When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Bard enrolled in Pinchbeck's Regiment, part of the Royalist northern army based in York. In February 1643, Queen Henrietta Maria landed in Bridlington with a large shipment of weapons purchased in the Dutch Republic for transport to the Royalist war-time capital at Oxford. On 16 May, Bard and Pinchbeck arrived in Oxford with a consignment of gunpowder; their regiment fought at First Newbury in September, where Pinchbeck was badly wounded and later died of his injuries in January 1644.