Beatrice Goan died July 15, 1984 at age 72 according to York County Death Certificate 8405668.
==O==
Charles R. Goan died August 04, 1981 at age 84 according to York County Death Certificate 8106334.
==O==
Ebba E. Goan died April 8, 1980 at age 85 according to York Death Certificate 8003537.
==O==
Mary A. Goan died on July 12, 1978 at age 84 according to York Death Certificate 7805782.
==O==
Maurice V. Goan died February 4, 1989 at age 83 according to York County Death Certificate 8904355.
==O==
Sandra L. Goan died September 25, 1985 at age 42 according to York County Death Certificate 8507846.
==O==
Alice Gowen died at age 95 on February 3, 1977 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Amelia M. Gowen died on September 19, 1966 at age 63 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Annette M. Gowen died on March 12, 1986 at age 85 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Augusta L. Gowen died October 11, 1966 at age 67 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Barbara R. Gowen died October 01 1973 at age 79 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Benjamin H. Gowen was married to Ada S. Littlefield Gowen October 21, 1922 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Carroll E. Gowen was married to Alice T. Winn Gowen September 25, 1948 in Wells according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Charles G. Gowen died December 9, 1985 at age 85 according to York County Death Records.
==O==
Chester W. Gowen was married to Idelle I. Wakefield Gowen October 26, 1903 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Clara D. Gowen died November 20, 1972 at age 84 according to York County Death Certificate 7210063.
==O==
Dana D. Gowen died December 8, 1969 at age 88 according to York County Death Certificate 6910891.
==O==
Dana I. Gowen was married to Gertrude E. Mosley Gowen December 25, 1909 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Earl Edward Gowen died September 28, 1992 at age 86 according to York County Death Certificate 9208393.
==O==
Edgar B. Gowen was married to Cora M. Webber January 7, 1992 (1892?) in Kennebunk according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Elizabeth M. Gowen died on March 18, 1973 at age 72 according to York County Death Certificate 7302533
==O==
Elizabeth T. Gowen died on May 24, 1966 at age 77 according to York County Death Certificate 6604710.
==O==
Erwin R. Gowen died April 8, 1964 at age 74 according to York County Death Certificate 6403456.
==O==
Erin S. Gowen was married to Gertrude B. Adams December 27, 1922 in Biddeford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Erwin R. Gowen was married to Elizabeth G. Tait Gowen June 10, 1913 in Biddeford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Erwin R. Gowen died April 8, 1964 at age 74 according to York County Death Certificate 6403456.
==O==
Eva W. Gowen died on April 16, 1977 at age 81 according to York County Death Certificate 7703219.
==O==
Frank C. Gowen was married to Sadie Hanscom Gowen in Biddeford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Frank F. Gowen was married to Martha Moutlon Gowen December 23, 1997 (1897?) in Springvale according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Frank M. Gowen married Anna M. Doba February 12, 1900 in Portland Maine according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Frank M. Gowen was married to Maud M. Anderson Gowen July 9, 1920 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Fred G. Gowen was married to Glenna M. Hobbs July 22, 1933 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Fred L. Gowen was married to Barbara L. Richardson Gowen July 1, 1916 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Fred L. Gowen died on October 9, 1973 at age 82 according to York County Death Certificate 7308818.
==O==
Fred L. Gowen, Jr. was married to Edna L. Waterman Gowen June 6, 1942 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Fred W. Gowen was married to Edna M. Nye Gowen November 20, 1920 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Gertrude M. Gowen died on October 13, 1968 at age 78 according to York County Death Certificate 6810065.
==O==
Gladys M. Gowen died at age 82 on September 21, 1987 according to York County Death Certificate 8707643.
==O==
Glenna H. Gowen died on November 20, 1966 at age 83 according to York County Death Certificate 9609807.
==O==
Glenn W. Gowen was married to Gertrude E. Carlisle Gowen March 7, 1945 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Guy F. Gowen was married to Patricia A. Smith Gowen October 7, 1951 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
H. P. Gowen was married to Dorothy M. Kelly Gowen October 8, 1934 in Saco according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
H. V. Gowen was married to Gladys Hilton Gowen December 26, 1926 in Wells according to “Maine Marrieage Records, 1892-1965.” This marriage is also listed as H.V. Gowen being wedded to Gladys Cady Gowen.
