During the next seven or eight hours, the English were engaged in a running fight over 14 miles, but they ultimately managed to break out of the trap. When BagenalвЂ™s force marched back to Newry on May 27, OвЂ™Neill ambushed it at Clontibret, near the border of Monaghan and Armagh counties. The Irish did not press their advantage, however, and Bagenal was able push on to MonaghanвЂ™s garrison, which he provided with supplies and a company of fresh troops. In previous rebellions, such a show of force would have sufficed to scatter any Irish assault, but this time the 300 musket-armed Irishmen who lined up against the English were equally proficient in the use of their weapons.

Consequently, the officers in the vanguard did not know what to do until Captain Richard Cuney, commanding one of the two Staffordshire companies present, engaged the enemy with 150 musketeers and pikemen. Expecting the Irish to attack the rearmost division of his column, Bagenal had stayed at the back. The English resumed their march toward Monaghan on the morning of May 26, but at Crossdall, just four miles from their destination, their vanguard came under attack by a large Irish force. Sir Edward York rode out of camp to parley with him, then returned to report that OвЂ™Neill had stated that by 10 the next morning, вЂit should be seen whether the Queen or they should be masters of the field and owners of Ulster.вЂ™ BagenalвЂ™s suspicions about OвЂ™Neill were confirmed on May 25 when OвЂ™Neill rode up with a small troop of horsemen and began surveying the English camp at Ballymoyer, where BagenalвЂ™s men were resting for the evening. Nominally, the Irish rebels investing the castle were led by Hugh Roe (or Red Hugh) OвЂ™Donnell, but rumor had it that they were actually being commanded by the Anglicized Irish lord on whom the English had counted to assist them against OвЂ™DonnellвЂ“Hugh OвЂ™Neill, the second Earl of Tyrone.ДЄs early as February 16, OвЂ™Neill was reported to have aided the rebel followers of his bastard brother, Art MacBaron, in their successful storming of the English fort at the Blackwater River northwest of Newry. On May 25, the 1,750-man force, under the command of Marshal Sir Henry Bagenal, had set out to resupply the besieged garrison at Monaghan castle some 20 miles to the west. It was a shaken and demoralized English column that returned to its northern Irish base at Newry on the evening of May 28, 1595.

Floris english troop names