Editing Eureka Rebellion (section)

==== Fortification of the Eureka lead ====
{{main|Eureka Stockade (fortification)}}
[[File:Eureka map.jpg|thumb|250px|A plan of the Eureka Stockade as an exhibit in the 1855 Victorian high treason trials]]

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.{{sfn|Corfield|Wickham|Gervasoni|2004|p=xiii, 196}}{{sfn|Carboni|1855|p=59}} There were existing mines within the stockade.{{sfn|Blake|1979|p=76}} The stockade consisted of diagonal wooden spikes made from materials including pit props and overturned horse carts. It encompassed an area said to be one acre. Other estimates give the dimensions of the stockade as {{convert|100|ft}} x {{convert|200|ft}}.{{sfn|FitzSimons|2012|p=648, note 12}} Contemporaneous descriptions and representations vary and have the stockade as either rectangular or semi-circular.{{sfn|Corfield|Wickham|Gervasoni|2004|pp=190-191}}

Lalor later said the stockade "was nothing more than an enclosure to keep our own men together, and was never erected with an eye to military defence".{{sfn|Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement|1965|p=37}} [[Peter FitzSimons]] asserts that Lalor may have downplayed the fact that the Eureka Stockade was intended as something of a fortress at a time when "it was very much in his interests" to do so.{{sfn|FitzSimons|2012|p=648, note 13}} The construction work was overseen by 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".{{sfn|Lynch|1940|pp=11-12}}

Other descriptions of the stockade contradicted Lalor's recollection of it being a simple fence after the fall of the stockade.{{sfn|Blake|1979|pp=74, 76}} 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.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=The Queen v Joseph and others |pinpoint=29 |court=Supreme Court of Victoria |date=1855 }}</ref>

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". These considerations were part of the reasoning behind the decision to move into position in the early morning for a surprise attack.{{sfn|Three Despatches From Sir Charles Hotham|1978|p=2}} Carboni details the rebel dispositions:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Carboni|1855|p=96}} }}

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".{{sfn|Blake|2012|p=88}} A detachment of 800 men, which included "two field pieces and two howitzers" was under the commander in chief of the British forces in Australia, Major General Sir [[Robert Nickle (British Army officer)|Robert Nickle]]. Nickle himself, who had seen action during the 1798 Irish rebellion, arrived after the insurgency had been put down.{{sfn|Three Despatches From Sir Charles Hotham|1978|p=7}}{{sfn|Blake|1979|p=93}} 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".{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=24}}

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 met with Rede to present a peace proposal. Rede was suspicious of the Chartist undercurrent of the anti-mining tax movement and he rejected the proposals.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=}}

The rebels sent out scouts and established picket lines in order to have advance warning of Rede's movements and a request for reinforcements to the other mining settlements.{{sfn|Withers|1999|p=94}} The "moral force" faction had withdrawn from the protest movement 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, and Carboni recalls they were: "dirty and ragged, and proved the greatest nuisance. One of them, Michael Tuohy, behaved valiantly".{{sfn|Carboni|1855|pp=78-79}} Once foraging parties were organised, there was a rebel garrison of around 200 men. Amid the Saturday night revelry, low munitions, and major desertions, Lalor ordered that any man attempting to leave the stockade be shot.{{sfn|Withers|1999|pp=116-117}}

===== Vinegar Hill blunder: Irish dimension factors in dwindling numbers at stockade =====
{{further|Eureka Jack Mystery}}
[[File:The_Eureka_Flag_And_Eureka_Jack.jpg|thumb|Oath swearing scene from the 1949 film ''[[Eureka Stockade (1949 film)|Eureka Stockade]]'' featuring the Union Jack beneath the Eureka Flag]]
[[File:Argus Eureka Jack report 4 December 1854.jpg|thumb|An extract of an ''Argus'' report, 4 December 1854]]
[[File:Hugh king.jpg|thumb|An extract of an 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4801224 | location=Melbourne | work=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] | title=By Express. Fatal Collision at Ballaarat | date=4 December 1854 | access-date=17 November 2020 | page=5|via=[[Trove]] }}</ref> [[Peter FitzSimons]] has questioned whether this contemporaneous report of the otherwise unaccounted-for Union Jack known as the [[Eureka Jack]] being present is accurate.{{sfn|FitzSimons|2012|pp=654-655, note 56}} 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 dissipating.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1858615/10000-reward-to-track-down-the-other-eureka-flag | location=Ballarat | work=[[The Courier (Ballarat)|The Courier]] | first=Tom |last=Cowie | title=$10,000 reward to track down 'other' Eureka flag | date=22 October 2013 | access-date=17 November 2020 | page=3 }}</ref>

