This event took place over the weekend of 23rd/24th June 2018
What a scorcher! Only a small turnout from us but another great weekend. On the field we had John, Mike, Bob and myself supported by Graham from Owen’s, Sue and Richard from River’s with Graham from Bagot’s acting brigade commander and taking any flack if we messed up (which we didn’t). Surprisingly, this was enough to make us semi automatous and out of the direct clutches of King's.
We formed a loose band in front of the Oxford Foot creating a path for them to follow stopping occasionally to questioning bystanders to make sure they were supporting the right side, looking for potential recruits and checking for subversive activities. Once we had reached Newark (the LH camp) we formed a picket line out front ready to spot any advancing enemy. Not long to wait the alarm was sounded we let off a quick shot and scarpered from our advance position back to the main body of troops.
Advancing from Newark to meet Parliament we slotted ourselves between KG musket on our left and what looked like a collection of Northampton’s musket and others on our right. A bit tight but we gave each other just enough room and it worked well. We faced a decent looking musket block but to be honest between our 3 blocks we probably outnumbered them at least 2 to 1.
Most of the afternoon was taken up with volley fire, but with our 3 blocks taking it in turn, it was more like a rolling volley, the parliament block never really had a chance. We did let them attack (uphill) once in a while but if they went for KG either Northampton’s or us took them in the flank and if they went for Northampton’s they were taken in the flank by us or KG. They did come after us on one occasion but it was just as Graham had swapped us to firing by rank which meant they had to stop short and that KG and Northant’s were able to take them on both flanks before we were forced to get involved.
I think at this point everyone was beginning to run low on powder and although Northampton’s dropped out of the running we kept going with KG (they had extra powder from the pre-battle display they hadn’t done – correctly stored I might add). As 3 of us fired the last volley and the last of our powder I tried to remember if I had put 6 or 8 spare pieces of wading in my pouch. I heard one of KG standing nearby congratulating himself on 17 shots, he had a smile on his face and was so proud. I could not resist it and I told him that I had fired 22 or 24, Bob agreed. The smile now gone.
Day two was a little different (it was hotter) and we were attacking uphill from the sconce towards a parliament camp (the LH). We lead the whole army onto the field this time forming a rather thin skirmish line across the field as the army formed up behind us and almost immediately started to pepper the enemy with some long range shots. They were not ready, no picket, I think we got a 3rd shot off before they managed a reply.
We were on the ropes for the battle with KG on our left, much harder work the 2nd day going uphill and towards the end I did begin to flag with more frequent water breaks so missed a couple of the volleys with only 18, a couple of the others did better. Still 40 plus shots over 2 days is still pretty good and still beat the day 2 tally of the guy from KG (Tee-hee).