==O==
Harold V. Gowen died July 13, 1970 at age 69 according to York County Death Certificate 7006361.
==O==
Harry W. Gowen was married to Ethel G. Day Gowen October 10, 1911 in Biddeford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Harry Gowen died February 1, 1971 at age 83 according to York County Death Certificate 7101619.
==O==
Harry W. Gowen was married to Bessie M. Wilson Gowen September 29, 1927 in Springvale according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Henry J. Gowen was married to Isabelle Woodman June 18, 1925 in Westbrook according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Hepsie E. Gowen died on February 26, 1960 at age 93 according to York County Death Certificate 6004868.
==O==
Herman E. Gowen died July 14, 1983 at age 75 according to York County Death Certificate 8305733.
==O==
Howard P. Gowen was married to Rosilda Mitchell Gowen February 3, 1949 in Saco according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
John Gowen was married to Laura E. Flint Gowen November 30, 1904 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
John A. Gowen was married to Marry G. Hilton October 27, 1923 in Wells according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” John A. Gowen died on January 2, 1975 at age 80 according to York County Death Certificate 7500736.
==O==
John E, Gowen was married to Alice Kerwin Gowen October 23, 1900 in Biddeford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
John H. Gowen was married to Virginia C. Sargent Gowen April 30, 1955 in Portlnand according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Lewis A. Gowen was married to Ruth E. Fernald Gowen March 6, 1926 in Sanford accordin to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Lillis I. Gowen died August 29, 1968 at age 82 according to York County Death Certificate 6807379.
==O==
Lloyd E. Gowen was married to Clara Duro Gowen June 17, 1942 in Sprinvale according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Lloyd Gowen died on June 1, 1967 at age 79 according to York County Death Certificate 6705303.
==O==
Mary Grace Gowen died June 26, 1991 at age 92 according to York County Death Certificate 9105063.
==O==
Norman E. Gowen was married to Annie E. Wentworth Gowen September 20, 1942 in Wells according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Roland B. Gowen was married to Thelma Cobb Gowen (also listed as Thelma Horne) September 22, 1937 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Roy E. Gowen was married to Florence M. O’Hara Gowen July 11, 1914 in Springvale according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Roy E. Gowen was married to Barbara M. Cheney Gowen in Sanford July 5, 1937.according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965. The marriage is also listed as Roy E. Gowen being wed to a Barbara M. Shaffer on June 5, 1937.
==O==
Ruth K. Gowen died January 20, 1990 at age 87 according to York County Death Certificate 9000093.
==O==
Ullie E. Gowen was married to Ethel E. Harmon Gowen May 4, 1922 in Sandford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” The marriage is also listed as Ullie E. Gowen being wed to Ethel E. Storer on May 4, 1922.
==O==
Vernon E. Gowen was married to Isabelle T. Lewis Gowen August 22, 1936 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Wallace E. Gowen was married to Elmira Burbank Gowen November 22, 1911 in Alfred according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Wallace E. Gowen died June 27, 1971 at age 82 according to York County Death Certificate 7105157.
==O==
Walter L. Gowen was married to Evelyn Lambert Gowen September 22, 1947 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Walter L. Gowen was married to Mary A. Moore Gowen October 19, 1953 in Portland according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.”
==O==
Walter W. Gowen was married to Eva Bucklin Gowen August 8, 1955 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” The marriage is also listed as Walter W. Gowen being wed to Eva Willey on August 8, 1955.
==O==
Wilfred C. Gowen was married to Frances C. Libbey Gowen August 15, 1942 in Sanford according to “Maine Marriage Records, 1892-1965.” Wilfred C. Gowen died January 7, 1986 at age 81 according to York County Death Certificate 8604768.
==O==
William Alexander Gowen, a Scotch soldier captured by the troops of Oliver Cromwell in the Battle of Dunbar September 3, 1650, is believed to be the first member of the Gowen family in New England. He was born in 1634, according to a deposition signed by him in 1685. His full name appeared to be William Alexander Gowen from tax records of Oyster River, Massachusetts [later New Hampshire.]
