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Battle of Dunbar (1650)
Image Right - "Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow
Image by Andrew Carrick Gow - www.tate.org.uk, Public Domain, Wiki Commons
The battlefield of Dunbar has been inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.
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Date:
3 September 1650
Location:
Dunbar, Scotland
Result
Decisive English Parliamentarian victory
Belligerents
Scottish Covenanters
Strength
- 5,500 cavalry.
- 16,500 infantry.
- 9 guns.
- Total - 22,000'
Commanders and leaders
- David Leslie
- Sir James Balfour,
Casualties and losses
- 800-3,000 killed.
Captives
- 10,000 prisoners.
English Parliamentarians
Strength
- 3,500 cavalry.
- 7,500 infantry.
- Total - 11,000
Commanders and leaders
- Oliver Cromwell
Fought not on Geni
- Colonel Hon. Sir James Carmichael The Peerage
Casualties and losses
- 20 killed
- 58 Wounded
Causes
Competing claims of the new Commonwealth of England and of Charles II to the throne of England were at stake. Charles had been proclaimed King of 'Great Britain', France and Ireland by the Parliament of Scotland on 5 February 1649, five days after the execution of his father Charles I.
Overview
Early in September the English army were weakened by illness and demoralised by lack of success. They began to withdraw towards its supply base at Dunbar. Leslie believed that the English army was retreating and ordered his army to advance in pursuit. When the Scots reached Dunbar ahead of the English Leslie positioned his troops on Doon Hill on the eastern edge of the Lammermuir Hills. This position overlooked the town and the Berwick Road, which was Cromwell's land route back to England. Cromwell wrote to the governor of Newcastle:
We are upon an engagement very difficult. The enemy hath blocked up our way at the pass of Copperspath, through which we cannot get without almost a miracle. He lieth so upon the hills that we know not how to come that way without great difficulty; and our lying here daily consumeth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination.
— Cromwell
Cromwell's English Parliamentarian forces defeated Leslie's Scottish army which was loyal to King Charles II.
The Scots manoeuvred itself into a new position, which turned out to be a major tactical blunder. On 2 September 1650, Leslie took his army down from Doon Hill and approached the town,. He hoped to secure the road south over the Spott Burn in preparation for an attack on Cromwell's encampment. Cromwell realised that here was an opportunity to turn the tables on the Scots. An attack on the Scottish right flank would leave the left flank unengaged. Observing the Scots manoeuvring into their new positions, he is said to have exclaimed, perhaps referring to Joshua 10:8, "The Lord hath delivered them into our hands!"
Under the cover of darkness Cromwell redeployed a large number of his troops to a position opposite the Scottish right flank. Just before dawn on 3 September, the English troops launched a surprise frontal attack on the Scots, while Cromwell engaged their right flank. Soldiers in the English centre and on the right caught Leslie's men unawares but were held at bay by the long pikes of their Scottish opponents. With less room to manoeuvre the right flank of the Scots was pushed back by the English numbers until its lines started to disintegrate. Cromwell's horse then clashed furiously with the Scottish cavalry and succeeded in scattering them. Observing this disaster, the rest of the Scottish army, hopelessly wedged between the Spott or Brox Burn and Doon Hill, lost heart, broke ranks and fled.
Aftermath
Despite the defeat at Dunbar, Anglo-Scottish conflict continued through 1651. During that period Charles II arrived in Scotland and was crowned as King of Scots at Scone.
Cromwell described the victory as "...one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people...".[Carlyle 1904, p. 193.] As a result of the destruction of the Scottish army, he marched unopposed to Edinburgh and occupied the Scottish capital, although Edinburgh Castle held out until the end of December.
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References, Sources and Further Reading
Battle Castles – 500 years of Knights and Siege Warfare – Dan Snow 2012. ISBN 978-0-00-745558-4
Scotland – The History of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson
this project is in History Link
