Battle of Dunbar (1650)

Background

Charles I was executed in January 1649, and the Scottish Parliament proclaimed his son king. The Covenanter government made him swear to the Covenants first: by the Treaty of Breda of 1 May 1650 he guaranteed Presbyterianism, and in June he landed in Scotland. The English Commonwealth expected a Scottish-led campaign to put Charles on the English throne and struck first. Fairfax resigned rather than invade a former ally, and Cromwell took command.

The Scots raised a new army under David Leslie, with the old Earl of Leven keeping a nominal overall command. It never reached its intended 36,000, and it was weakened from within: from June a purging committee of the Kirk Party removed suspected Engagers and other 'malignants', and a further purge in August removed some 80 officers and about 4,000 men. A committee of the Kirk Party, led by Archibald Johnston of Wariston, travelled with the army and pressed its views on the generals.

Cromwell crossed the border on 22 July. Leslie refused battle behind earthworks between Edinburgh and Leith and stripped the country ahead of the English, who had to be supplied by sea through Dunbar and Musselburgh. Through August Cromwell probed and manoeuvred but could not bring Leslie to fight, while dysentery and fever ate into his army. On 31 August he fell back. His army reached Dunbar on 1 September, harried all the way; Leslie marched round inland, occupied Doon Hill above the town and blocked the road to Berwick. On 2 September Cromwell wrote that they were 'upon an engagement very difficult'.

The armies

The English were the New Model Army, the most experienced professional force in the three kingdoms, but a depleted one. Of 16,289 men mustered in July, sickness had cost 4,000 to 5,000; an officer, Captain John Hodgson, called it a 'poor, shattered, hungry, discouraged army'. Cromwell reported about 7,500 foot and 3,500 horse fit for duty. Lambert commanded the horse and Monck the foot, with brigades of roughly 1,500 horse or 2,000 to 2,500 foot. The army had about 22 field guns in the battle.

The Scots had a core of veterans and in Leslie a very capable general, but much of the army was raw recruits, and the purges had stripped it of experienced officers. Twenty-two nominal infantry regiments had been amalgamated into about fifteen composite units, grouped in brigades under Holborne, Pitscottie, Innes, Lumsden and Campbell of Lawers. Notionally 4,500 horse were probably fewer than 3,000 effective, and almost all were massed on the right: about 2,500 in two lines under Montgomerie and Strachan, including lancers. There were about 32 guns.

How big the Scottish army was is the battle's central uncertainty: Cromwell said about 22,000, while modern reconstructions from regimental strengths come out between about 10,000 and 15,000.

The battle

The descent, 2 September. The Scots held a council of war on Doon Hill. No record of it survives. The position was strong but exposed to foul weather and hard to supply up muddy tracks with food and slow match. The Scots spent most of the day coming down the hill and forming along the south side of the Brox Burn, on a narrow strip between the burn and the hill's lower slopes, with their right towards the sea. In front of their left the burn ran in a deep ravine; nearer the coast road and the sea it was easier to cross. That afternoon Scottish lancers drove a small English post out of a house by the burn. The English formed along the north bank around Broxmouth House.

Cromwell saw the flaw. On that cramped ground the Scottish centre and left, wedged between the ravine and the hill, could not turn to support their right. That night he and Lambert agreed to throw everything at the Scottish right.

Night, 2 to 3 September. It was a wet, windy night. Many Scots sheltered among the corn stooks, and Holborne ordered most musketeers to put out their slow match. About 10pm English dragoons probed the Scottish line, and under cover of the storm the English closed up to the burn.

About 4am. English horse cleared the Scottish pickets at the crossings, and a firefight and exchange of artillery by moonlight followed around the Berwick road ford. There was then a pause of about an hour until first light; sunrise was at 5.33.

About 5 to 6am: the first attacks. Lambert's horse crossed at the road ford and routed the first line of Scottish horse, which seems to have been caught unready. Monck's foot crossed upstream at Brand's Mill and struck Lumsden's brigade, mostly raw recruits; the BCW Project has it collapse, with Lumsden wounded and captured, though accounts differ. Campbell of Lawers' brigade held, and threw Monck back. On the Scottish right Strachan rallied the second line of horse and drove Lambert back towards the burn. For a time the English attack was checked on both fronts.

