December range from 120 to 150 men.[71][72][36]

According to Lalor's reckoning: "There were about 70 men possessing guns, 30 with pikes and 30 with pistols, but many had no more than one or two rounds of ammunition. Their coolness and bravery were admirable when it is considered that the odds were 3 to 1 against."[4] Lalor's command was riddled with informants, and Rede was kept well advised of his movements, particularly through the work of government agents Henry Goodenough and Andrew Peters, who were embedded in the rebel garrison.[73][74] Initially outnumbering the government camp considerably, Lalor had already devised a strategy where "if the government forces come to attack us, we should meet them on the Gravel Pits, and if compelled, we should retreat by the heights to the old Canadian Gully, and there we shall make our final stand."[75] On being brought to battle that day, Lalor stated: "we would have retreated, but it was then too late."[4]

On the eve of the battle, Father Smyth issued a plea for Catholics to down their arms and attend mass the following day.[76]

Battle of the Eureka Stockade
See also: List of military leaders in the Eureka Rebellion
Robert Rede was resident gold commissioner during the armed uprising in Ballarat. He is seen here as commander of the Geelong (Volunteer) Rifles Corps (right).
The 40th regiment arrives in Ballarat from Melbourne.
Eureka Slaughter by Charles Doudiet (1854).
Map of the stockade and opposing forces.

Rede planned to send the combined military police formation of 276 men[note 3] under the command of Captain John Thomas to attack the Eureka Stockade when the rebel garrison was observed to be at a low watermark. The police and military had the element of surprise timing their assault on the stockade for dawn on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath day of rest. The soldiers and police marched off in silence at around 3:30 am Sunday morning after the troopers had drunk the traditional tot of rum.[80] The British commander used bugle calls to coordinate his forces. The 40th regiment was to provide covering fire from one end, with mounted police covering the flanks. Enemy contact began at approximately 150 yards as the two columns of regular infantry and the contingent of foot police moved into position.[77]

According to Gregory Blake, the fighting in Ballarat on 3 December 1854 was not one-sided and full of indiscriminate murder by the colonial forces. In his memoirs, one of Lalor's captains, John Lynch, mentions "some sharp shooting."[81] For at least 10 minutes, the rebels offered stiff resistance, with ranged fire coming from the Eureka Stockade garrison such that Thomas's best formation, the 40th regiment, wavered and had to be rallied. Blake says this is "stark evidence of the effectiveness of the defender's fire."[82]

Contradictory accounts as to which side fired the first shot

Despite Lalor's insistence that his standing orders to all but the riflemen were to engage at a distance of fifteen feet and that "the military fired the first volley," it appears as if the first shots came from the Eureka Stockade garrison.[83]

It has been claimed that Harry de Longville, who was on picket duty when the early morning shootout started, fired the first shot that was possibly intended to be a warning that the government forces were approaching. John O'Neill serving with the 40th regiment, later recalled:

"The party had not advanced three hundred yards before we were seen by a rebel sentry, who fired, not at our party, but to warn his party in the Stockade. He was on Black Hill. Captain Thomas turned his head in the direction of the shot and said, "We are seen. Forward, and steady men! Don't fire; let the insurgents fire first. You must wait for the sound of the bugle."[84]

A magistrate by the name of Charles Hackett said to have been generally well-liked by the miners in Ballarat, had accompanied Captain Thomas in the hopes of being able to read the riot act to the rebels; however, he had no time before the commencement of hostilities. He later gave sworn testimony that: "No shots were fired by the military or the police previous to shots being fired from the stockade."[85]

Withers mentions an American rebel who claimed that:

"The Fortieth regiment was advancing, but had not as yet discharged a shot. We could now see plainly the officer and hear his orders, when one of our men, Captain Burnette, stepped a little in front, elevated his rifle, took aim and fired. The officer fell. Captain Wise was his name. This was the first shot in the Ballarat war. It was said by many that the soldiers fired the first shot, but that is not true, as is well known to many."[86]

Withers also published an account of one of Lalor's captains who stated: "The first shot was fired from our party, and the military answered by a volley at 100 paces distance."[87]

