The Making Of The British Army Read Free Page A

volleys.
     
    Take up your Match;
Handle your Musket;
Order your Musket;
Give Rest to your Musket;
Open your Pan;
Clear your Pan;
Prime your Pan;
Shut your Pan;
Cast off your loose Powder;
Blow off your Powder;
Cast about your Musket;
Trail your Rest;
Open your charge;
Charge with powder;
Charge with bullet;
Draw forth your Scouring Stick;
Shorten your Scouring Stick;
Ram Home;
Withdraw your Scouring Stick;
Shorten your Scouring Stick;
Return your Scouring Stick;
Recover your Musket;
Poise your Musket;
Give rest to your Musket;
Draw forth your Match;
Blow your coal;
Cock your Match;
Try your Match;
Guard and Blow;
Open your pan;
Present;
Give Fire!
     
     
With such deliberate drill the rate of fire was glacial, even with alternate ranks firing and reloading. It was fatal, not just ineffective, to discharge at too great a range, for if the fire fell short the enemy’s musketeers and pikemen would be able to close with them before another volley (fire by the entire line) could be got off. And if it were cavalry advancing against the line there was scarcely time to get off a volley at all before the pikemen needed to take post in front. At Edgehill the pike they carried was 16 feet long, making the line even more unwieldy to manœuvre, for the pikemen had to wedge the butts in the ground and brace themselves to make a solid wall of steel against cavalry or the enemy’s pikes. Little wonder, then, that even in the best-trained bands there were three of them to every musket.
At Rupert’s urging, King Charles placed his cavalry – the ‘horse’ proper as well as the dragoons (who fought dismounted with sword and musket rather than from the saddle) 5 – on either end of the line to prevent his flanks from being turned, and to allow freedom of movement when the moment came to charge. And Rupert, in command of the stronger right wing of the cavalry, would be looking for just that opportunity, for in many a battle on the Continent he had seen the enemy’s line scattered by a well-timed charge.
Opposite Rupert’s wing, three-quarters of a mile or so down the hill and beyond a hedge, the left wing of the Parliamentary cavalry was well supported by musketeers and cannon. Indeed, Parliament’s line, comprising three ‘tertias’ (brigades) of infantry, outnumbered the Royalists by 3,000 musketeers and pikemen; but this margin was less than the earl of Essex had hoped for (there were many stragglers behind him still after his rapid march from Worcester), and he therefore moved two cavalry regiments from his right to behind the infantry, leaving just one regiment of horse supported by dragoons and musketeers on that flank.
But this, to Essex’s mind, did not matter, for Parliament was not going to attack first. After all, Charles had the advantage of the slope, and Rupert had a reputation for dash. Essex was not going to risk his infantry to the shock action of a cavalry charge as they advanced uphill. And so the morning passed with little but mutual jeering and a desultory and ineffective exchange of artillery. The battlefield was still a quietish sort of place until the lines came to close quarters; a man might say his prayers or play a game of cards until the moment came.
In the early afternoon Astley knelt down and in the hearing of all prayed: ‘Oh Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me.’ Then he rose, and with a ‘Forward, boys!’ led the Royalist line in a steady march down the hill. Half a mile on they halted and the cannon on both sides opened fire; but the smoke and noise was greater than the harm, and the guns soon fell silent again.
Essex, though dismayed by the passing of the day to no effect, and not least by Astley’s half-advance, was not going to be tempted into attacking. But neither was he going to wait idly on Charles’s whim. He decided to send dragoons to probe the Royalist right, following them up with horse and a few of the supporting musketeers from