Battle of Carrickfergus (1760)

Battle of Carrickfergus
Part of Seven Years' War
Date 21–26 February 1759 Location Carrickfergus, Ireland Result French occupy town for five days, before withdrawing
Belligerents
Kingdom of Great Britain	Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Colonel John Jennings	François Thurot General Flobert
Strength
200	600

The Battle of Carrickfergus took place in February 1760 in Carrickfergus, Kingdom of Ireland during the Seven Years War. A force of 600 French troops landed under the command of the Privateer François Thurot overwhelmed the small garrison of the town and captured its castle. When word of the capture reached Dublin a small force of dragoons were despatched by the Lord Lieutenant Duke of Bedford who feared, incorrectly, that it was a feint to draw British forces to the north while a main French force was to attack Cork or Dublin.

Thurot held the town for five days, menacing nearby Belfast and demanding supplies and a ransom. In the face of the mobilisation of large numbers of local militia under General Strode, and the appearance of a Royal Navy squadron off the coast - Thurot re-embarked his force and departed the town.

Aftermath

Thurot was subsequently killed in a sea battle, but his feat in landing on enemy soil was widely hailed in France and he became a national hero, partly because his perceived daring was in sharp contrast to the incompetence shown by French naval officers at the recent Battle of Quiberon Bay.

See also

• Great Britain in the Seven Years War
• France in the Seven Years War

Bibliography

• Longmate, Norman. Island Fortress: The Defence of Great Britain, 1603-1945. Harper Collins, 1993
• McLynn, Frank. 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World. Pimlico, 2005.
• Rodger NAM. Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. Penguin Books, 2006.

Further reading

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