Wargame scenario - Last stand in the Cotswolds -21 March 1645

To be fully accurate it was actually counted as 1645 by contemporaries, although by our reckoning it was actually fought on 1 April 1646 (see footnote marked *).  The place is Stow on the Wolds and the battle that is about to be fought sees the last active Royalist Field Army brought to bay.  Traditionally it is seen as the last battle of the First Civil War.

Background

Sir Jacob Astley had been trying to gather troops from isolated garrisons along the Welsh borders to both lift the siege of Oxford and to re-enforce the garrison there.  The men he has gathered have been pulled together by stripping the isolated garrisons of the West Midlands. They are experienced soldiers,  many of them being Reformado officers serving in the ranks after their regiments have been destroyed or so reduced in size as to no longer need them.  As he pushed south Astley found himself being pursued by three Parliamentarian forces.  He is cut off from Oxford by two New Model Army cavalry regiments under Fleetwood and Whalley somewhere between Oxford and Burford so on 20th March he turns to make a stand near Stow.  Facing him are troops from the Parliamentarian garrisons of Gloucester, and Hereford along with cavalry released following the fall of the Royalist garrison at Chester.

The Battlefield

The exact location of the battle is disputed  the traditional site by Donnington village, north of Stow, has yielded little evidence to support the idea that a significant field action was fought there while a site closer to Stow does show evidence of spent musket and pistol balls.  That evidence also suggests a running fight or fighting withdrawal into Stow, which accords with period descriptions of the fight.  Accordingly I have placed the scenario on the outskirts of the modern town (just north of the Tesco Store if you want to visit!).

The Battlefield - played on a 4 x 4 foot table

The centre of the table is a ridge line with Stow on the Wold sitting on the main North South route, the old Roman Fosse Way. Branching off towards the South East is the road to Burford and Oxford.  The Fosse Way exits directly south of Stow and leads to Cirencester.  Running around the table edge from there in an anti-clockwise direction are roads to Gloucester, Evesham, Coventry and Leicester.

The Parliamentarians deploy first, any where behind a line running from the centre of the Eastern edge and the centre of the Northern edge.  The Royalists then deploy anywhere within the four central squares.  This represents the Royalists covering their route towards Oxford and having a line of sight onto the advancing Parliamentarian forces.

The Forces

Sorting out an order of battle for Stow requires an element of guesswork (as do most battles of the period). The best estimates I could find on line are as follow:

Royalist 1,500 foot, 200 dragoons & 900 Horse  CinC - Sir Jacob Astley (Infantry centre), Sir William Vaughan (Left  cavalry wing), Sir Charles Lucas (Right cavalry wing)

Parliament 2,000 Foot, 200 dragoons & 1,500 Horse - CinC Col Thomas Morgan (Infantry centre), Sir William Brereton (Right cavalry wing),  Col John Birch (Left cavalry wing)

This is my conjectural order of battle.  Dragoons placed between the Horse are blocks of 50 men

Royalist Horse and Dragoons I would rate as veteran and trained,  The foot should (using the deployment above) have two veteran and trained battalia and one experienced and trained battalia.  The artillery I would class as experienced and trained.  

Parliament are a more mixed bag.  Brereton's wing of Horse and Dragoons I'd class as veteran and trained although I might be tempted to drop one squadron to experienced and trained.  Birch's wing of Horse I would class as experienced and trained.  The infantry I would consider to be experienced and trained.  Again I'd class the artillery as experienced and trained.

The order of battle above is entirely fictional so do feel free to tinker with it.  At some point I need to get my hands on the Helion book on the battle 'The Last Army' as the above is the result of minutes of detailed research on Google!

I considered giving "In Deo Veritas" a run out for this scenario but in the end went with my own home brew set "Stand with me to fight the field" as I wanted some flexibility in unit sizes.  In Deo Veritas assumes units to be of one of three standard sizes which slightly grates when trying to create a historical OOB.  It should be possible to rework my OOB and battlefield plan to suit your preferred rules.

I'm planning on inflicting this scenario on Paul Dawson on our next get together so there will be an after action report once that has happened.

* Now for the footnote; this makes my headache!

England didn't change from the  Julian to Gregorian calendar until 1752.  The change had two effects the change over year lost 11 days and the date upon which the old year ended and the new year began changed from 25 March to 1 January.  So when looking at dates in original documents the English Gregorian calendar year runs from 25 March to the following 24 March but the period between 1 January and 24 March sits in the 'wrong' year.  The difference between the two calendars was 11 days at the time the adjustment occurred so 21 March 1645 Julian, is 1st April 1646 Gregorian  (it's to do with errors in the application of leap years).   

The date of the battle on a contemporary grave memorial is given as 21 March 1645 hence my saying 1 April 1646 for the corrected date.  That said, most historians change the year but ignore the missing days and state 21 March 1646, as it is less confusing.  Just to make matters even more 'interesting' Scotland and much of Western Europe had already changed to the Gregorian calendar so there was an international date line between England and Scotland!

It always intrigues me that tales of ghosts appearing on anniversaries of events seem to give the ghost the ability to update their appearance to meet the modern calendar date!  Who knew the dead were so savvy.