Cromwell's devastating blow
The Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650 was one of the most catastrophic defeats in Scottish military history. Oliver Cromwell, having invaded Scotland with a New Model Army hardened by years of civil war, found himself trapped between the Scottish army and the sea near the East Lothian coast. The Scots held the high ground on Doon Hill and seemed certain to starve the English out. Then the Scottish commanders made a fatal decision: they marched their army down from the hill to attack.
The Scottish leadership was divided between professional soldiers and Kirk ministers who insisted that the army be "purged" of anyone suspected of royalist sympathies — experienced officers who might actually have won the battle. The Covenanting zealots had already removed thousands of capable soldiers on grounds of moral impurity. The army that descended Doon Hill was large but inexperienced and poorly led.
Cromwell struck at dawn. His cavalry smashed the Scottish right flank before most of the army had time to form up. The rout was total. An estimated 3,000 Scots were killed on the field and in the pursuit that followed. Another 10,000 were taken prisoner — a staggering number. Many prisoners were force-marched south in appalling conditions; hundreds died on the road. Thousands more were shipped to the colonies as forced labourers, sent to work sugar plantations in Barbados and tobacco fields in Virginia. Their fate was slavery in all but name.
Dunbar opened the road to Edinburgh, which fell to Cromwell shortly afterward. Scotland was subsequently occupied by English garrisons. The defeat was a consequence not of Scottish cowardice but of catastrophic leadership — the lethal combination of military incompetence and religious fanaticism. Cromwell himself reportedly said of the Scots: "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken." They had been mistaken, and Scotland paid the price for a generation.