Having a middle name in the seventeenth century was a rarity. According to "Harper's Magazine" in a 1900 edition:
"Middle names were once illegal in England. Old English law was definite as to the naming of children, and according to Sir Edward Coke's law commentary, 'a man cannot have two names of baptism,' and 'on bills of sale, 'that purchaser be named by the name of his baptism and his surname.' Royal personages were always allowed to have more than one given name, but as late as 1600, it was said there were only four persons in all England who had two given names. In 1620, when the Mayflower sailed for America, not a man or a woman aboard had a middle name."
William Alexander Gowen was reported to be among 10,000 Scots captured by Cromwell in the battle fought on the east coast of Scotland. The one-sided battle which lasted only two hours was fought between 11,000 English Parliament supporters and 26,000 Scotch Royalists led by David Leslie, later Lord Newark. Dunbar is a seaport on the southern entrance to the Firth of Forth, 36 miles northeast of Edinburgh. In the battle 3,000 Scots were killed and 10,000 taken prisoner. The English put their casualties at only 20 men killed.
The prisoners taken at Dunbar were marched by the English down to Durham and Newcastle in Northumberland. Many perished on this march, and some were shot because they could not or would not march, according to "History of Dover, New Hampshire." During the march, which took eight days, the prisoners were given little to eat. Disease swept off 1,500 in the course of a few weeks. The flux was responsible for the death of 500. The English reported that the Scots killed each other for money or clothing. In Northumberland the prisoners were put under the care of Sir Arthur Heselrig who wrote October 31, 1650 that "1,600 died altogether in 58 days."
On September 19, 1650, Cromwell's council ordered Heselrig to deliver to Samuel Clark 900 of the Scots for transportation to Virginia, and 150 more "well and sound, and free from wounds" were selected for transportation to New England. Those bound for New England were placed under the charge of Joshua Foote and John Becx of London who "were interested as managers of the ironworks at Lynn, Massachusetts." They sailed on the "Unity" November 11, 1650. Upon arrival at Boston, some were sent to Berwick, [Kittery] Maine. There they settled in Unity Parish [named after their ship] and began work in a sawmill.
The names of 17 of the prisoners sent to Berwick were listed:
Niven Agnew James Barry Alexander Cooper
William Furbush Daniel Ferguson Peter Grant
George Gray William Gowen David Hamilton
Thomas Holme John Key Alexander Maxwell
John Neal John Ross John Taylor
William Thomson James Warren
When released in 1656, they settled in Berwick.
Col. Charles Edward Banks wrote an article, "Scotch Prisoners Deported to New England by Cromwell, 1651-52" on the fate of the deported Scots which was published in "Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings," Volume 61 [1928].
Carl Boyer III writing in "Ship Passenger Lists" produced additional information about prisoners. He wrote:
"Early in September 1650 the Scots, supporters of Prince Charles, lost the battle of Dunbar to Cromwell's English forces, with the resulting loss of thousands of Scots killed and wounded, and thousands more taken prisoner, to be marched to England and then shipped to varying parts of England, Ireland and the colonies.
In November 1650 a number of these prisoners were apparently sent to Boston in the "Unity," arriving in New England early in 1651, no doubt. Sixty of these prisoners were sent to Lynn, to work in the iron industry, and the others dispersed. As the prisoners were sold as indentured servants at about 30 pounds each, the average passage at the time being about 5 pounds, Col. Banks has suggested that the owners of the "Unity" cleared a handsome profit of about 1,500 pounds on the trip.
John Gifford, iron works manager, wrote in 1653: 'For 62 Scotts dd and 35 only left on the works, 17 to Awbrey, 3 to commissioners; 2 sold and rest we desire to whom disposed of, which is 5 at 20 pounds.
Col. Banks listed the following as being probably prisoners who settled in Berwick, formerly a part of Kittery, Maine: Niven Agnew, James Barry, Alexander Cooper, William Furbush, Daniel Ferguson, Peter Grant, George Gray, William Alexander Gowen, David Hamilton, Thomas Holme, John Key, Alexander Maxwell, John Neal, John Ross, John Taylor, William Thomson and James Warren.
A few years later a number of Scots went to the town of York, including John Carmichael, James Grant called "the Scots," perhaps James Grant called "the drummer", James Jackson, Robert Junkins, Micum MacIntire, Alexander MacNair, and Andrew Rankin.
