and bloody battle ensued. The soldiers defending the hotel despite being greatly outnumbered by the large and very angry crowd, had vastly superior firepower. As many as 80 shots were fired by the Chartists into the hotel, and the Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray. After a fiercely fought battle, lasting approximately half an hour, between 10 and 24 of their number had been killed and upwards of 50 had been wounded. Amongst the defenders of the hotel, Mayor Thomas Phillips was badly wounded, shot in the arm and groin whilst calling on the Chartists to lay down their arms, and one soldier was seriously hurt, along with two of the special constables. Another of the defenders, Sergeant James Daily, had received six slugs to the head. As the chartists fled they abandoned many of their weapons, a selection of which can still be seen in Newport Museum. Some of the Chartist dead were buried in St. Woolos parish church (now Newport Cathedral) in the town where there is still a plaque to their memory. An urban myth persists that some of the bullet holes from the skirmish remained in the masonry of the hotel entrance porch until well into modern times. In reality the Westgate Hotel has been rebuilt since the uprising. The "bullet holes" may be bomb damage from the Second World War. Who opened fire at the Westgate Hotel? Sources differ as to who opened fire first, and for what reason. Edward Patton, a carpenter who gave testimony at the trial of John Frost and who claimed not to be a Chartist but instead merely an observer present at the scene to "see what happened", claimed that he did not know who fired first, but that it was "likely enough that firing began from inside the Westgate Hotel". R.G. Gammage, a Chartist who disapproved of violence, claimed in his 1854 history of the Chartist movement that some of the crowd had fired through the windows before the soldiers returned their fire. Thomas Bevan Oliver, a special constable guarding the door of the hotel, claimed that he had bumped the door against the gun of one of the Chartists, accidentally discharging it. Aftermath In the aftermath 200 or more Chartists were arrested for being involved and twenty-one were charged with high treason. All three main leaders of the rising,