About 7am: the flank. English reinforcements came up: Lilburne's horse met Strachan head on, and Pride's brigade of foot came in behind the cavalry fight. The decisive stroke came from the coast. Cromwell's own regiment of horse, under Major William Packer, crossed the burn near the shore below Broxmouth and charged the flank of the Scottish horse, which broke. Packer's troopers then hit the flank and rear of Lawers' brigade. Hodgson wrote that Lawers' men 'would not yield' until horse charged their flank; Pride's foot pushed in, and the brigade was overrun. Historians differ on the credit: Reid and Royle give it to Cromwell's horse, Wanklyn to Pride's brigade.

The rout. With their right gone, the Scots were rolled up westward along the narrow ground. The brigades between the burn and Doon Hill had barely engaged. Holborne's and Innes's withdrew in good order, covered by Pitscottie's, and one regiment fighting a rearguard was all but destroyed. Most of the foot broke and many were captured near Dunbar; the Scottish horse made a wide loop round Doon Hill to rejoin Leslie at Haddington, eight miles west. Sources differ on the English pursuit: some have Cromwell chase the horse to Haddington, while Wikipedia says Cromwell and Lambert first held their cavalry back. The fighting lasted about two hours; another account gives under an hour.

Aftermath

English losses were tiny: perhaps 20 to 40 killed. Scottish losses are argued over. Cromwell claimed about 3,000 killed and 10,000 prisoners; Scottish accounts gave about 800 dead, and some modern estimates put the killed at 300 to 500, or fewer. All the Scottish guns and baggage were taken, with about 10,000 weapons and nearly 200 colours.

The fate of the prisoners was grim. Perhaps 6,000 were taken; about 1,000 sick or wounded were released. About 5,000 were marched south. Many died on the way, through hunger, exhaustion and probably dysentery. Around 3,000 were held in Durham Cathedral and Castle, and an estimated 1,700 died and were buried in Durham. Some survivors were made to work on draining the Fens; others were shipped to New England or Barbados as indentured labourers.

In November 2013 building work at Durham University's Palace Green Library uncovered two burial pits holding at least 17 and up to 28 individuals, all the adults male and most aged 13 to 25. In 2015 the university concluded that they could only be Dunbar prisoners. The remains were reburied at Elvet Hill Road Cemetery in Durham on 18 May 2018.

Leslie fell back to Stirling. Lambert took Edinburgh and Cromwell took Leith, though Edinburgh Castle held out until December. Defeat split the Covenanters further. A year to the day later Cromwell destroyed the Scottish-Royalist army at Worcester. Parliament struck a medal for every man present, gold for officers and silver for men.

Wargaming it

Dunbar is a gift for a two-player game: a small, superb army attacking a larger, brittle one across a stream at dawn. The whole field is about two miles wide, so it suits brigade scale, with each base a brigade of foot or about 500 horse; even regiment scale fits a normal table. A game of eight to ten turns of about fifteen minutes runs from the 4am skirmish at the crossings to the collapse of the Scottish right.

The terrain is the game. The Brox Burn ravine should be impassable, or nearly so, in front of the Scottish left, and crossable only at a few fords near the road and the shore. Doon Hill and the burn squeeze the Scottish centre into a corridor where it cannot easily turn. The Scottish player has more men but nowhere to put them, and the English player has to win on one flank before the Scots can shuffle across.

Rules should let both sides' quality matter: veteran English horse and foot against Scottish brigades of raw recruits stiffened by a few hard units like Lawers'. Model the dawn surprise with damp match and disrupted Scottish horse in the first turn or two, and the Scottish lancers with a modest charge bonus.

The what-ifs are good. Let the Scots stay on Doon Hill, and Cromwell must break out or embark. Give them an alert night and dry match. Or let Leslie start with his horse less crowded on the right.

Maps and pictures