Battle of Dunbar

Battle of Dunbar, (September 3, 1650), decisive engagement in the English Civil Wars, in which English troops commanded by Oliver Cromwell defeated the Scottish army under David Leslie, thereby opening Scotland to 10 years of English occupation and rule.

The execution of Charles I, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in January 1649 created a constitutional crisis. While England became a republic, the rest of Charles’s dominions—including five colonies in North America—recognized his eldest surviving son, Charles II, as king. The Scots mobilized an army to press his claims, but in June 1650 Cromwell decided on a preemptive strike and led the army of the English Republic toward Edinburgh. On his way up the country, it was reported that the only people Cromwell encountered were women, children, and old men, as Leslie had called all men of fighting age to Edinburgh. Leslie ultimately commanded a force of 23,000 troops to oppose Cromwell’s army of 11,000 infantry and cavalry. Leslie also had enacted a scorched-earth policy ahead of the English advance, and Cromwell’s plan to resupply his army by sea was frustrated by foul weather.

Cromwell, after a war of maneuver near Edinburgh, was compelled by heavy rain and want of supplies to withdraw to Dunbar. There, Cromwell found an English flotilla that provided his troops with tents and provisions. Leslie pursued and took up a strong position on Doon Hill, commanding the English line of retreat toward Berwick. The situation was dire for Cromwell; his army was outnumbered and enfeebled by sickness, and some of his officers had advocated withdrawal by sea. Leslie, however, fared little better. Occupying bare hills and running low on rations, the Scots did not have the luxury of waiting out the English. Leslie’s force descended from the heights on September 2 and began to edge toward his right, in an effort to confront, and then surround, the English.

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English Civil Wars Events

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Battle of Edgehill

October 23, 1642

Battle of Marston Moor

July 2, 1644

Battle of Naseby

June 14, 1645

Battle of Dunbar

September 3, 1650

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The Scots had assumed that Cromwell’s army was a beaten force. In reality, Cromwell’s New Model Army veterans had weathered the campaign far better than Leslie’s much larger force of raw recruits. Cromwell also took the field at Dunbar with some of his most capable lieutenants: George Monck, Charles Fleetwood, William Packer, and John Lambert all played key roles in the battle to come. English commanders immediately spotted two weaknesses in the Scottish troop deployment. First, the Scottish left wing was crowded against the steep slope of Doon Hill and incapable of maneuvering effectively. Second, a slight depression created some “dead ground,” or a natural trench, in front of Leslie’s position that enabled Cromwell’s troops to redeploy under cover. That night, despite driving rain, English troops moved in front of the Scottish line to create an overwhelming superiority against their right wing.

At dawn the following day, shouting a biblical quotation, “Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered” (Numbers 10:35), Cromwell launched his attack. The Scots were surprised in their bivouacs but quickly formed up and at first repulsed the English advance. Cromwell himself arrived with his reserves, and soon the whole English line advanced again. The fresh impulse enabled it to break the Scottish cavalry and repulse the infantry, and Leslie’s line of battle was gradually rolled up from right to left. Driven into broken ground and penned between Doon Hill and a ravine, the Scots were indeed helpless. The battle was over in an hour—fewer than 100 Englishmen perished, against some 3,000 Scots killed and about 10,000 made prisoners.

Southern Scotland now surrendered to the English, who abolished all native institutions of government and created a new administration at Dalkeith, just outside Edinburgh, to rule the conquered territory. Monck remained in Scotland as commander in chief. Within two years the Scottish Highlands and islands had also been brought under English control. For the first time, England, Scotland, and Ireland became part of a single state, a republic ruled by a single government (in London) that sent elected representatives to a single parliament (in Westminster). This integration depended entirely on force, however—10,000 English troops occupied Scotland. The return of Charles II in 1660, two years after Cromwell’s death and 10 years after Dunbar, led to the demobilization of the New Model Army and the restoration of separate governments in Edinburgh and Dublin.