Siege of Waterford The city of Waterford in south eastern Ireland was besieged from 1649 – 50 during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . The town was held by Irish Confederate Catholic and English Royalist troops under general Thomas Preston . It was besieged by English Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell , Michael Jones and Henry Ireton . Waterford - a Catholic city 1641 – 49 . Waterford was a majority Catholic city and like most other towns in Ireland ' s south - east had supported the Confederate Catholic cause since the Catholic Irish Rebellion of 1641 . Late in 1641 , Protestant refugees , displaced by the insurgents , began to arrive in the town , creating much tension among the Catholic townspeople . The city ' s mayor wanted to protect the refugees , but the recorder and several of the Aldermen on the city council wanted to strip them of their property and let in the rebels , who arrived outside the walls in early 1642 . At first , the Mayor ' s faction was successful in refusing to admit rebel forces , but by March 1642 , the faction in the municipal government sympathetic to the rebellion had prevailed . The Protestants in Waterford were expelled , in most cases put on ships to England , sometimes after having their property looted by the city mob and Irish Confederate troops were let into Waterford . In 1645 Confederate troops under Thomas Preston also besieged and took nearby Duncannon from its English garrison , thus removing the threat to shipping coming to and from Waterford . Waterford ' s political community was noted for its intransigent Catholic politics . In 1646 , a synod of Roman Catholic Bishops , based in Waterford , excommunicated any Catholic who supported a treaty between the Confederates and English Royalists , which did not allow for the free practice of the Catholic religion . The Confederates finally agreed a treaty with Charles I of England in 1648 , in order to join forces with the Royalists against their common enemy , the English Parliament , which was both anti - Catholic and hostile to the King . The Parliamentarians landed a major expeditionary force in Ireland at Dublin , under Oliver Cromwell in August 1649 . The English Parliamentarian New Model Army arrived to besiege Waterford in October 1649 . One of the stated aims of Oliver Cromwell ' s invasion of Ireland was to punish the Irish for the mistreatment of Protestants in 1641 . Given Waterford ' s history of partisan Catholic politics , this provoked great fear amongst the townspeople . This fear was accentuated by the fate of Drogheda and nearby Wexford which had recently been taken and sacked by Cromwell ' s forces and their garrisons massacred . Waterford was very important strategically in the war in Ireland . Its port allowed for the importation of arms and supplies from continental Europe and its geographical position commanded the entrance of the rivers Suir and Barrow . The first siege November – December 1649 . Before besieging Waterford , Oliver Cromwell had to take the surrounding garrisons held by Royalist and Confederate troops in order to secure his lines of communication and supply . Duncannon whose fort commanded the sea passage into Waterford , was besieged by Parliamentarians under Henry Ireton from 15 October to 5 November . However , due to a stubborn defence , the garrison there under Edward Wogan held out . This meant that heavy siege artillery could not be brought up to Waterford by sea . New Ross surrendered to Cromwell on 19 October and Carrick - on - Suir was taken on 19 November . A counter - attack on Carrick by Irish troops from Ulster under Major Geoghegan was repulsed on 24 November , leaving 500 of the Ulstermen dead . Having isolated Waterford from the east and north , Cromwell arrived before the city on 24 November . However , Waterford still had access to reinforcements from the west and up to 3000 Irish soldiers ( from the Confederate ' s Ulster Army ) under Richard Farrell were fed into the city in the course of a week . The weather was extremely cold and wet and the Parliamentarian troops suffered heavily from disease . Out of 6 , 500 English Parliamentarian soldiers who besieged Waterford in 1649 , only 3000 or so were still fit by the time the siege was called off . Added to this , Cromwell was able to make little headway in taking the city . The capture of a fort at Passage East enabled him to bring up siege guns by sea , but the wet weather meant that it was all but impossible to transport them close enough to Waterford ' s walls to use them . Eventually Cromwell had to call off the siege on 10 December and go into winter quarters at Dungarvan . Among his casualties was his commander Michael Jones , who died of disease . The second siege January – August 1650 . Waterford was not tightly besieged again until June 1650 , but in the intervening months , it was steadily isolated . In January , its access to the west was cut off and in June , the Parliamentary commander Henry Ireton arrived before the city . By this time Waterford was held by Irish general Thomas Preston , 1st Viscount Tara . Not only was Preston ' s garrison short on food , but an epidemic ( it is thought of bubonic plague ) had taken hold in the city and was killing up to 400 people within the city walls a week . Moreover , the fall of Carlow ( about 70 km north of Waterford ) in July meant that Waterford could no longer be supplied via the river Barrow . Henry Ireton ordered his men to dig trenches for his siege guns , in order to bring them close enough to batter a breach in the walls and he also blockaded the port of Waterford with a Parliamentarian naval fleet . By the end of July , his artillery was in range of the walls . At this point , the Mayor and Aldermen of Waterford pleaded with Preston to surrender the city . He was down to 700 fit troops and only 500 pounds of gunpowder and was therefore in no position to resist an assault . Indeed , he himself was gravely ill . If the city fell to by storm , it was understood that the lives and property of its defenders would not be guaranteed . No doubt as a result of these considerations , Preston duly surrendered Waterford to Ireton on 10 August 1650 . His troops were allowed to march away to Galway or Athlone , which were still in Irish Catholic hands , but he surrendered all the artillery , ammunition and ships in Waterford . Nearby Duncannon surrendered on 12 August . How many of Waterford ' s garrison and population died during the sieges is difficult to determine , but it must certainly have been several thousand . Ireton granted the civilian population lenient terms of surrender , respecting their lives and property . By contrast , at Limerick the following year , he had that city ' s most energetic defenders hanged . Waterford was the last Irish Catholic stronghold to hold out in the east of Ireland against the English Parliamentarian forces . After its fall , the Irish Catholic forces held only an enclave in the province of Connacht , west of the river Shannon .