Enniscorthy bridge may well have been the site of pikings during the 1798 rebellion, but it was at Wexford bridge on June 20 1798 that rebel Thomas Dixon and his followers massacred over ninety loyalist men whom they had dragged from the town's jails. To quote historian Daniel Gahan, they "died in a chillingly brutal manner" and "their bodies were thrown into the river". The killing ended when rebel leader Edward Roche appeared at the north end of the bridge to announce that the rebel stronghold at Vinegar Hill was under threat. After the rebellion ended in Wexford many leading rebels were hanged on Wexford bridge, including Bagenal Harvey, Cornelius Grogan and John Colclough. However, the instigator of the massacre of June 20, Thomas Dixon, managed to evade capture.