Time Astra

Schematic plan · Second English Civil War

Battle of Preston (1648)

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A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.
Rolling, Mixed groundCentreLeft wingRight wingReserveCentreHorseHorseHorseHorseLeft wingRight wingReserve0200 m400 mN

English Parliament (Eng Parl Army, 9,000 men under Cromwell) attacked Scottish Royalist (Scot Roy Army, 21,000 men under Hamilton) in England. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 1 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that English Parliament won. Losses: English Parliament 300 (3%), Scottish Royalist 5,000 (24%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

English Parliament

Cromwell

UnitArmMen
English Parliament left wingInfantry1,440
English Parliament centreInfantry1,920
English Parliament right wingInfantry1,440
English Parliament reserveInfantry1,200
English Parliament cavalry of the leftCavalry1,500
English Parliament cavalry of the rightCavalry1,500
CromwellCommander—
In this plan9,000

Scottish Royalist

Hamilton

UnitArmMen
Scottish Royalist left wingInfantry4,176
Scottish Royalist centreInfantry5,568
Scottish Royalist right wingInfantry4,176
Scottish Royalist reserveInfantry3,480
Scottish Royalist cavalry of the leftCavalry1,800
Scottish Royalist cavalry of the rightCavalry1,800
HamiltonCommander—
In this plan21,000

What the sources report

English ParliamentScottish Royalist
Strength, this plan9,00021,000
Losses, this plan3005,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 26, “Preston”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
24 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Heavy precipitation, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1 km (attacker), 0.6 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
English Parliamentattacker9,0003003,000—Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Breakthrough; Pursued
Scottish Royalistdefender21,0005,0003,600—Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · training +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.