29 August 1798: French troops conveyed to Mayo with Gen Humbert disembark at Kilcummin near Killala on the 23rd and quickly wrest control of the small Atlantic outpost from its garrison. Three thousand muskets and 1,000 uniforms are soon distributed to local United Irishmen.
Humbert's dispatch to the Directory's Minister of the Marine states: "At last, in spite of the English, we are on shore, and masters of Killala. Every thing promises us the most complete success . . . Citizen Savary, chief of the division, and the three captains charged with the expedition do infinite credit to your choice."
Bishop Stock calmly regards his change in fortune remarking that "it is the will of God and we must not murmur at it". A Ballina writer, however, feels the need to misrepresent the necessarily token resistance at Killala.
News of the French advance, he asserts, roused "a small body of the Prince of Wales's fencibles, with a few yeomanry, aided by Doctor Ellison, the Rev Mr Simpson, and other clergymen attending the bishop's visitation, about 30 in all, [who] immediately turned out, met the enemy in the street, received their fire, which was warmly returned, and the French commander killed on the spot - but on account of the superiority of the enemy's force, this small body was obliged to retreat, which was effected to Ballina in an orderly and spirited way."
Reaction elsewhere is coloured by confusion. William Hartigan is inclined on the 24th to accept a figure of 1,500 French troops on Irish soil but remarks "some say 18,000, others only 800".
Waterford's Sir Richard Musgrave claims the intelligence "has not created the smallest alarm . . . nor is it expected that it will occasion an insurrection in any part of the Kingdom". Robert Ross is less composed claiming "the city is in alarm . . . [full] of rascals ready to take up arms . . . this is the night intended for rising".
Ballina is entered by Humbert and his United Irish allies on the 25th, no contest being offered by the yeoman who earlier decamp to Foxford after a poor showing against French scouts. The Franco-Irish column reaches Castlebar on the 26th by an indirect highland route scouted by Fr James Conroy. After a trek by moonlight they outflank Crown forces guarding the main road.
Lake arrives at Castlebar late that night to supersede Gen Hely-Hutchinson in command of the Fraser fencibles, Longford and Kilkenny militia, Galway yeomanry, Lord Roden's "foxhunters" and the 6th Carabineers. Eleven pieces of artillery pound the advancing French on the 27th as they push on towards Lake's lines. Invigorated by the cool leadership of Col Sarrazin, the disciplined veterans ignore mounting casualties and close on their adversaries.
The unsettled Frasers and the Irish militia break ranks, abandon almost all the precious battalion guns, and run for their lives as far as Athlone and Tuam. Cornwallis hears that the "depredations" committed during this retreat "raised a spirit of discontent and disaffection which did not before exist in this part of the country".
Word of this defeat reaches Athlone as more and more elements of the Viceroy's army move up from Tullamore. Maj Gen Moore notes "during the night the Sutherland and Reay fencibles arrived with Generals Campbell and Wemyss. On the 28th . . . I went with Lord Cornwallis to choose a situation for a camp in front of Athlone. The troops moved into it that day, and on the 29th we marched to Ballinamore."