Robert Harley described the battle of Cheriton in a letter as, ‘nothing else but a confused thing, patched up by a short memory.’ Sir Walter Slingsby went into a little more depth, ‘The foot, keeping their ground in a close body, not firing till within two pikes length and then three ranks at a time after turning the butt end of their muskets, charging their pikes and standing close, preserved themselves, and slew many of the enemy.’ Warfare was confused enough, but with a wooded area, dense fog and most tragically of all, both sides choosing the same war cry, Cheriton was a particularly confused affair. Cheriton occurred because Sir Ralph Hopton, the Royalist Commander wanted to cut of the supply line of Sir William Waller’s Roundhead army. Both met outside the village of Alresford and the ground mist that morning lay thick, obscuring their views. Seizing the opportunity, Waller ordered a party of 800 musketeers to occupy and make use of the further cover Cheriton Wood offered. Once the mist began to clear, Hopton ordered around 600 musketeers of his own party to do the same. Unknown to them, Waller’s musketeers waited until they were close and opened fire. The mist was replaced by musket smoke which was equally as thick. Error after error occurred when next they fond they shared not only the same battle cry, ‘God with us,’ but they had both decided to identify themselves with white signs in their hats. In all of this confusion, each side must have shot some of their own. It was now Hopton’s turn to get the initiative and he ordered one body to retire and attack the right wing of the enemy, which had been left thin of men. With assaults n both sides, the Royalists pushed their way forward, slicing through the enemy with renewed spirits, going on to capture the wood. As this battle raged, the old Earl of Forth, the King’s General arrived. He was n command and his arrival was really a hindrance, for seeing the wood in his control now, he advised caution and to wait for the enemy to counter-attack or withdraw. Forth, although brilliant in his day, was now over seventy, a big drinker with gout, who used his deafness as an excuse not to be drawn into arguments in councils of war. At this point Hopton began assessing the situation, but whilst doing so, Colonel Sir Henry Bard led his horsemen forward to attack the enemy. The contours of the land prevented Bard from seeing the full enemy and he was heading for annihilation. When other Royalist units saw Bard’s men being mauled, they went to his rescue, but it turned into a conveyor belt of death, each rescue unit being destroyed. Soon Forth was forced to order a general retreat from the field. Hopton gathered some horse together and stalled the Roundheads while the army left the field unmolested, but Sir Arthur Hazelrigg’s ‘lobsters’ so called because of their full suits of cuirassier armour were far too efficient for anyone to hold the long. Forth and Hopton retreated back to Oxford, while Waller captured several towns. The King’s plans to get a foothold in the South were dashed. Soon Waller faced his own trouble when his London men refused to march any further away from the capital and he reluctantly withdrew back to Farnham. It had been a disastrous day, for not only had the Royalists lost many men, lost the battle and left the way clear for Waller, they had lost Sir John Smith. Smith was the Royalists hero who had recaptured the Royal Standard at Edgehill at the start of the war. A victory to offset this battle was now crucial to the Royalists. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament # 6 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com