The following is from "Governor Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers" and may furnish some light in respect to the above mentioned prisoners sent to this country and sold for slaves, no doubt, by order of the English Government, as sort of banishment for their rebellion. It is probable that some of them were sent to Barbadoes."
The Rev. John Cotton wrote a letter reporting on the condition of the prisoners "to the Lord General Cromwell, dated at Boston in N. E, 28th of 5th, 1651:"
"The Scots, who God delivered into your hands at Dunbarre, and whereof sundry were sent hither we have been desirous [as we could] to make their yoke easy.
"Such as were sick of the scurvy or other diseases have not wanted physick and chyrurgery. They have not been sold for slaves to perpetual servitude, but for 6 or 7 or 8 years, as we do our owne; and he that bought the most of them buildeth houses for them, for every four an house, layeth some acres of ground thereto, which he giveth them as their owne, requiring 3 dayes in the week to worke for him [by turnes] and 4 dayes for themselves, and promiseth, as soone as they can repay him the money he layed out for them, he will set them at liberty."
Battle of Dunbar, 1650
By Dennis Bell
Burnaby, British Columbia
“It was a time when rational men thought nothing of splitting religious hairs with cannonballs. It was the era of the English Civil Wars, 1642 to 1651 -- an historical misnomer, since most of the carnage in those wars was in fact suffered by Ireland and Scotland rather than England.
Almost every student in the English-speaking world has learned the details of the Battle of Naseby and Oliver Cromwell’s subsequent execution of King Charles I. But few of us were taught anything about the Battle of Dunbar, September 3, 1650, where Scotland squandered an incredible opportunity to defeat Cromwell and change the course of British history. It was Scotland’s best and last realistic chance to chart its own political and religious destiny. That chance was wasted by a committee of Presbyterian ministers, blinkered by religious fanaticism. And the fiasco ended in an English-controlled death march of 5,000 Scottish prisoners of war, one of the most unsavory pages in British history.
The Dunbar Golf Club is located where the Firth of Forth runs into the North Sea below the Lammermuir Hills. It is one of Scotland’s best-kept golfing secrets, a beautiful 6,426-yard course of exasperating fairways, maddening traps and infuriating hazards. The greens are often coated white with ocean spray when golfers arrive at the crack of dawn to begin an always blustery and frequently rain-soaked round of 18 holes. The course occupies a slim stretch of relatively flat estuary terrain between the Firth of Forth and Doon Hill, the easternmost summit in the Lammermuirs. Scots have been golfing there since at least 1616, when two duffers from the neighbouring parish of Tyninghame were censured by the Church of Scotland for "playing gouff on the Lord’s Day." In 1640, a Presbyterian minister was disgraced when he was caught committing the unpardonable sin of "playing at gouff."
Ten years later, on September 1, 1650, Lord-General Oliver Cromwell camped on the soggy course with 11,000 exhausted and sick New Model Army soldiers, beating a hasty retreat out of Scotland for England. He must have wondered if he was about to be disgraced by his old comrade, Scottish General David Leslie, and defrocked as Lord-General by Parliament for merely playing at a war rather than winning it. Cromwell had hightailed it to Dunbar after failing in an attempt to seize Edinburgh, defended by Leslie and 23,000 Scottish soldiers now pursuing the English army down the east coast towards the border.
Just five years earlier, Leslie had won the day for a wounded Cromwell, leading a cavalry charge that defeated the Royalist Cavaliers at the critical Battle of Marston Moore, west of York. But on this day, the Scots had switched sides again, fighting now on behalf of the Royalists of Charles II, who had succeeded his father executed by Cromwell and the Roundheads on January 30, 1649. Leslie’s Army of the Covenant was poised to elevate the House of Stuart back to the British throne, and Presbyterianism to the altars of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.
At Dunbar, the Scottish field commander had bits and pieces of about 40 regiments under his command, cobbled into 10 brigades commanded by some of Scotland’s best and bravest military leaders. A Scottish army composed largely of Highlanders had been defeated by Cromwell a few months earlier at the Battle of Preston.
Those who made up Leslie’s new army were Lowlanders, from Glasgow, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Fife. At the start of the civil wars, a brigade usually consisted of two full-strength regiments. However, by 1650, casualties, sickness, and desertions had cut most Scottish regiments down to half or even a quarter of their original strength. As a result, most brigades were composed of the remainder of three, four or sometimes more regiments.
