Time Astra

Schematic plan · Second English Civil War

Battle of Dunbar (1650)

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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 wingReserveHorseHorseCentreLeft wingRight wingHorseHorseReserveGuns0500 m1 kmN

English Parliament (Eng Parl Army, 11,000 men under Cromwell) attacked Scottish Royalist (Scot Roy Army, 22,000 men under Leslie) in Scotland. The CAA Database of Battles records 2 hours of fighting on a front of 1.8 km, a single envelopment, right flank against hasty defense, and that English Parliament won. Losses: English Parliament 30 (0%), Scottish Royalist 13,000 (59%).

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 wingInfantry1,800
English Parliament centreInfantry2,400
English Parliament right wingInfantry1,800
English Parliament reserveInfantry1,500
English Parliament cavalry of the leftCavalry1,750
English Parliament cavalry of the rightCavalry1,750
CromwellCommander—
In this plan11,000

Scottish Royalist

Leslie

UnitArmMen
Scottish Royalist left wingInfantry3,732
Scottish Royalist centreInfantry4,976
Scottish Royalist right wingInfantry3,732
Scottish Royalist reserveInfantry3,110
Scottish Royalist cavalry of the leftCavalry3,000
Scottish Royalist cavalry of the rightCavalry3,000
Scottish Royalist artillery (30 guns)Artillery450
LeslieCommander—
In this plan22,000

What the sources report

English ParliamentScottish Royalist
Strength, this plan11,00022,000
Losses, this plan3013,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 27, “Dunbar”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting
2 hours
Winner
the attacker
Terrain
Rolling, Mixed
Weather
Wet, Light precipitation, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture
Hasty defense
Front width
1.8 km (attacker), 2.7 km (defender)
ForceStrengthLossesHorseGunsPlan and outcome
English Parliamentattacker11,000303,500—Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough; Pursued
Scottish Royalistdefender22,00013,0006,00030Defensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

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

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.