Editing Eureka Rebellion (section)

===== 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>}}