By the beginning of December, the police contingent at Ballarat had been joined and surpassed in number by soldiers from British Army garrisons in Victoria, including detachments from the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot.

At 3 am on Sunday, 3 December, a party of 276 soldiers and police, under the command of Captain John W. Thomas approached the Eureka Stockade and a battle ensued.

There is no agreement as to which side fired first, but the battle was fierce, brief, and terribly one-sided.
The ramshackle army of miners was hopelessly outclassed by a military regiment and was routed in about 10 minutes.
Theophilus Taylor's account is succinct. "
A company of troopers & military carried the war into the enemies camp.
In a very short time numbers were shot and hundreds taken prisoner".

During the height of the battle, Lalor was shot in his left arm, took refuge under some timber and was smuggled out of the stockade and hidden.
His arm was later amputated.

Stories tell how women ran forward and threw themselves over the injured to prevent further indiscriminate killing.
The Commission of Inquiry would later say that it was "a needless as well as a ruthless sacrifice of human life indiscriminate of innocent or guilty, and after all resistance had disappeared."

Early in the battle "Captain" Henry Ross was shot dead.

According to Lalor's report, fourteen miners (mostly Irish) died inside the stockade and an additional eight died later from injuries they sustained.
A further dozen were wounded but recovered.
Three months after the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor wrote: "As the inhuman brutalities practised by the troops are so well known, it is unnecessary for me to repeat them.
There were 34 digger casualties of which 22 died.
The unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded, is owing to the butchery of the military and troopers after the surrender."

During the battle, trooper John King the police constable, took down the Eureka flag.
By 8 am, Captain Charles Pasley, the second in command of the British forces, sickened by the carnage, saved a group of prisoners from being bayoneted and threatened to shoot any police or soldiers who continued with the slaughter.
Pasley's valuable assistance was acknowledged in despatches printed and laid before the Victorian Legislative Council.

One hundred and fourteen diggers, some wounded, were marched off to the Government camp about two kilometres away, where they were kept in an overcrowded lock-up, before being moved to a more spacious barn on Monday morning.

Martial law was declared throughout the camp on Monday, with no lights allowed in any tent after 8 o'clock pm.
It was around this time an outbreak of gunfire reportedly occurred within the camp.
Unrelated first-hand accounts state that variously, a woman, her infant child and several men were killed or wounded in an episode of indiscriminate shooting.
By the beginning of December, the police contingent at Ballarat had been joined and surpassed in number by soldiers from British Army garrisons in Victoria, including detachments from the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot.
At 3 am on Sunday, 3 December, a party of 276 soldiers and police, under the command of Captain John W. Thomas approached the Eureka Stockade and a battle ensued.
There is no agreement as to which side fired first, but the battle was fierce, brief, and terribly one-sided. The ramshackle army of miners was hopelessly outclassed by a military regiment and was routed in about 10 minutes. Theophilus Taylor's account is succinct. "A company of troopers & military carried the war into the enemies camp. In a very short time numbers were shot and hundreds taken prisoner".
During the height of the battle, Lalor was shot in his left arm, took refuge under some timber and was smuggled out of the stockade and hidden. His arm was later amputated.
Stories tell how women ran forward and threw themselves over the injured to prevent further indiscriminate killing. The Commission of Inquiry would later say that it was "a needless as well as a ruthless sacrifice of human life indiscriminate of innocent or guilty, and after all resistance had disappeared."
Early in the battle "Captain" Henry Ross was shot dead.
According to Lalor's report, fourteen miners (mostly Irish) died inside the stockade and an additional eight died later from injuries they sustained. A further dozen were wounded but recovered. Three months after the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor wrote: "As the inhuman brutalities practised by the troops are so well known, it is unnecessary for me to repeat them. There were 34 digger casualties of which 22 died. The unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded, is owing to the butchery of the military and troopers after the surrender."
During the battle, trooper John King the police constable, took down the Eureka flag. By 8 am, Captain Charles Pasley, the second in command of the British forces, sickened by the carnage, saved a group of prisoners from being bayoneted and threatened to shoot any police or soldiers who continued with the slaughter. Pasley's valuable assistance was acknowledged in despatches printed and laid before the Victorian Legislative Council.
One hundred and fourteen diggers, some wounded, were marched off to the Government camp about two kilometres away, where they were kept in an overcrowded lock-up, before being moved to a more spacious barn on Monday morning.
Martial law was declared throughout the camp on Monday, with no lights allowed in any tent after 8 o'clock pm. It was around this time an outbreak of gunfire reportedly occurred within the camp. Unrelated first-hand accounts state that variously, a woman, her infant child and several men were killed or wounded in an episode of indiscriminate shooting.
Eureka Rebellion