As
the Scots broke, the English soldiers, while singing the two-verse
Psalm 117, quickly regrouped. Then Cromwell unleashed them to
hound and butcher the fleeing survivors for eight miles. Most
of the estimated 3,000 Scots killed at Dunbar were probably slain
in the final route. Cromwell claimed to have "lost not above
thirty men." The English commander also stated he had captured
10,000 prisoners, then released half because they were "almost
starved sick and wounded."
Cromwell
sent 5,100 prisoners south to Newcastle because he didn't have
enough food to feed them. There was no accepted common policy
on the treatment of prisoners in the 17th century. They could
be ransomed, killed, exchanged or even recruited by the conquering
side. In this instance, Cromwell turned them over to the governor
of Newcastle. No food was provided to them for the march south.
At Morpeth, the prisoners spent the night in a cabbage field and
ate raw cabbages, roots and all. Sickness and hunger killed hundreds,
and within two months only half were still alive. The English
government shipped the survivors to the North American colonies
of Virginia and New England.
Cromwell
quickly captured Edinburgh, though the castle there held out until
December 23. The Scottish government, less firmly controlled by
the radical Presbyterians, abolished the Act of Classes and raised
another army.
By
1651, Charles II aligned with David Leslie to overthrough Cromwell
and drive him from Edinburgh. Leslie was captured, Charles fled
into exile, and Scotland was absorbed into the English Commonwealth
to be ruled for many years as an occupied state.
In
1653 Cromwell turned against his political backers, dismissed
the Council of State and Parliament and ruled as "Lord Protector"
- essentially a military dictator - until his death on 3 Sept
1658.
The
story of Cromwell's invasion of Ireland in 1649 is every bit interesting
as his battle at Dunbar, yet still doesn't make for an association
to Caldwell any different than that at Dunbar.
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