Battle of Preston ( 1648 ) The Battle of Preston ( 17 August – 19 August 1648 ) , fought largely at Walton - le - Dale near Preston in Lancashire , resulted in a victory for the New Model Army under the command of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalist s and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton . The Parliamentarian victory presaged the end of the Second English Civil War . Campaign . On 8 July 1648 , when the Scottish Engager army crossed the Border in support of the English Royalist , the military situation was well defined . For the Parliamentarians , Cromwell besieged Pembroke in South Wales , Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex , and Colonel Edward Rossiter besieged Pontefract and Scarborough in the north . On 11 July , Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on 28 August . Elsewhere , however , the rebellion , which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers , still smouldered . Charles , the Prince of Wales , with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast . Cromwell and John Lambert , however , understood each other perfectly , while the Scottish commanders quarrelled with each other and with Sir Marmaduke Langdale ( the English Royalist commander in the north west ) . As the English Royalist uprisings were close to collapse , it was on the adventures of the Engager Scottish army that the interest of the war centred . It was by no means the veteran army of the Earl of Leven , which had long been disbanded . For the most part it consisted of raw levies and , as the Kirk party had refused to sanction The Engagement ( an agreement between Charles I and the Scots Parliament for the Scots to intervene in England on behalf of Charles ) , David Leslie and thousands of experienced officers and men declined to serve . The leadership of the Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor substitute for that of Leslie . Hamilton ' s army , too , was so ill provided that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for the bare means of sustenance . On 8 July the Scots , with Langdale as advanced guard , were about Carlisle , and reinforcements from Ulster were expected daily . Lambert ' s horse were at Penrith , Hexham and Newcastle , too weak to fight and having only skilful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time . Appleby Castle surrendered to the Scots on 31 July , whereat Lambert , who was still hanging on to the flank of the Scottish advance , fell back from Barnard Castle to Richmond so as to close Wensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march on Pontefract . All the restless energy of Langdale ' s horse was unable to dislodge Lambert from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen . The crisis was now at hand . Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke Castle on 11 July , and had marched off , with his men unpaid , ragged and shoeless , at full speed through the Midlands . Rains and storms delayed his march , but he knew that Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off . Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him , at Nottingham , and , gathering up the local levies as he went , he made for Doncaster , where he arrived on 8 August , having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march . He then called up artillery from Hull , exchanged his local levies for the regulars who were besieging Pontefract , and set off to meet Lambert . On 12 August Cromwell was at Wetherby , Lambert with horse and foot at Otley , Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave . Hamilton was at Lancaster , and Sir George Monro with the Scots from Ulster and the Carlisle Royalists ( organized as a separate command owing to friction between Monro and the generals of the main army ) at Hornby . On 13 August , while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley , the Scottish leaders were still disputing whether they should make for Pontefract or continue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists . Battle . On 14 August 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton , on 15 August at Gisburn , and on 16 August they marched down the valley of the Ribble towards Preston with full knowledge of the enemy ' s dispositions and full determination to attack him . They had with them horse and foot not only of the Army , but also of the militia of Yorkshire , Durham , Northumberland and Lancashire , and withal were heavily outnumbered , having only 8 , 600 men against perhaps 9 , 000 of Hamilton ' s command . But the latter were scattered for convenience of supply along the road from Lancaster , through Preston , towards Wigan , Langdale ' s corps having thus become the left flank guard instead of the advanced guard . Langdale called in his advanced parties , perhaps with a view to resuming the duties of advanced guard , on the night of 13 August , and collected them near Longridge . It is not clear whether he reported Cromwell ' s advance , but , if he did , Hamilton ignored the report , for on 17 August Monro was half a day ' s march to the north , Langdale east of Preston , and the main army strung out on the road to Wigan , Major - General William Baillie with a body of foot , the rear of the column , being still in Preston . Hamilton , yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant - general , James Livingston , 1st Earl of Callendar , sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale , with 3 , 000 foot and 500 horse only , met the first shock of Cromwell ' s attack on Preston Moor . Hamilton , like Charles at Edgehill , passively shared in , without directing , the Battle of Preston , and , though Langdale ' s men fought magnificently , they were after four hours ' struggle driven to the Ribble . Baillie attempted to cover the Ribble and Darwen bridges on the Wigan road , but Cromwell had forced his way across both before nightfall . Pursuit was at once undertaken , and not relaxed until Hamilton had been driven through Wigan and Winwick to Uttoxeter and Ashbourne . There , pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell ' s horse and held up in front by the militia of the midlands , the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on 25 August . Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elsewhere , but Preston was the death - blow to the Royalist hopes in the Second Civil War . Cromwell estimated the Royalist losses at 2 , 000 killed and 9 , 000 captured . When the English Parliament decreed a day of thanksgiving for the victory , it was announced that Cromwell ' s army had " one hundred at the most " killed .