In March, 1649, Oliver Cromwell was appointed by the English Parliament Commander-General for Ireland, and in July he left London in State to take up his office. He landed in Ireland in August, and marched at once to Dublin. He desired to put down as quickly as possible all resistance, and to proceed with the scheme of Confiscation and Plantation which tho Parliament had already outlined. He had no scruple as to methods, no pity or sympathy for the Irish people.

His forces amounted to over 20,000 tried and well-equipped troops, and the artillery was the best and heaviest then in use.
The enemy who were to oppose him. were made up of the parties who had fought in Ireland for the past eight years : Ormondists, Old Irish, Anglo-Irish, and lastly Scotch Presbyterians, a section of whom had been so horrified at the trial and execution of Charles I that they had gone over to the Royalists.

 All these were disorganised, disheartened, suspicious of each other, weary of conflict and intrigues. Ormond, the Royalist General, had garrisoned most of the larger towns which still held for the King’s cause, and against one of the strongest of them, Drogheda, Cromwell now directed his efforts.  

The garrison consisted of about 2,600 soldiers, English and Irish.   Sir Arthur Aston, the Commander, was an experienced officer; he would certainly make a good defence Of ammunition and food, however, he had very small supplies, and in vain, during the interval before the siege began, did he write letter after letter to Ormond, begging for at least a few barrels of powder to be sent to him.   Early in September, Cromwell marched up from Dublin, and sitting down before Drogheda ordered it to surrender to the Parliament.

Aston, of course, refused, and on the 9th the assault began.A few hundred shots from Cromwell’s great guns sufficed to make two considerable breaches in the walls, and by the evening of the 10th, most of the town was in the hands of the besiegers.   No mercy was shown, save in a few isolated instances.   Old people, women and children were massacred.

Many who had taken refuge in the vaults of St. Peter’s Church were sought out and murdered, in spite of their tears and entreaties.   Sir Arthur Aston was one of the first to fall.

From Drogheda, Cromwell moved on to Wexford (October 1st). There were traitors in the garrison there. Cromwell, who probably knew the state of affairs, induced the deluded inhabitants to send Commissioners to treat with him. During the progress of the sham negotiations, a certain Captain Stafford opened the gates of the Castle and admitted the enemy. After this the town itself was easily taken by assault (October nth). The tradition that some hundreds of women and children were put to death in the market-place, as they crowded round the stone cross there, though not exactly contemporary, is so old as to be probably at least founded on fact.

New Ross held out only two days, but Cromwell lingered in the neighbourhood for a month. His troops were suffering greatly from sickness, and his effective strength was so much reduced that he was obliged to abandon the siege of Waterford, which he had begun, and to go into winter quarters.