Sack of Wexford The Sack of Wexford took place in October 1649 , during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , when the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell took Wexford town in south - eastern Ireland . The English Parliamentarian troops broke into the town while the commander of the garrison was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike . Much of the town was burned and its harbour was destroyed . Along with the Siege of Drogheda , the sack of Wexford is still remembered in Ireland as an infamous atrocity . Background . Wexford was held by Irish Catholic forces throughout the Irish Confederate Wars . In the Irish Rebellion of 1641 , over 1500 local men mustered in the town for the rebels . In 1642 , Lord Mountgarret , the local Commander of the Confederate Catholic regime , ordered Protestants to leave Wexford . About 80 English Protestant refugees drowned when the boat evacuating them from Wexford sank . Wexford was also the base for a fleet of Confederate privateer s , who raided English Parliamentary shipping and contributed 10 % of their plunder to the Confederate government based in Kilkenny . By 1649 , there were over 40 such vessels operating from the town , many of them originating in Dunkirk , but attracted to Wexford by the prospect of plunder . English Parliamentary sources reported that the privateers ' raids were severely disrupting shipping between Dublin , Liverpool and Chester . The Confederate privateers fought a " dirty war " with English Parliamentarian naval forces . In 1642 , Parliamentary ships began throwing captured Wexford sailors overboard with their hands tied . In reprisal , 150 – 170 English prisoners were kept in Wexford and threatened with death if such killing continued . In 1648 , the Confederates and Royalists in Ireland signed a treaty joining forces against the English Parliament . After Cromwell ' s landing in Ireland in August 1649 , therefore , Wexford was a key target for the Parliamentarians , being an important port for the Royalist alliance and a base for the privateers . Siege and sacking of Wexford . Cromwell arrived at Wexford on 2 October 1649 with about 6000 men , eight heavy siege guns and two mortars . On 6 October , Cromwell concentrated his force on the heights overlooking the southern end of the town . The town ' s garrison initially consisted of 1500 Confederate soldiers under David Sinnot . However , the morale of the town was low – perhaps as a result of hearing the fall of Drogheda on 11 September – and many of the civilians in Wexford wanted to surrender . Sinnot however , appears to have strung out surrender negotiations with Cromwell and was steadily reinforced , bringing his garrison strength up to 4 , 800 men by 11 October . In addition , the main Royalist / Confederate force under James Butler , 1st Duke of Ormonde was close by at New Ross . Sinnot insisted on several conditions for surrender that Cromwell would not countenance , including the free practice of the Catholic religion , the evacuation of the garrison with their arms and the free passage of the privateer fleet to a friendly port . Negotiations were re - opened when Cromwell ' s guns blasted two breaches in the walls of Wexford castle , opening the prospect of an assault on the town . However , while negotiations were still ongoing , the town was unexpectedly stormed and sacked on 11 October 1649 . The circumstances are confused and contentious . It does not appear that Cromwell ordered an assault on the town , much less its sacking . Cromwell ' s final letter to Sinnott on 11 October 1649 read as follows – it unequivocally expresses willingness to give terms : Sir , I have had the patience to peruse your propositions ; to which I might have returned an answer with some disdain . But to be short I shall give the soldiers and non - commissioned officers quarter for life and leave to go to their several habitations . . . and as for the inhabitants , I shall engage myself that no violence shall be offered to their goods , and that I shall protect their town from plunder . While negotiations were still proceeding , however , Stafford , the English Royalist captain of Wexford Castle ( part of the town ' s defences ) , surrendered the castle , for reasons that have never been determined . The troops of the New Model Army , on their own initiative , immediately assaulted the walls of the town , causing the Confederate troops to flee in panic from their positions . The Parliamentarians pursued them into the streets of Wexford , killing many of the town ' s defenders . Several hundred , including David Sinnot , the town governor , were shot or drowned as they tried to cross the river Slaney . Estimates of the death toll vary . Cromwell himself thought that over 2000 of the town ' s defenders had been killed compared with only 20 of his troops . Several Catholic priests , including seven Franciscans were killed by the Roundheads . Much of the town , including its harbour , was burned and looted . As many as 1 , 500 civilians were also killed in the sacking . This figure is difficult to corroborate but most historians accept that many civilians were killed in the chaos surrounding the fall of Wexford . The destruction of Wexford was so severe that it could not be used either as a port or as winter quarters for the Parliamentarian forces . One Parliamentarian source therefore described the sack as " incommodious to ourselves " . Cromwell reported that the remaining civilians had " run off " and asked for soldiers to be sent from England to re - populate the town and re - open its port . Debate . In relation to Wexford , as with his Siege of Drogheda , the contention that Cromwell massacred civilians is disputed . Cromwell did not mention civilian casualties in his report on the siege . However , a request for compensation from the town of Wexford to the restored monarchy in the 1660s stated that 1 , 500 townspeople lost their lives in the sack . James Scott Wheeler , author of " Cromwell in Ireland " judges that , " unquestionably , hundreds of non - combatants were killed by the rampaging soldiers " . Even Tom Reilly , author of " Cromwell an Honourable Enemy " ( which gives a favourable account of Cromwell ' s conduct in Ireland ) concedes , " there are many more references to the deaths of women and children at Wexford than at Drogheda and this fact is difficult to ignore " . Reilly ' s main defence of Oliver Cromwell at Wexford is that the sack of the town was not his intention and that he bears no responsibility for it . While Cromwell did not order the assault on the town , he made no attempt to stop it or to punish the perpetrators . Indeed he justified the conduct of his troops , saying of Wexford that , " they were made with their blood to answer for the cruelties they had exercised upon diverse poor Protestants " . This referred to the treatment of Protestants in the town after 1641 and to the activities of the privateers .