Leslie specialised in cavalry. An average Scottish cavalry regiment usually consisted of a colonel commanding eight troops of 60 men, plus four officers below the colonel in each troop: a captain, lieutenant, commissioned quartermaster and a cornet who carried the troop’s cornet standard into battle. The troops had no sergeants -- just two or three corporals, one or two trumpeters and a large complement of lowly privates.
Scottish officers were almost invariably from the wealthy upper class. They were expected to provide their own clothing, which was rather dashing and very expensive during the civil war period. Scarlet and black were the most popular officers’ colours. Black was a very difficult colour to manufacture with the vegetable dyes available to tailors during the 1600s. The only officers dressed in black were usually very high in rank from filthy rich baronial families. Scarlet was the cheaper colour of choice for most professional soldiers regardless of rank, their country of origin or which side they were on, making for some rather confusing battles.
Gold and silver laces were quite common in army garb, as were white lace collars and cuffs. Hair was generally worn at shoulder length, parted in the middle -- even by the strait-laced Presbyterian Covenanters. Blue woollen brimmed hats and heavy steel helmets imported from the Continent were in vogue with officers on both sides of the civil war.
The other main units of the Scottish armed forces in the 1600s consisted of regiments of pike, about 1,000 men in each, armed with Spanish-designed 13- to 16-foot-long poles with iron spearheads. They were trained for close combat against infantry and cavalry charges. The regiments of musket, each numbering 800 to 1,000 men, were the army’s real firepower. It’s not known how much artillery the Scots had at their disposal in 1650.
Experts believe that General James Wemyss’ artillery regiment was probably able to deploy two or three dozen cannons of relatively short range, accounting for another 250 to 300 soldiers. The Scots also had regiments of "dragoones," about 400 mounted infantry soldiers lightly armed with short-barrelled muskets or carbines -- or weaponless except for lances and swords in times of troubled army finances.
The highly mobile dragoons were an elite force, traveling on horseback but generally fighting on foot. As mounted infantry, they often fought in the vanguard of advancing armies, or held rearguard positions when the main army was in retreat.
Scottish regiments were generally called into service by press and levy. As in Sweden, the Scottish central government established military districts, nominated colonels, authorised the levying of troops, and established quotas by shire. To ensure co-ordination between national and local bodies, the Covenanters created committees of war or committees of the shire, which consisted of men nominated by, and responsible to, central government.
These committees set the number of soldiers that each burgh or rural parish would raise to meet the quota for the shire. Councils functioned as recruiting agencies, while in more remote areas the clergy listed men eligible for service, selecting them with the assistance of the local landowner. Both encouraged men to join up with sermons, given with recruitment in mind.
Central to the success of levies was the landowners, who could bring out kinsmen, tenantry, and servants. It was no wonder that they were chosen for colonelcies, while captains often came from the same class. To make up quotas, press was used especially with militia, unlicensed beggars and petty criminals included.
In addition to regular units formed as mentioned, the Covenanters fielded clan forces. There is little record of their numbers, but it is safe to say that they formed company-sized units. The number reflected the men levied from a specific area or by a particular chieftain. Of the covenanting clans, none were reported present at Dunbar; clan chieftains raised their regiments by obliging their tenants -- through feudal duty or coercion if necessary -- to send their sons, brothers and husbands to follow the clan banner into battle.
The army was issued with ‘The Articles and Ordinances of War’; these specified the correct behaviour for soldiers. A unit could not be part of the army until it had sworn an oath on it and thus every soldier promised:
To be true and faithful in my service to the Kingdom of Scotland, according to the heads sworn by me in the Covenant:
To honour and obey my Lord General, and all my Superior Officers and Commanders, and by all means to hinder their dishonour and hurt;
To observe the Articles of War and camp discipline; never to leave the defence of this cause, nor flee from my colours so long as I can follow them:
To be ready to fight manfully to the uttermost, as I shall answer to God, and as God shall help me. –
Articles and Ordinances of warre, for the present expedition of the Armie of Scotland [London, 1644]
The battle flag of the Covenanters bore the motto "For Christ's Crown and Covenant" and first appeared in 1639 in front of the Covenanter army commanded by General Alexander Leslie, first Earl of Leven, from Fife. He passed it to General David Leslie’s Army of the Covenant 11 years later.
