Vances of the Past: Ezekiel Vance (Part 2)

Another installment in the soldier life of Ezekiel Vance!  Check Vances of the Past: Ezekiel Vance (Part 1) for the first story and the source of these reports.  

Again, this was during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, when Irishmen fought on both the rebel and the British sides of the conflict.  Ezekiel Vance was a young Irish soldier on the Loyalist (British) side who distinguished himself in the Battle of Antrim.  After the battle, however, he seems to have caused some trouble...

On an early day after the battle [of Antrim], twenty-two men were arrested at the insistence of Lord Massereene, colonel of the local cavalry force.  His Lordship is said to have been a somewhat eccentric man, who sometimes gave orders without fully considering their gravity.  The only offense the twenty-two men were known to have committed was that of not making any demonstration on the side of loyalty.  They had simply remained neutral.  For this they were arrested, and committed to one of the cells still existing beneath the western end of the Court-house. 

After the men were imprisoned, the question arose in Lord Massareene’s mind as to what should be done with them.  This was soon decided.  They should be at once shot; that would end the difficulty.  Accordingly his Lordship requested Sergeant McCaughan to dispatch them in the manner indicated, to which McCaughan replied “Yes, my Lord, we will bring them out and shoot them.”  Ezekiel Vance, being present, opposed such an order, and at once exclaimed, “No, my Lord, that would be murder!”  Lord Massareene, realizing the truth of the remark, proceeded no further with the matter, but immediately walked away, and the lives of the men were spared.  McCaughan afterwards reproached Vance, notwithstanding the fact that he was a Yeoman [on the British side], with being always on the side of the Insurgents [the rebels]. 

The names of only four of the twenty-two men are now remembered – Silas and James Steen, and Richard and William Barklie.  While confined within their cells, the poor fellows heard the order given for them to be shot.  All subsequently manifested much gratitude to Ezekiel Vance for having remonstrated with Lord Massareene, whereby their lives were saved.

...His [Ezekiel Vance’s] subsequent life was uneventful, and was spent in peaceful occupations.  He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his fellow-townsmen, and died universally respected when eighty-two years of age (Authority – Mrs. Graham Shannon, of Antrim, daughter of Ezekiel Vance).

In the years immediately after 1798 smaller rebel armies in Ireland continued to fight and it was not until 1803 that the last rebel forces surrendered.   Many stories of brutal retaliations and heavy-handed tactics survived on both sides after the conflict, and the continuing hostilities caused waves that obviously have lasted well into modern times. Ireland's history might have been more peaceful if there had been more Ezekiel Vances around in 1798!