Lynch would recall the course of the battle, saying:

"A shot from our encampment was taken for a declaration of war, and instantaneously answered by a fusilade of musketry ... The advance of the infantry was arrested for a moment; our left was being unprotected, the troopers seized the advantage, wheeled round, and took us in the rear. We were then placed between two fires, and further resistance was useless."[81]

In the area where the first contact was made, Carboni mentions:

"Here a lad was really courageous with his bugle. He took up boldly his stand to the left of the gully and in front: the red-coats 'fell in' in their ranks to the right of this lad. The wounded on the ground behind must have numbered a dozen."[42]

Eureka Stockade garrison routed
Eureka Stockade by Beryl Ireland (c.1890-1900). This artwork is believed to be an over-painted photographic print of a painted canvas by Izett Watson and Thaddeus Welch exhibited as part of a cyclorama in Fitzroy around 1891.[88][89]

The rebels eventually ran short of ammunition, and the government forces resumed their advance. The Victorian police contingent led the way over the top as the forlorn hope in a bayonet charge.[77][30] Carboni says it was the pikemen who stood their ground that suffered the heaviest casualties,[30] with Lalor ordering the musketeers to take refuge in the mine holes and crying out, "Pikemen, advance! Now for God's sake do your duty."[90] There were twenty to thirty Californians at the stockade during the battle. After the rebel garrison had already begun to flee and all hope was lost a number of them gamely joined in the final melee bearing their trademark colt revolvers.[91]

At the height of the battle, Lalor's left arm was shattered by a bullet which later required amputation. He was hidden under some slabs before being secreted out of Ballarat to hide as an outlaw with supporters.[30][92] Golden Point local Dr Timothy Doyle performed the operation with Lalor quoted as saying, "Courage, courage, take it off!" It was Doyle who, in May 1853, exclaimed, "Eureka!" as he found the first nuggets of gold near where the stockade was located by which the locality became known.[93][94]

Most of the killings happened after resistance by the rebels had slackened.[95] The government forces destroyed tents and belongings without justification, bayoneting the wounded and targeting non-combatants. The Commission of Inquiry would later find that:

"The foot police appear, as a body, to have conducted themselves with creditable temper; but assuredly, on the part of the mounted division of that force there seems to have been a needless as well as ruthless sacrifice of human life, indiscriminate of innocent or guilty, and after all resistance had disappeared with the dispersed and fleeing rioters."[96]

Stories tell how women ran forward and threw themselves over the injured to prevent further indiscriminate killing. The second in command, Captain Pasley, threatened to shoot anyone involved in murdering prisoners. His valuable assistance was acknowledged in dispatches printed and laid before the Victorian Legislative Council.[97] Captain Thomas finally ordered the bugler to sound the retreat, with around 120 rebels, some wounded, being rounded up and marched back to the government camp two kilometres away as prisoners.[98] They were kept there in an overcrowded lock-up before being moved to a more spacious barn on Monday morning.

The Geelong Advertiser, 6 December 1854 edition, reported that:

"They all lay in a small space, with their faces upwards, looking like lead; several of them were still heaving, and at every rise of their breasts, the blood spouted out of their wounds, or just bubbled out and trickled away. One man, a stout-chested fine fellow ... had three contusions in the head, three strokes across the brow, a bayonet wound in the throat ... and other wounds - I counted fifteen in that single carcase. Some were bringing handkerchiefs, others bed furniture and matting to cover up the faces of the dead. O God! sir, it was a sight for a Sabbath morn that, I humbly implore Heaven, may never be seen again. Poor women crying for absent husbands, and children frightened into quietness ... Some of the bodies might have been removed - I counted fifteen."[99]

Carboni recalls the casualties being piled onto horse carts with the rebel dead destined for a mass grave.[100]