Cromwell had returned from several months of drenching Ireland in blood to take on Leslie with a new army of 16,000 men, which crossed the Scottish border on July 22, 1650. He had eight regiments of cavalry and eight regiments of foot. One of the latter had just been formed in Coldstream near Newcastle -- the Coldstream Guards.
English Scoutmaster General William Rowe reported to Parliament that Cromwell’s army was stocked with "very well baked bread," virtually unbreakable and almost everlasting. They marched into Scotland loaded down as well with cheese, horseshoes, nails, and portable "biscuit ovens" in order to bake even more unbreakable bread. There were promises of beans and oats to follow by sea from Kent.
What the New Model Army lacked was tents -- only 100 small ones for officers were supplied -- and the soldiers in the ranks would pay a terrible price for this oversight.
As the English marched toward Edinburgh, Leslie unleashed a classic guerrilla war against them, perhaps the first army-sized guerrilla campaign in history. The terrain was Leslie’s personal backyard. He knew every inch of it and used that knowledge mercilessly against the frustrated New Model Army. The Scottish general’s troops -- particularly his dragoons -- ambushed the Roundheads in every mountain pass and glen. Then they melted away, leaving the English with nothing but wounds to treat and bodies to bury. English officer Charles Fleetwood wrote in despair in August that the New Model Army’s major problem was "the impossibility of our forcing the Scots to fight -- the passes being so many and so great that as soon as we go on the one side they go on the other."
At one point, Cromwell took a small party of his top commanders out for a first-hand look at the situation near Coltbridge. They ran into a hidden group of Scottish pickets, one of whom stood up and fired a quick musket round at Cromwell that just missed its mark. The startled Lord-General cupped his hands and shouted with bravado across the glen that he would have cashiered an English soldier for wasting a random shot from such a long distance away. The Scot shouted back that it was no random shot at all -- he had been at Marston Moor with Leslie and Cromwell and recognised his one opportunity to kill the Lord General right off the bat. Then he melted into the heather, to reload and fight again.
The English were running out of supplies. The Scots had stripped the countryside bare as they carefully retreated, avoiding any sort of major battle. The weather turned cold and wet, and disease began to take a heavy toll of Cromwell’s forces. More than 4,000 English soldiers were reported too ill to fight at one stage during the Edinburgh campaign. As the Roundheads closed in on the Scottish capital, they discovered that Leslie had shepherded his army into a masterfully designed position between heavily fortified Edinburgh and Leith on the coast, its narrow approaches bristling with hidden artillery and musketry.
Cromwell’s own guns agonisingly wheeled all the way north from Newcastle briefly bombarded the city with a few pot-shots from Arthur’s Seat and his ships fired some desultory broadsides from the Firth of Forth, unmolested thanks to Scotland’s traditional failure to assemble any kind of navy. But the New Model Army was unable to breech Leslie’s Edinburgh defences.
In late August, the badly weakened English retreated east to Musselburgh on the coast, shipping out sick and wounded soldiers from its port by the hundreds. Leslie’s brigades took up the chase, paralleling the English march and harrying the Roundheads with incessant guerrilla attacks as both armies headed Southeast. Cromwell graphically described the situation in one of his dispatches: "We lay still all the said day, which proved to be so sore a day and night of rain as I have seldom seen . . . In the morning, the ground being very wet, we resolved to draw back to our quarters at Musselburgh, there to refresh and revictual. The enemy, when we drew off,
fell upon our rear . . . We came to Musselburgh that night, so tired and wearied for want of sleep, and so dirty by reason of the wetness of the weather, that we expected the enemy would make an infall upon us -- which accordingly they did, between three and four o’clock in the morning."
One disheartened English officer writing home described Cromwell’s forces at Musselburgh as "a poor, shattered, hungry, discouraged army."