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.<ref>The figures 1,500 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).</ref>{{sfn|Beggs-Sunter|2008}}{{sfn|Blake|2012|p=104}} Lalor's choice of password for the night of 2 December—"[[Battle of Vinegar Hill|Vinegar Hill]]"<ref>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.</ref>{{sfn|Carboni|1855|p=90}}{{sfn|Withers|1999|p=105}}—caused 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 [[Battle of Vinegar Hill|site of a battle]] during the [[Irish rebellion of 1798|1798 Irish rebellion]]. The [[Castle Hill convict rebellion|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.{{sfn|Currey|1954|p=93}}

William Craig recalled that "Many at Ballaarat, who were disposed before that to resist the military, now quietly withdrew from the movement".{{sfn|Craig|1903|p=270}} 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". 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".{{sfn|Lynch|1940|p=37}}

There were rebellious miners converging on Ballarat from Bendigo, Forrest Creek, and Creswick 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".{{sfn|Craig|1903|p=270}} 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".{{sfn|FitzSimons|2012|p=455}} Withers states that:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Withers|1999|p=105}} }}

It is certain that Irish-born people were strongly represented at the Eureka Stockade.{{sfn|Currey|1954|p=93}} 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.{{refn|group=note|It is currently known that the Eureka rebels came from at least 23 different nations.<ref>[https://www.eurekacentreballarat.com.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020-11/7.%20Eureka%20Nationalities.pdf Eureka Nationalities] eurekacentreballarat.com.au</ref> Carboni recalled that "We were of all nations and colours".{{sfn|Carboni|1855|p=69}} ''The Argus'' observed that of "the first batch of prisoners brought up for examination, the four examined consisted of one Englishman, one Dane, one Italian, and one negro, and if that is not a foreign collection, we do not know what is".<ref>''The Argus'', 12 December 1854, 5.</ref> However, according to Professor Sunter's figures, in her sample of 44 rebels, only one hailed from a non-European country.{{sfn|Beggs-Sunter|2008}} Despite being present on the Ballarat gold fields, there is no record of any Chinese involvement in the Eureka Stockade. John Joseph, an American Negro, and James Campbell, a Jamaican, were both among the thirteen rebel prisoners to go on trial. Andrew Peters, who acted as a police spy, said during cross-examination that "There are some" black men on the diggings. Patrick Lynott recalled that "There were a good many black men" in the rebel camp.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=The Queen v Joseph and others |pinpoint=18, 20 |court=Supreme Court of Victoria |date=1855 }}</ref> }} 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".<ref name = "lateline">{{Cite episode |title=Historians discuss Eureka legend |series=Lateline |network=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=7 May 2001 }}</ref>

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.{{sfn|Blake|2012|pp=243-244, note 78}}

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

{{blockquote|... 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 ...<ref>{{cite web | url=http://wiki.prov.vic.gov.au/index.php/Eureka_Stockade:Depositions_VPRS_5527/P_Unit_2,_Item_9 | title=Deposition of Witness: Hugh King | last=King | first=Hugh | publisher=[[Public Record Office Victoria]] | date=7 December 1854 | access-date=8 December 2020 | archive-date=12 November 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112003554/http://wiki.prov.vic.gov.au/index.php/Eureka_Stockade:Depositions_VPRS_5527/P_Unit_2,_Item_9 | url-status=dead }}</ref> }}

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:

{{blockquote|... 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.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4801531/554726 | location=Melbourne | work= [[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] | title=BALLAARAT | date=9 December 1854 |access-date=8 December 2020 | page=5 }}</ref> }}

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.{{sfn|Blake|2009|p=183, note 78}}{{sfn|Blake|2012|pp=243-244, note 78}}{{refn|group=note|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.{{sfn|Wenban|1958|pp=25-27}} The 1949 motion picture ''Eureka Stockade'' produced by Ealing Studios, also features the Union Jack beneath the Eureka Flag during the oath swearing scene.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Harry Watt (director) |date=1949 |title=Eureka Stockade |medium=Motion picture |language=en |location=United Kingdom and Australia |publisher=Ealing Studios }}</ref>}}

===== 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 took most of his two hundred Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements from Melbourne. Many Saturday night revellers within the rebel garrison returned 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.{{sfn|Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement|1965|p=37}}{{sfn|Australian Encyclopaedia Volume Four ELE-GIB|1983|p=59}}{{sfn|Carboni|1855|pp=84-85, 94}}

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".<ref name="lalor letter">{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4806503 |location=Melbourne |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |title=TO THE COLONISTS OF VICTORIA. |date=10 April 1855 |page=7 |via=[[Trove]] }}</ref> 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 within the rebel garrison.{{sfn|Wenban|1958|p=25}}{{sfn|Corfield|Wickham|Gervasoni|2004|pp=226, 424}}

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".{{sfn|Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement|1965|p=36}} On being brought to battle that day, Lalor stated: "we would have retreated, but it was then too late".<ref name="lalor letter"/>

On the eve of the battle, Father Smyth issued a plea for Catholics to down their arms and attend mass the following day.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=196}}