When King and Parliament clashed head on in 1642, the want of trained soldiers did not prevent the opposing sides from rushing violently at each other to seek a decision. In August 1642 the Army of the Parliament was about 23,000 strong. There were 75 troops of horse, each 60 strong. The five regiments of dragoons had 100 in each troop, and 1,000 was the strength of each of the 20 regiments of infantry with 10 Companys per regiment, whilst 50 brass guns and a few mortars or "murtherers" formed the train of artillery. The Earl of Essex wore a buff-coloured scarf, which gave origin to the colours of the Parliamentarians. Royalist officers wore red scarves, whilst those serving the Parliament affected buff or deep yellow. Uniforms, so-called, existed but only in name. Buff coats were used by both parties, but red, orange, grey, purple, and blue regiments, with flags of the same colours, were to be seen, whilst John Hampden commanded a regiment of "Greencoats". Red coats became universal in 1645 but often it happened that both parties wore the same colour. The King had a red regiment, held to be "the Invincible Regiment," consisting of 1,200 men. Among the Parliamentarians they had also a regiment of red coats (Vicars "Parliamentary Chronicle," Part IV. 200). The Marquis of Newcastle had a regiment composed of Northumberland men, called from their dress "White Coats." These veterans behaved with the utmost gallantry, and though deserted at Marston Moor by all their friends, they formed a ring to oppose Cromwell, and the White Coats fell in their ranks without the flight of one man. Whether from the colour of their coats or their desperate courage, they also obtained the title of "Newcastle's Lambs". The best discipline seems to have been maintained by the London Trained Bands, who were 18,000 strong, and each of their regiments had the City Arms in the dexter canton of its flag. The Parliamentarian artillery had no distinctive uniform, and the cavalry, being cuirassiers, required none. At Naseby the Cavaliers attacked one another, having no special distinguishing badges. In each troop of cavalry, or company of infantry, there was a subaltern officer, who, from the ensign which he carried was styled a "cornet. In a conflict that was waged by determined minorities on both sides, infantry remained the most neglected arm of the war from start to finish, being poorly paid and trained as compared to the cavalry with the entire course of the war being shaped according to their vulnerability to cavalry flank attacks. Both armies were encumbered with artillery pieces far too heavy to manoeuvre and guns played little decisive part except in sieges. There was a painful lack of generalship on the Royalist side with only the dashing tactics of Prince Rupert showing much merit. After two years the amateurish qualities of both armies was still evident and the war took the form of many separate little struggles going on in different counties of England. At such battles as Marston Moor, both sides showed such a lack of tactical direction that they faced each other for hours without either daring to seize the initiative until the battle began more by accident than design and was eventually won by Parliament, largely through the cavalry of Oli-er Cromwell. Each troop of Parliamentarian horse was to consist of 60 men, but the numbers were never full. There was a troop of 100 cuirassiers as a bodyguard for the Earl of Essex, and much use was made of dragoons on both sides. They were mounted infantry and were armed with swords and muskets or firelocks. Emerging as the outstanding leader of the war, Cromwell won another victory at Naseby which virtually ended the first Civil War. Cromwell's New Model Army was a professional standing army which has had few equals in history when a limited conscription raised a well disciplined and regularly paid force of over 20,000 cavalry, Dragoons and infantry. With the war ended in England, Montrose led a small and ill-armed army in Scotland with an initial cavalry force of 4 men and with only a single round of ammunition available per man for a few matchlocks of his force. In a series of small encounters Montrose's force repeatedly defeated far larger numbers of Covenantors with Montrose displaying a unique talent for handling a small army in a minor battle. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 152 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1974 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com