The Scots pushed the 11,000 remaining English troops into a narrow strip of coastal land near the town of Dunbar and boxed them in. Leslie marched his main regiments to the top of Doon Hill escarpment, blocking the route south with a high ground position that Cromwell instantly recognised as impregnable. The stage was set for what Oliver Cromwell himself later regarded as his greatest military victory -- greater even than Naseby or Marston Moor. The committee of Covenanter ministers accompanying the Scottish army was poised to instruct David Leslie in the art of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The morning of Sunday, September 1, 1650 was wet, cold and miserable -- a typical late summer’s day on Scotland’s Southeast coast. The English commander’s scouts had reported the road to the south and safety at Berwick effectively blocked. It was time to stand and fight, against impossible odds. But how? Cromwell could see the threatening glint of Scottish pikes and a sea of regimental pennants fluttering on the summit of Doon Hill a mile and a half away.
He listened to the mutters of men and the rumble of moving artillery pieces drifting down the escarpment from a massive Scottish army itching for a fight. At this point, Cromwell’s choices amounted to charging uphill against a much superior Scottish army or staying put, to wither and die.
The Lord-General was holed up in Broxmouth House, a structure owned by the Earl of Roxborough, where a stream called the Broxburn slashes into the sea through a steeply sloped and heavily wooded glen. From Broxmouth the following day, he penned a urgent dispatch to Sir Arthur Haselrigge, his commander in Newcastle, pleading for reinforcements as soon as possible and urging him to keep the army’s predicament at Dunbar a secret from the parliamentarians back in London. "The enemy hath blocked up our way to Berwick at the pass through which we cannot get without almost a miracle," Cromwell wrote. "Our lying here daily consumeth the men, who fall sick beyond imagination."
On Monday afternoon, Cromwell summoned his regimental commanders and staff officers to a desperate strategy session at Broxmouth House. The English had only one thing going for them. If Leslie wished to attack, he could only do so by coming down the Doon escarpment -- Cromwell’s men were out of range for Leslie’s artillery. As the Roundheads desperately groped for solutions to a frightening military predicament, the Scots themselves provided the answer.
Instead of waiting atop Doon Hill for the English to collapse from disease and starvation, Leslie’s army began moving slowly down the dominating slope at four o’clock in the afternoon to the cornfields below on the opposite side of the Broxburn from the Cromwell encampment. As Cromwell watched in disbelief and delight, the Scots cheerily settled into a night camp amid the rows of corn to get ready for the final victorious battle they believed would follow the next day. The Scots doused their matches, stacked their weapons, and unsaddled their horses. Many of their officers left to spend the night in the comfort of Dunbar-area farmhouses miles behind the lines -- all the better to fight the English after a decent night’s sleep and a hearty farm breakfast.
It appears that General Leslie’s tried and true guerrilla strategy had been summarily overruled earlier in the day by the impatient Covenanter ministers’ committee from Edinburgh. The men of the cloth accompanied the Scottish commander to the top of Doon Hill, only to bury their heads in the religious sand. In mid-August, the Covenanters pressed Charles II to issue a public statement attacking his mother’s popery and his late father’s bad counsel. Charles refused and watered down his declaration considerably before making it public. The Covenanters went berserk and took their revenge by shooting themselves in the foot. They launched a purge of the Scottish army, starkly reminiscent of Josef Stalin’s ideological purges of the Soviet Union’s Red Army during the 1930s. More than 3,000 of General Leslie’s best professional soldiers including many of his officers were peremptorily dismissed from the army and sent home for such unforgivable sins as loose morals and swearing in public. One angry Scottish colonel said the Covenanters left Leslie with an army of "nothing but useless clerks and ministers’ sons, who have never seen a sword, much the less used one."
Leslie’s army had already taken the high ground when the English straggled onto the golf course below late on the last day of August. He went to the Covenanters for permission to attack the English on September 1, a Sunday, before Cromwell could get his forces organised into a workable defence. They recoiled in horror from the idea of spilling blood on the Sabbath – even English blood.
As he resignedly watched the English regiments set up their defences on Sunday morning, Leslie went over to Plan "B." He would stay atop Doon Hill and let the English army wither and die to the point of surrender or try to charge uphill against him. But at a morning meeting on Monday, September 2, the Covenanters would have none of it. The preachers now saw themselves as military strategists far more brilliant than the man who had had used his favourite allies "Hunger and Disease" to bring the English army to its knees with a minimum of Scottish losses.