Eureka Flag seized by Constable John King
Main article: Eureka Flag
The Eureka Flag fragments donated by the King family to the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Called as a witness in the Eureka treason trials, George Webster, the chief assistant civil commissary and magistrate, testified that upon entering the stockade, the besieging forces "immediately made towards the flag, and the police pulled down the flag."[101] Constable John King volunteered to take the Eureka Flag into police custody while the battle was still raging.[102] The report of Captain John Thomas dated 14 December 1854 mentioned: "the fact of the Flag belonging to the Insurgents (which had been nailed to the flagstaff) being captured by Constable King of the Force."[103] W. Bourke, a miner who lived about 250 yards from the Eureka Stockade, recalled that: "The police negotiated the wall of the Stockade on the south-west, and I then saw a policeman climb the flag-pole. When up about 12 or 14 feet the pole broke, and he came down with a run."[104]

Carboni records the Eureka Flag was then trailed in an age-old celebration of victory, saying:

"A wild 'hurrah!' burst out and 'the Southern Cross' was torn down, I should say, among their laughter, such as if it had been a prize from a May-pole ... The red-coats were now ordered to 'fall in;' their bloody work was over, and were marched off, dragging with them the 'Southern Cross'."[30]

The Geelong Advertiser reported that the flag "was carried by in triumph to the Camp, waved about in the air, then pitched from one to another, thrown down and trampled on."[105] The soldiers also danced around the flag on a pole that was "now a sadly tattered flag from which souvenir hunters had cut and torn pieces."[106] The morning after the battle, "the policeman who captured the flag exhibited it to the curious and allowed such as so desired to tear off small portions of its ragged end to preserve as souvenirs."[107]

The disputed first report of the attack on the Eureka Stockade also refers to a Union Jack being flown during the battle that was captured, along with the Eureka Flag, by the foot police.[108]

Estimates of the death toll
Battle of the Eureka Stockade honour roll.

Victorian death register

The exact numbers of deaths and injuries cannot be determined as, according to researcher Dorothy Wickham, many miners "fled to the surrounding bush, and it is likely a good many more died a lonely death or suffered the agony of their wounds, hidden from the authorities for fear of repercussions."[109] On 20 June 1855, the registrar of Ballarat, William Thomas Pooley, entered 27 consecutive names into the Victorian death register. There are a least three dead buried outside of Ballarat. In total, it has been discovered that there are at least ten other individuals not found on the register but referred to elsewhere as having died.[110] It has been thought that all the deaths at Eureka were men. However, the diary of Charles Evans describes a funeral cortege for a woman who was mercilessly butchered by a mounted trooper while pleading for the life of her husband during the battle. Her name and the fate and identity of her husband remain unknown.[111]

Captain Thomas' list

Thomas' interim casualty report for the 12th and 40th regiments dated 3 December 1854 lists one killed in action, two died of wounds, and fourteen wounded.[112] The Eureka Improvement Committee's 1923 honour roll contains the names of six soldiers. They are Captain Wise (DOW) along with Privates Webb (DOW), Roney (KIA), Wall (DOW), Boyle (DOW), and Hall (DOW). In addition, Private Denis Brian was killed in action on 3 December 1854, and Private James Hammond died of wounds after the battle en route to Geelong.[2] There is also the case of Captain George Richard Littlehales, who, according to the 12th regiment's muster list, "Died 12 February 1855 at Ballarat Camp." However, he was buried in the same enclosure as Privates Webb and Boyle, who died of wounds sustained in the battle. Littlehales' grave initially had a wooden monument. It was replaced by a headstone in the 1880s when the soldiers' memorial was erected. In Christ Church Cathedral, Ballarat, a large font bears the inscriptions "by his loving parents" and "in memory of G.R. Littlehales." At the Winchester Cathedral in England, two flagstones are dedicated to the Littlehales family members on the floor. The inscription on the stone dedicated to Captain Littlehales confirms that he "died in Camp at Ballarat and was there buried" at the age of 31.[110] Blake estimates that the total military casualties are more likely to have been around 30 as those suffering from slight injuries were unreported.[3]

There are no recorded casualties among the Victorian police officers that took part in the battle.[113]

Peter Lalor's list

Lalor listed fourteen miners (mostly Irish) as having died at the stockade and another eight who died later from injuries they sustained. A further dozen were wounded but recovered. Published by several newspapers three months after the battle, his letter to the colonists of Victoria states that:

"As the inhuman brutalities practised by the troops are so well known, it is unnecessary for me to repeat them. There were 34 digger casualties of which 22 died. The unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded, is owing to the butchery of the military and troopers after the surrender."[4]

In the Geelong Advertiser, 8 December edition, readers were told that casualties from the battle were "more numerous than originally supposed." In 1892 the Peter Lalor statue in Ballarat was inscribed with the names of the dead and wounded taken from his open letter along with the words "and others who were killed."[114] Blake makes the unsourced claim that there was at least 21 unidentified dead buried.[115] Superintendent Henry Foster said that "many persons killed whose names were not known, I buried five myself whose names were not known."[116] Captain Thomas estimated that thirty diggers died on the spot, and "many more died of their wounds subsequently."[5] Dan Calwell told his US relations thirty had died. Huyghue reckoned that the battle had claimed thirty to forty lives. On 6 December, Thomas Pierson noted in his diary that twenty-five had been killed and later scrawled in the margin, "time has proved that near 60 have died of the diggers in all."[5] Reverend Taylor initially estimated 100 deaths but reconsidered writing:

"About 50 came at death by their folly. On the other side two soldiers killed and two officers wounded. The sight in the morning was truly appalling – Men lying dead slain by evil. The remedy is very lamentable but it appears it was necessary. It is hoped now rebellion will be checked."[117]

Last known survivor

The last known survivor of the battle is believed to be William Edward Atherdon (1838–1936).[118][119] John Lishman Potter claimed that he was the last, which nobody questioned during his lifetime. However, later research has shown that Potter was aboard the Falcon en route to Melbourne from Liverpool on the day of the battle.[120]

Weapons of the Eureka Rebellion

A variety of weapons were used at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade. The assorted handguns and long arms include Colt revolvers, horse pistols, pepperbox revolvers, percussion pistols, American carbines, muzzle-loading carbines, rifles, shotguns, and the Lovell 1842 pattern smooth bore muzzle-loading musket used by the government forces.

In terms of edged and bladed weapons, there were: Bowie knives, Mexican knives, swords and pikes.[121]

Location of the Eureka Stockade
Further information: Eureka Stockade Memorial Park

As the materials used by the rebels to fortify the Eureka lead were quickly removed and the landscape subsequently altered by mining, the exact location of the Eureka Stockade is unknown.[122] Various studies have been undertaken that have arrived at different conclusions. Jack Harvey (1994) has conducted an exhaustive survey and has concluded that the Eureka Stockade Memorial is situated within the confines of the historical Eureka Stockade.[123][124]

See also

Notes
  1. According to the eminent vexillologist, Dr Whitney Smith, the Union Jack became a true national flag when it was seen "inscribed with slogans as a protest flag of the Chartist movement in the nineteenth century."[65]
  2. In The Revolt at Eureka, part of a 1958 illustrated history series for students, the artist Ray Wenban would remain faithful to the first reports of the battle with his rendition featuring two flags flying above the Eureka Stockade.[69] The 1949 motion picture Eureka Stockade produced by Ealing Studios, also features the Union Jack beneath the Eureka Flag during the oath swearing scene.[70]
  3. Foot police reinforcements arrived in Ballarat on 19 October 1854, with a further detachment of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot a few days behind. On 28 November, the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot arrived to reinforce the government camp in Ballarat. By the beginning of December, the police contingent at Ballarat had been surpassed by the number of soldiers from the 12th and 40th regiments.[77][78] The strength of the various units in the government camp was: 40th regiment (infantry): 87 men; 40th regiment (mounted): 30 men; 12th regiment (infantry): 65 men; mounted police: 70 men; and the foot police: 24 men.[79]

