Cromwell Crushes Royalists: Dunbar Secures Parliament

Oliver Cromwell had roughly 11,000 men at Dunbar. David Leslie had 22,000 Scots on the high ground above him and simply had to wait. So Leslie's officers convinced him to come down. That decision handed Cromwell the battle. In one dawn charge on September 3, 1650, the English Parliamentary forces killed 2,000 Scots and captured 10,000 more. Cromwell called it "one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England." Leslie had been winning until he moved. The Scottish army held commanding positions on Doon Hill, with Cromwell's force pinned against the sea at Dunbar with dwindling supplies and no clear escape route. Cromwell was preparing to evacuate by ship when Scottish ministers, convinced of divine favor, pressured Leslie to descend and destroy the heretics. The redeployment on the night of September 2 packed the Scottish right wing into a narrow front near Broxburn, stripping them of their defensive advantage. Cromwell saw the movement and attacked before dawn, hitting the compressed Scottish right with concentrated cavalry and infantry. The routing of the right wing caused a chain collapse across the entire Scottish line. The 10,000 prisoners were marched south to England under brutal conditions, with thousands dying of disease and starvation. Many survivors were transported to colonial plantations in the Caribbean and Virginia. The victory gave Cromwell control of southern Scotland and eliminated organized royalist resistance south of the Highlands. Leslie, one of the most capable generals in Britain, spent the next year rebuilding his forces before the final defeat at Worcester.