Raising the siege of Edgerton House: an ECW Kelhamshire scenario for Pike and Shot

 Lord Melchett's and Sir Victor Meldrew's struggle for control of Kelhamshire continues to generate interesting battles.  This, the latest installment, is part of a mini campaign where Sir Victor is attempting to raise the siege of Edgerton House.  Edgerton House is owned by Sir William Edgerton, a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause.  He has used his home as a base to raid nearby Royalist areas and generally be a thorn in the side of Lord Melchett.  Having had enough of the troublesome Sir William, Lord Melchett has besieged Edgerton, entrusting his senior engineer Jakob Van Oord, with the technical aspects and Sir Harvey Nicholls with the military prosecution of the siege.  Sir Harvey has three units of foot plus a unit of commanded shot.   Van Oord's artillery consisted of 2 medium guns and a mortar and these were beginning to seriously damage the defences of Edgerton House.  Sir Harvey had sent his only unit of horse off on a scouting/foraging mission.

Sir Victor is determined to come to the aid of Sir William and has gathered a force to relieve Edgerton House.  In an earlier action, Lord Melchett had tried to intercept Sir Victor's force, but had been unsuccessful.  This means that Sir Victor is now approaching Van Oord's siege lines and Sir Harvey is going to have to hold off the attackers and hope (pray?) that help comes in time.

View of the table, with the Royalist siege lines on the left

Sir Victor's force consists of 4 units of foot, 2 light guns and 4 units of horse plus a unit of dragoons.  The foot and artillery were under the command of Colonel William Wanless and their advance was preceded by the dragoons.  The cavalry were advancing on another road to avoid congestion.  Their commander, Sir Andrew Goldshaw had been injured at the earlier action and command now fell upon the relatively inexperienced Colonel Edward Robinson.  Sir Victor was accompanying the foot, urging them forward at their best pace.

As the infantry column advanced along the road, Sir Harvey's cavalry appeared on their left.  Sir Victor anxious to secure his flank, took command of one Colonel Wanless's regiments and led it to the left to face the enemy cavalry.  Meanwhile, the Parliamentary horse had arrived and were moving quickly towards the enemy siege lines.

Sir Victor supervising the advance of his infantry

Sir Harvey was having difficulty getting his men to face the threat to their rear.  One unit misheard the order and instead of about facing, moved towards Edgerton House.  Others struggled to manoeuvre within the siege lines and only the commanded shot responded quickly.  Van Oord was somewhat reluctant to move his guns, but the mortar responded fairly quickly and was soon lobbing shells (or bombs) at the advancing Parliamentary troops.

The Royalist siege lines

The advance of the Royalist commanded shot convinced Colonel Robinson he should attack and he pressed forward to gain room to deploy.

The Parliamentary cavalry advance

It was at this juncture that Sir Roystron A'Dammes and Lord Melchett appeared with a brigade of Royalist cavalry and a unit of dragoons.  Lord Melchett sent the dragoons to his right to harass the Royalist cavalry still in column on the road and then Sir Royston led the cavalry towards Edgerton House.

Sir Royston arrives with the Royalist cavalry

Colonel Wanless had ordered the dragoons to line a hedge and dissuade the Royalist cavalry foragers from approaching the infantry column.  His main concern however, was the road junction ahead, where the columns of infantry and horse were both trying to get forward.

The dragoons cover the flank

The log-jam where the roads meet

The leading Parliamentary cavalry regiment had deployed and charged the commanded shot.  The second regiment had deployed and moved against the returning foragers.  Against the odds, the commanded shot repulsed the Parliamentary cavalry, forcing them to retire in disorder.  The second regiment had more success against the returning foragers.  The Royalist horse were driven back towards the siege lines, but the Parliamentary horse did not follow up  and consequently suffered heavy casualties from musketry fire from the Royalist infantry which had at last sorted themselves out.

Sir Victor was still leading his infantry regiment around to the left to bring it onto the hill close to the Royalist siege lines, but poor going made for slow progress.  Sir Harvey ordered the commanded shot into the woods flanking the road the cavalry were advancing along.  To make matters worse, the dragoons also moved to a position flanking the road.  Colonel Robinson pulled back his horse regiments, leaving room for Colonel Wanless to deploy one of his regiments to attempt to drive off the Royalists.  The Parliamentary light guns also deployed to add their firepower.

Lord Melchett had taken his Lifeguard of Horse to the left to try and add further to Colonel Robinson's woes, but Robinson had a unit in reserve and this moved to counter the Royalist attack.  A prolonged melee ensued with the initiative passing back and forth and resulting in both units having to fall back to recover.

Wanless had ordered the dragoons to move to the woods on the left of the infantry on the hill and had also sent a second unit to join the one which was already established there.  It was at this point that Sir Royston arrived in the centre with his cavalry.  His leading unit deployed and then charged up the hill to attack the Parliamentary infantry.  An ineffectual volley failed to stop them and the cavalry charged home.  Try as they might the Royalist cavalry couldn't break into the infantry formation and had to fall back to recover.  As the Royalist cavalry fell back, the Parliamentary infantry were subjected to fire from the Royalist artillery and foot.

The Parliamentary foot began to waver, even though they now had supports.  Sir Royston decided to try again.  Gathering another regiment of horse he charged up the hill again.  Even though they were now shaken and disordered, the Parliamentary foot held their ground and delivered a volley which stopped the charge in it's tracks.

Meanwhile Colonel Wanless was trying to push back the Royalists lining the lane.  The fire from the light artillery was having little effect against the dragoons and so he ordered a charge.  Naturally, the dragoons evaded, but did not move away quickly enough and they suffered heavy casualties as the foot fired a volley to hurry them on their way.

Wanless orders an attack on the Royalist dragoons

The Royalist artillery, ably directed by Van Oord, targeted the Parliamentary infantry and soon reduced one gun to a heap of wood and metal.  Desperate to save his other gun, Wanless ordered it to pull back, which meant that the Royalists now turned their fire on Robinson's cavalry.  Suddenly there was a loud explosion and the mortar exploded, killing its crew and the hapless Van Oord who was directing its fire.                                      

From his position on the hill near the siege lines, Sir Victor decided that further progress was going to be difficult.  He would need time to clear the commanded shot from their position in the wood and any attack by his horse or foot would be in the teeth of artillery and musketry fire.  Also, Sir Royston still had the advantage in numbers of horse, in spite of his losses.  Summoning one of his staff he ordered them to find a couple of volunteers to try and break through the siege lines and inform Sir William that he, Sir Victor, was having to pull back the army and that he should seek terms from Sir Harvey.

For his part Lord Melchett was keen to harass Sir Victor all the way back to his base and set about organising a vigorous pursuit by as many men as Sir Harvey and Sir Royston could spare.