I must congratulate you on your excellent book "Wargames Campaigns", perhaps the best book on the subject yet. However, being an ardent wargamer in the English Civil War period, with a strong inclination to the Parliamentarians, I would like to question the contents of Chapter 16 "The Fight for Alton Church". Whilst in no way attempting to malign the local Hampshire county magazine, or your judgement, I would like to draw your attention to pages 123-129 of John Adair's book "Roundhead General: A Military Biography of Sir William Waller." According to Adair, Waller drove back Bolle's troops to the area around Alton Church, the Red Regiment of the London Trained Bands setting fire to the thatched house, using the smoke screen as cover (whether it helped the Royalists is another matter). Considerably outnumbered, Bolle's withdrew to the churchyard, and finally to the Church itself. However, here the two accounts differ. Once inside the Church "Colonel Bowles (?) their chief commander at the present .... swore God damne his soule, if he did not run his sword through the heart of him which first cried quarter!' However the Roundheads quickly broke in and Colonel Bolles was one of the first to fall. Evidently his men did not share his enthusiasm and "after he had fallen only a few Royalists chose to fight on to the death, the rest threw down their arms and cried for quarter". Adair gives the number captured in the Church as 700 whilst only 50-60 men became casualties in the action around Alton. Waller lost only 8 or 9 men, and his attack on the village of Alton is described as being one of the finest actions of the war. As you can see the picture painted by Adair is very different to your account. I can find no other detailed account Rogers stating that "Crawford's indifferent infantry (under Bolle's) surrendered after a short instance Waller taking some 1,000 prisoners (which seems to support my argument). But with only two conflicting detailed sources, one cannot categorically say what happened at Alton, until further information is found. No doubt the Royalist supporters will talk of Bolle's heroic last stand, and the Parliamentarians of Waller's outstanding victory. Perhaps someone else can dig up some new information. Since again I stress that I am not attempting to say you and your sources are wrong, but I just wish to present the information which, I find, as an ardent Parliamentarian supporter, more favourable. I hope in future with the Coventry Wargames Club to refight Alton Church, and give these Royalists another thrashing. Long live the King! Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 122 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1972 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com