Local United Irishmen commanders issued a call for all rebels in the county to gather at Vinegar Hill to confront Lake's force in a pitched battle.

[1] Prior to the battle, Lake and his subordinates drafted up a plan to capture the Vinegar Hill camp and defeat the rebels located there.

[1] The battle began shortly before the dawn of 21 June with an artillery bombardment of rebel positions on Vinegar Hill.

[2] After government forces seized the hill, there were instances of captive female camp followers being sexually assaulted.

[9] The rebels abandoned most of the supplies they had stored at the camp in the retreat, and thirteen artillery pieces, most of which had been captured from government forces, were recaptured after the battle.

There, rebel commanders agreed to abandon the camp and split into two separate columns in order to launch a new campaign aimed at reviving the rebellion outside County Wexford.