Battle of Dunbar ( 1650 ) The Battle of Dunbar ( 3 September 1650 ) was a battle of the Third English Civil War . The English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II , who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649 . The battlefield has been inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment ( Amendment ) Act 2011 . Background . The English Parliament had long suspected the true intentions of the Scots . Their worst fears were realised when the Engagers invaded England in 1648 , however the Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor commander and was easily defeated at the Battle of Preston . On 23 June 1650 Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Moray . On his arrival he signed the 1638 Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant and was proclaimed King of Scots . This infuriated the English authorities and they decided on a pre - emptive invasion of Scotland . Sir Thomas Fairfax , the Army ' s commander , disagreed with this strategy and resigned . Oliver Cromwell was made General in his place . John Lambert was appointed Sergeant Major General and the Army ' s second - in - command . As Cromwell led his army over the border at Berwick - upon - Tweed in July 1650 , the Scottish general , Sir David Leslie , decided that his best strategy was to avoid a direct confrontation with the enemy . His army were not the battle - hardened veterans of the Thirty Years ' War who had taken the field for the Scots at Newburn and Marston Moor . Many of them had perished during the Civil War and the ill fated 1648 invasion of England . Far more had left active service after the former event . This meant that a new army had to be raised and trained by the remaining veterans . Eventually the army comprised some 12 , 000 soldiers , outnumbering the English army of 11 , 000 men . Though the Scots were well armed , the pressure of time meant they were poorly trained compared with their English counterparts , all of whom had served with Oliver Cromwell for years . Leslie chose therefore to barricade his troops behind strong fortifications around Edinburgh and refused to be drawn out to meet the English in battle . Furthermore , between Edinburgh and the border , Leslie adopted a scorched earth policy thus forcing Cromwell to obtain all of his supplies from England , most arriving by sea through the port at Dunbar . Whether in a genuine attempt to avoid prolonging the conflict or whether because of the difficult circumstances he found himself in , Cromwell sought to persuade the Scots to accept the English point of view . Claiming that it was the King and the Scottish clergy who were his enemies rather than the Scottish people , he wrote to the General Assembly of the Kirk on 3 August famously stating , " I beseech you , in the bowels of Christ , think it possible you may be mistaken . " This plea , however , fell on deaf ears . The battle . By early September , the English army , weakened by illness and demoralised by lack of success , began to withdraw towards its supply base at Dunbar . Leslie , believing that the English army was retreating , ordered his army to advance in pursuit . The Scots reached Dunbar first and Leslie positioned his troops on Doon Hill on the eastern edge of the Lammermuir Hills , overlooking the town and the Berwick Road , which was Cromwell ' s land route back to England . Cromwell wrote to the governor of Newcastle : However , the Scots army , commissioned and funded by the Committee of Estates and Kirk representing the Scottish Parliament and the Church of Scotland , manoeuvred itself into a new position which was subsequently regarded as a tactical blunder . Eager to curtail the mounting cost of the campaign , the Kirk ministers in attendance are said to have put Leslie under great pressure to finish the battle quickly . On 2 September 1650 , he brought his army down from Doon Hill and approached the town , hoping to secure the road south over the Spott Burn in preparation for an attack on Cromwell ' s encampment . Witnessing Leslie ' s men wedge themselves between the deep ditch of the Spott Burn , and the slopes of the Lammermuirs behind them , Cromwell quickly realised that here was an opportunity for him to turn the tables on the Scots . He knew that an attack on the Scottish right flank would leave the left flank unengaged and that a successful push against the right would roll the latter back . On observing the manouevre , he is said to have exclaimed , " The Lord hath delivered them into our hands ! " That night , under cover of darkness , Cromwell stealthily redeployed a large number of his troops to a position opposite the Scottish right flank . Just before dawn on 3 September , the English troops , shouting their battle cry " The Lord of Hosts ! " , launched a surprise frontal attack on the Scots , while Cromwell engaged their right flank . Soldiers in the English centre and on the right caught Leslie ' s men unawares but were held at bay by the long pikes of their Scottish opponents . The right flank of the Scots , however , with less freedom to manoeuvre , was pushed back under the weight of superior English numbers until its lines started to disintegrate . Cromwell ' s horse then clashed furiously with the Scottish cavalry and succeeded in scattering them . Observing this disaster , the rest of the Scottish army , hopelessly wedged between the Spott or Brox Burn and Doon Hill , lost heart , broke ranks and fled . Cromwell ' s secretary Rushworth wrote : In the rout that followed , the English cavalry drove the Scots army from the field in disorder . Cromwell reported to Parliament that the " chase and execution " of the fleeing Scots had extended for eight miles . Cromwell claimed that 3 , 000 Scots were killed . On the other hand , Sir James Balfour , a senior officer with the Scottish army , noted in his journal that there were " 8 or 900 killed " . There is similar disagreement about the number of Scottish prisoners taken : Cromwell claimed that there were 10 , 000 , while the English Royalist leader , Sir Edward Walker put the number at 6 , 000 , of which 1 , 000 sick and wounded men were quickly released . The more conservative estimates of the Scottish casualties are borne out by the fact that , the day after the battle , Leslie retreated to Stirling with some 4 , 000 - 5 , 000 of his remaining troops . The aftermath . In his post - battle report to the Speaker of the English Parliament , Cromwell described the victory as " . . . one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people . . . " . As a result of the destruction of the Scottish army , he was able to march unopposed to Edinburgh and quickly occupied the Scottish capital , although Edinburgh Castle held out until the end of December . The prisoners taken at Dunbar were force - marched south towards England in order to prevent any attempt to rescue them . The conditions on the march were so appalling that many died of starvation , illness or exhaustion . By 11 September , when the remnants arrived at Durham Cathedral where they were to be imprisoned , only 3 , 000 Scottish soldiers were still alive . If Sir Edward Walker ' s statement is correct , that 6 , 000 prisoners were taken and 5 , 000 of them were marched south , then 2 , 000 captives perished on the way to Durham . Of the estimated 5 , 000 Scottish soldiers that began the march southwards from Dunbar , over 3 , 500 died either on the march or during imprisonment in Durham Cathedral , more than the total number killed on the battlefield . Of the 1 , 400 survivors , the majority were eventually transported as convict labourers to English colonies in the New World and the Caribbean . After formally accepting the Solemn League and Covenant , Charles was finally crowned King in Scotland on 1 January 1651 .