Notes on the Siege of Derry

From The Irish Fireside, Volume 1, Number 16, October 15, 1883

If the people of America rejoice in the gallant defence of Charleston and Vicksburg, and in the prowess shown by the conquered South on the bloody fields of Antietiam and Gettysburg; surely Irishmen of all classes may find field for exultation in the gallant defence of Derry.

The following will be read with interest:--

The siege was maintained for one hundred and five days, and from the following note of the price of provisions, some idea may be formed of the sufferings of the besieged, and the degree of heroism which animated them in their refusals to surrender:--Horse-flesh, each pound, one shilling and eightpence; a quarter of a dog, fattened by eating dead bodies, five shillings and six-pence; a dog's head, two shillings and sixpence; a cat, four shillings and sixpence; a rat, fattened by eating human flesh, one shilling; a mouse, sixpence; a pound of greaves, one shilling; a pound of tallow, four shillings; a pound of salted hides, one shilling; a quart of horse blood, one shilling; a handful of sea-wreck, twopence; the same quantity of chickenweed, one penny.

When the garrison was relieved, they had only nine lean horses left, and one pint of meal to each man. Hunger and fatigue had so prevailed among them, that of seven thousand five hundred men regimented at the commencement of the seige, they had then alive but about four thousand three hundred, of whom, at least, one-fourth part were rendered unserviceable.