Kenny MacAskill’s Roots And Branches
The battle was just the beginning of the horror for Scots soldiers
The bloody Battle of Dunbar and its disastrous consequences for Scots soldiers
EVERY year the Scottish Battlefields Trust commemorates historic battles and last September saw a re-enactment of the Battle of Dunbar, which took place in 1650.
Folk came from far and wide to join in or spectate, including some from America who were direct descendants of those that had fought.
The battle was a catastrophic defeat for the Scottish army under general David Leslie. Yet, initially, due to the larger Scots force and better ground, Cromwell and his English forces seemed in trouble.
However, tactical errors and clerical interference compounded matters for the Scottish military leadership, already purged of talent by the demands of strict Covenanters ruling both church and government.
It’s often perceived as a battle of the English Civil War, or more accurately, from a Scottish viewpoint, as the War of the Three Kingdoms. At that time Scotland, England and Ireland were convulsed over many years as the English parliament fought the Crown and the Scots fought for Charles I and II against Cromwell.
Proportionally it is suggested that more died then than in the First World War which shows the extent of the carnage. Dunbar was but a microcosm of that.
Thousands died on the field of battle, mainly Scots, and as many as 10,000 of General Leslie’s army were taken prisoner. For them the horror was just beginning. Some 1000 died on the journey south to Durham, which was then a small town but already had its magnificent cathedral.
That building was to be anything but a sanctuary for the Scottish captives. Confined in a tight space,
some with wounds and with many ill, infection was inevitable. Disease soon broke out, most likely typhus but other ailments no doubt abounded and more soon died.
A plaque was installed recently to record the suffering of 1600 or more prisoners who died in or around those hallowed halls. Some, the lucky healthier few, survived and worked in fields and factories nearby and by July 1652, the final passes were issued to allow some to make their way home. Others though, seemingly selected almost randomly, had already been scattered to the wind.
Some of the spectators at the 2019 Battle of Dunbar re-enactment were from the USA, and could trace their lineage to prisoners who were transported to New England. These prisoners arrived in December 1650, only 30 years after the Mayflower arrived carrying the Pilgrim Fathers.
Sent there as indentured servants most of these soldiers survived and stayed on in the new land.
Some were sent to work at an iron works at Saugus, Massachusetts. Others found themselves scattered across New England with their memory living on in names in parishes as far north as Maine where there’s both a town of Unity, the name of ship that transported them, and a parish called Scotland.
Further Scottish soldiers captured at another defeat, the Battle of Worcester in 1651, would soon join them. The John and Sara arrived in 1652 with 270 on board.
In 1657, the Scots Charitable Society of Massachusetts was formed from these incomers as they banded together for support. It is the oldest Scottish society in America and one of the oldest charities still in existence there.
“Initially, due to the larger Scots force and trouble” better ground, Cromwell seemed in
“It countryside” was no jaunt into the English
Much is known about them due to the huge interest in genealogy in America and they have a fascinating website under the Scottish Prisoners of War Association, which is worth a look.
What is less well known is the fate of several hundred other prisoners from Worcester. Around 300-500 men were given to France’s fighting forces – no doubt get them out of the way. It is unknown what became of them but it’s assumed they simply assimilated with other Scottish mercenaries.
There is a record of the French offering some of the Scots to Venice for the defence of Crete from the Ottomans, but the offer wasn’t taken up.
That fate might sound grim but worse befell those sent to the West Indies. While it’s an idyllic spot to holiday in today, it was a death sentence in the days before vaccinations due to tropical diseases.
Finally, other captured soldiers were marched down to the Fens where they were put to work clearing the English marshes in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
The first batch of 116 were marched down pretty early on and provided with spades, shovels and basic portable tents. Others followed them and it is reckoned that almost 2000 served there. And it was no jaunt into the pretty English countryside. While the marshy terrain was not as unhealthy as the environment of the West Indies, pestilence hung in the air.
The work was hard as they shortened the course of the River Nene and improved the Great Ouse river. The Fens were greatly reduced from the huge swathe of land that they once covered, with agriculture and farms replacing boggy wetland.
The men were joined by Dutch prisoners and others fighting for them, both Walloons and Huguenots.
By 1654, it is thought the Scots had been released or moved on and supplanted by their continental successors. Some stayed on and historic Scots names can still be found in communities there.
Dunbar was re-enacted and the memory is recorded in Durham but the prisoners and their descendants are scattered to the wind.