Daniel O'Mahony (general)
[1] His brother Dermod attained the rank of colonel in James II's Irish army and distinguished himself at the Boyne and at Aughrim, where he met his death.
[2] Having attained the rank of captain in the royal Irish foot-guards, Daniel went to France in 1692, and became major in the Limerick and Dillon regiments successively.
Thus ended the surprise of Cremona, one of the most remarkable events in modern warfare: a garrison of seven thousand men, in a town strongly fortified, surprised in their beds, obliged to march in their shirts, in the obscurity of the night, through streets filled with cavalry, meeting death at every step; scattered in small bodies, without officers to lead them, fighting for ten hours without food or clothes, in the depth of winter, yet recovering gradually every post, and ultimately forcing the enemy to a precipitate retreat.
O'Mahony had at the time but a small force under his control, and was occupied in the transport of wounded soldiers, so that he probably had no alternative but to let Peterborough pass on his way to Valencia.
Shortly after his promotion, O'Mahony stormed and sacked Enguera, and in June he bravely defended Alicante against Sir John Leake.
Though the garrison was small, and the ramparts needed incessant repairs, he would have held out much longer than twenty-seven days had not the Neapolitans under his command forced the surrender by deliberately poisoning the wells.
He also commanded a brigade of horse at the Battle of Almansa, and at the head of his Irish dragoons, according to Bellerive, performed astonishing actions.
Before the close of 1707, however, he was again in command of some six thousand regular troops in Valencia, and he captured the important town of Alcoy on 2 January 1708 (Lafuente, Historia, xviii.
In March 1709, he was appointed to the command of the Spanish forces in Sicily, comprising upwards of three thousand infantry, in addition to his regiment of Irish dragoons.
He reached Messina in April, suppressed several Austrian conspiracies, and took such precautions as effectively prevented the English fleet from landing any of the allied forces.
The Spanish king rewarded his valour by a commandership of the Order of St. Iago, producing a rent of fifteen thousand livres (Bacallar y Saña, Comentarios).
O'Mahony pursued the retreating army into Aragon, and captured at the stronghold of Illueca Lieutenant-general Dom Antonio de Villaroel with a detachment of 660 men (Quincy, vi.