References
  1. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. xiv.
  2. Blake 2009, p. 195.
  3. Blake 2009, p. 198.
  4. "TO THE COLONISTS OF VICTORIA". The Argus. Melbourne. 10 April 1855. p. 7 – via Trove.
  5. Wright 2013, p. 428.
  6. Corfield et al. 2004, p. ix-xv.
  7. Broome 1984, p. 92.
  8. Withers 1999, pp. 63–64.
  9. "An Act for better Government of Her Majesty's Australian Colonies". Act of 1850. United Kingdom.
  10. Barnard 1962, p. 321.
  11. "The Victoria Electoral Act of 1851 No 3a". Act of 1851. New South Wales.
  12. Barnard 1962, pp. 254–255.
  13. "MORE GOLD". Geelong Advertiser. 12 January 2023. p. 2. Retrieved 17 November 2020 – via Trove.
  14. Barnard 1962, p. 255.
  15. "The Defence of the Eureka Stockade". Look and Learn. London: Fleetway Publications Ltd. 14 February 1970. p. 6.
  16. Barnard 1962, p. 261.
  17. Clark 1987, p. 68.
  18. Clark 1987, p. 67.
  19. Barnard 1962, p. 260.
  20. Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement 1965, p. 33.
  21. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. 151.
  22. Carboni 1855, pp. 38–39.
  23. MacFarlane 1995, pp. 192–193.
  24. Clark 1987, p. 73.
  25. Ballarat Reform League Charter, 11 November 1854, VPRS 4066/P Unit 1, November no. 69, VA 466 Governor (including Lieutenant Governor 1851–1855 and Governor's Office), Public Record Office Victoria.
  26. Clark 1987, pp. 75–76.
  27. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. 209.
  28. Carboni 1855, pp. 77, 81.
  29. Thomas, John Wellesley (3 December 1854). Captain Thomas reports on the attack on the Eureka Stockade to the Major Adjutant General (Report). Public Record Office Victoria. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  30. Carboni 1855, p. 98.
  31. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. xiii, 196.
  32. Carboni 1855, p. 59.
  33. Blake 1979, p. 76.
  34. FitzSimons 2012, p. 648, note 12.
  35. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 190–191.
  36. Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement 1965, p. 37.
  37. FitzSimons 2012, p. 648, note 13.
  38. Lynch 1940, pp. 11–12.
  39. Blake 1979, pp. 74, 76.
  40. The Queen v Joseph and others, 29 (Supreme Court of Victoria 1855).
  41. Three Despatches From Sir Charles Hotham 1978, p. 2.
  42. Carboni 1855, p. 96.
  43. Blake 2012, p. 88.
  44. Three Despatches From Sir Charles Hotham 1978, p. 7.
  45. Blake 1979, p. 93.
  46. Harvey 1994, p. 24.
  47. MacFarlane 1995.
  48. Withers 1999, p. 94.
  49. Carboni 1855, pp. 78–79.
  50. Withers 1999, pp. 116–117.
  51. "By Express. Fatal Collision at Ballaarat". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 December 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 13 January 2023 – via Trove.
  52. FitzSimons 2012, pp. 654–655, note 56.
  53. Cowie, Tom (22 October 2013). "$10,000 reward to track down 'other' Eureka flag". The Courier. Ballarat. p. 3. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  54. The figures 1500 and 120 are estimates. Official statistics kept by the colonial administration showed a total of 24,600 people in Ballarat on 2 December 1854, as given by Ian MacFarlane in his authoritative Eureka From the Official Records (Public Records Office, Melbourne, 1995).
  55. Anne Sunter, 'Eureka; Gathering 'the Oppressed of All Nations', 'Eureka; Releasing the Spirit of Democracy' (2008) 10(1) Journal of Australian Colonial History (special issue based on papers presented at the Eureka Conference at the University of Ballarat, November 2004).
  56. Blake 2012, p. 104.
  57. H.R. Nicholls. "Reminiscences of the Eureka Stockade", The Centennial Magazine: An Australian Monthly, (May 1890) (available in an annual compilation; Vol. II: August 1889 to July 1890), p. 749.
  58. Carboni 1855, p. 90.
  59. Withers 1999, p. 105.
  60. Currey 1954, p. 93.
  61. Craig 1903, p. 270.
  62. Lynch 1940, p. 37.
  63. FitzSimons 2012, p. 455.
  64. "Historians discuss Eureka legend". Lateline. 7 May 2001. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  65. Smith 1975, p. 188.
  66. King, Hugh (7 December 1854). "Deposition of Witness: Hugh King". Public Record Office Victoria. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  67. "BALLAARAT". The Argus. Melbourne. 9 December 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  68. Blake 2012, pp. 243–244, note 78.
