The first significant engagement of the campaign…
May 1599 CE
The first significant engagement of the campaign comes in the second week of May at the pass of Cashel, where Essex determines to march against rebel defenses rather than make a detour.
The pass is wooded and boggy, with a plashed rebel trench at either end.
At the head of the advance are forty shot and twenty swordsmen; in the face of rebel resistance, the calivermen move to point blank range and the swordsmen jump into the trenches on the flanks; then the vanguard moves through the calivermen in a frontal assault and presses through to open country, where they halts until the whole column has joined them.
Essex is said to have flown like lightning between the vanguard, battle and rearguard.
The English admit to the loss of three officers and several men; the rebels capture many feathered helmets, hence the name of the battle as the Pass of the Plumes.