God, they piously decided, was on the side of the Covenanters. They were in charge, and they ordered Leslie to lead his army down Doon Hill that afternoon to prepare for an all-out attack on Cromwell the following morning. After an hour of acrimonious debate, the exasperated general reluctantly obeyed, his tactical genius tied in knots of religious red tape.
With his back to the ocean, Cromwell now realised that his only chance of victory had miraculously come to pass. And he thanked the same God for his one shining chance at deliverance. He watched in amazement as the Scots formed their line at the bottom of Doon Hill into a giant fan-shaped arc, stretching from the coast to the Broxburn, presenting him with an irresistible target.
The Scots settled in with a massive contingent of cavalry on their right wing, crowded down onto the beach to the point where there was little room for manoeuvrability in the event of an attack. Of course the Scots thought they were about to do the attacking, not the English. But Cromwell decided to take the offensive. He ordered an audacious pre-dawn attack across the steep defile of Broxburn brook, aimed at a lightly defended position between the infantry and the cavalry on the Scottish right.
A nervous Cromwell spent the night riding from regiment to regiment by torchlight on a small Scottish pony, telling his troops to "remember our battlecry -- the Lord of Hosts! Put your trust in God, my boys -- and keep your powder dry!" He had little trouble encouraging his men to fight. The Scots had captured a Roundhead cavalry patrol near Glasgow a couple of weeks prior to Dunbar and had sent the tortured and mutilated bodies back to Cromwell as a warning. That savage gesture served only to infuriate the English rank and file and stiffened the ailing army’s resolve considerably.
Cavalry regiments and three more regiments of foot slipped quietly across the Broxburn in the moonlight, skirting the Scottish right wing. Screaming "The Lord of Hosts!" at the pitch of their lungs, the Roundheads stormed into the Scottish camp, catching Leslie’s men sound asleep and completely unprepared.
But the Scots recovered quickly, rising to defend the position against the English cavalry with their long Spanish pikes, muskets and basket hilt swords. In the centre of the line, ferocious hand-to-hand combat erupted between Scottish and English infantrymen, and the tide began to turn in favour of the defenders as dawn broke. Cromwell took a look at the battlefield, and threw all of his reserves into the fight at precisely the right time in exactly the right place.
The Ironsides -- never defeated in battle -- hit the exhausted Scots in an opening to the left of the infantry fighting and their line collapsed. The English cavalry regrouped and spilled through the gap. The battle had been lost by Leslie’s men in an instant. Cromwell himself marvelled at the work of his cavalry, saying, "they flew about like furies doing wondrous execution." An English officer put it a little more succinctly: "The Scots were driven out like turkeys."
The English victory was so complete that Cromwell broke into uncontrollable laughter amid the agonised screams of the wounded from both sides and the shattering silence of the bodies scattered two and three deep in places across the Dunbar battlefield. It was what the clerics subsequently called a "religious manifestation," a fairly common occurrence among deeply religious men of all faiths caught in battle during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. One Puritan preacher described Cromwell as "drunken of the spirit and filled with holy laughter" at Dunbar. An observer named Aubrey wrote in his book “Miscellanies” a few years after the restoration that Cromwell "was carried on with a divine impulse. He did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk. The same fit of laughter seized him just before the Battle of Naseby. ‘Tis a question undecided whether Oliver was more of the enthusiast, or the hypocrite."
The battle was no laughing matter for Scotland. With 3,000 soldiers killed, it turned into the worst rout ever endured by Scottish soldiers, who threw down their arms and fled by the thousands into the countryside. They were chased down, killed or captured by Cromwell’s cavalry as far as eight miles behind the original Scottish line. In Scottish history, the defeat became known sarcastically as "the Race of Dunbar."
The English booty included Leslie’s entire baggage train, all of the Scottish artillery, 15,000 stands of arms and 200 regimental pennants. When news of the victory reached London, ecstatic members of the Rump Parliament resolved that a Dunbar medal should be struck for both officers and men. It was the first such military medal ever issued in Britain. There was no other until the Battle of Waterloo, a century and a half later.
In addition to the 3,000 Scots killed at Dunbar, another 10,000 were taken prisoner. Some English historians say Oliver Cromwell lost only 40 men killed and wounded. But that has to be taken with a grain of salt, given the intensity of the first hour of fighting. After the battle ended, Cromwell simply could not handle 10,000 prisoners.