  69. Wenban 1958, pp. 25–27.
  70. Harry Watt (director) (1949). Eureka Stockade (Motion picture). United Kingdom and Australia: Ealing Studios.
  71. Australian Encyclopaedia Volume Four ELE-GIB 1983, p. 59.
  72. Carboni 1855, pp. 84–85, 94.
  73. Wenban 1958, p. 25.
  74. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 226, 424.
  75. Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement 1965, p. 36.
  76. MacFarlane 1995, p. 196.
  77. Thomas, John Wellesley (3 December 1854). Captain Thomas reports on the attack on the Eureka Stockade to the Major Adjutant General (Report). Public Record Office Victoria. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  78. "SERIOUS RIOT AT BALLAARAT". The Argus. No. 2357. Melbourne. 28 November 1854. p. 4. Retrieved 13 January 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  79. Withers 1999, p. 111.
  80. "Eureka Stockade | Ergo". ergo.slv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  81. Lynch 1940, p. 30.
  82. Blake 2012, p. 133.
  83. Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement 1965, p. 39.
  84. Currey 1954, pp. 68–69.
  85. Withers 1999, pp. 123–124.
  86. Ferguson 1979, p. 60.
  87. Withers 1999, p. 109.
  88. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. 191.
  89. "Eureka Stockade". State Library of Victoria. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  90. Blake 1979, p. 81.
  91. Blake 2012, pp. 136–138.
  92. Craig 1903, pp. 267–268.
  93. Blake 1979, pp. 29, 99.
  94. Turner, Ian. "Lalor, Peter (1827–1889)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017 – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  95. Lynch 1940, p. 31.
  96. Anderson 1978, p. 43.
  97.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Vetch, Robert Hamilton (1895). "Pasley, Charles (1824–1890)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  98. Clark 1987, pp. 78–79.
  99. "THE EUREKA MASSACRE". Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer. Geelong. 6 December 1854. p. 4 – via Trove.
  100. Carboni 1855, p. 99.
  101. The Queen v Joseph and others, 35 (Supreme Court of Victoria 1855).
  102. FitzSimons 2012, p. 477.
  103. John Wellesley Thomas (14 December 1854). Capt. Thomas' report - Flag captured (Report). Colonial Secretary's Office. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020 – via Public Record Office Victoria.
  104. Eureka Reminiscences 1998, p. 22.
  105. Withers 1999, p. 82.
  106. Blake 1979, p. 88.
  107. R.E. Johns Papers, MS10075, Manuscript Collection, La Trobe Library, State Library of Victoria.
  108. "By Express. Fatal Collision at Ballaarat". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 December 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 9 January 2023 – via Trove.
  109. Dorothy Wickham, Deaths at Eureka Archived 24 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine an extract from her book "Deaths at Eureka", 64pp, 1996 ISBN 0-646-30283-3
  110. Wickham, Dorothy. "Eureka's Fallen". Ballarat Heritage Services. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  111. Wright 2013, pp. 428–429.
  112. MacFarlane 1995, pp. 204–205.
  113. MacFarlane 1995, p. 96.
  114. Wright 2013, pp. 480–481, note 2.
  115. Blake 2009, p. 199.
  116. MacFarlane 1995, p. 104.
  117. Taylor, Theophilus. "Papers 1846-1856 [page 69]". State Library of Victoria. Unpublished manuscript. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  118. "EUREKA STOCKADE RECALLED: William Edward Atherdon, (96)". The Kyogle Examiner. Kyogle. 29 May 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 29 May 2019 – via Trove.
  119. "LAST SURVIVOR OF EUREKA STOCKADE". Daily Mercury. Mackay. 15 May 1934. p. 6. Retrieved 29 May 2019 – via Trove.
  120. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. 433.
  121. http://www.eurekapedia.org/Weapons
  122. Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, p. 190.
  123. Harvey 1994.
  124. Harvey, J.T., 'Locating the Eureka Stockade: Use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in a Historiographical Research Context: Computers and the Humanities', Vol. 37, No. 2, May 2003.

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Further reading
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