Wales was chaotic in this period and the feelings of the workers were running extremely high. Events leading up to the Rising Heavy rainfall delayed the Chartists and there were delays in the planned meeting of each contingent at the Welsh Oak in Rogerstone. Jones and his men from Pontypool in fact never arrived, delaying the final march into Newport into the daylight hours, which might have prevented further deaths at the hands of the soldiers. As the columns progressed down the valleys on the Sunday morning, even one entire chapel congregation willingly joined, swelling the ranks of the Chartists. After spending Sunday night mostly out of doors in the rain, the commitment of many of the Chartists was tested. Many had allegedly been ambivalent to the Chartist cause in the first place, more concerned with the immediate problems of their own employment conditions. Thus many Chartists did not participate in the final rising in Newport and simply waited in the outskirts of the town. Rumours of a possible Chartist rising and alleged violence elsewhere, following the earlier arrest of Chartist leader Henry Vincent and his imprisonment at the gaol in Monmouth, meant that the authorities expected there might be a riot. The sheer scale of the rising, however was not fully appreciated until 3 November, the day before the rising. The authorities quickly prepared. The Mayor of Newport Thomas Phillips had sworn in 500 Special Constables and asked for more troops to be sent. There were about 60 soldiers stationed in Newport already, and he gathered 32 soldiers of the 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot in the Westgate Hotel where the Chartist prisoners were held. Climax of the Rising It is estimated that nearly 10,000 Chartist sympathisers marched on the town. The Chartists were convinced that some of their fellows had been imprisoned at the Westgate Hotel. Filing quickly down the steep Stow Hill, the Chartists arrived at the small square in front of the hotel at about 9.30 am. It is unclear whether the Chartists knew that the hotel was defended by soldiers, who had only arrived at the hotel shortly before their march on the town began. The flash point came when the Chartists, who had surrounded the hotel arranged in regular order, demanded the release of those imprisoned imprisoned inside, when one side or the other (it is not known which) began firing. A brief, violent