Pistoleer: Roundway Down

by Smith, Skye

  By the time he pushed his way through the thickets to get back to Henry , the two galloper guns were barely twenty yards from where Henry was hidden, but up on the flats. They stayed hidden until the first two shots were taken by the gunners. Those balls were lobbed at the Lobsters, who were across on the other side of the vale and within their range. These guns could fire at them, but the Lobsters could not capture them because the vale was in the way.

  "Now," Henry said, once Daniel had taken a breather. He jumped up with Duett's signal gun in his hand, and ran towards the gun crew. Once they saw him and yelled out a warning, he let them have it. The signal gun had originally been designed to clear a ship's deck of boarders, so Daniel was not surprised to see four of the six crew go down in pain. He took care of the other two gunners with his dragon.

  As quickly as they could they fouled the barrels with as much white mud as they could pour down them with their bare hands. It was all they could do, all they had time to do, because they could not find the emergency spikes and hammer which gunners kept in reserve to spike the firing vents to save them from capture. They thought of pushing them over the edge, but they were out of time, for the loud shots had caused other royalists to look this way. They raced along the edge of the vale to where the lads were just riding out onto the flats, and joyously mounted their mares and were away with the rest. All thirty of them rode hell bent to get beyond the southern end of the entire royalist flying army before anyone thought to cut them off.

  They rode as if the very dogs of war were nipping at their heels. And they were. They had no sooner ridden past the southernmost cavalry regiment than four troops of royalist dragoons left their reserve position and raced across the battlefield after them. Cavalryers with carbines were shooting at them, but only the dragoons were giving chase. Oh how Daniel's thirty punished their horses to make them run faster, but that just made Daniel's old Millie fall behind until she was bringing up the rear.

  Orders or no, the first charge of the battle had begun. Right behind Daniel were two hundred dragoons giving chase. Oh well, wasn't that what everyone was waiting for? Unfortunately the dragoons on his tail were gaining on him, while Millie was flagging. His dragon was empty. His pistols were useless at a full gallop. It suddenly dawned on him that he was going to die. On this stupid coach road, racing down this stupid slope, on this stupid battlefield, in this stupid war - he was going to die. He would never again sit on a white beach in the shade of a coco palm and sip the sweet water of a great green nut. Never, ever again.

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  The Pistoleer - Roundway Down by Skye Smith Copyright 2014-15

  Chapter 31 - The Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes in July 1643

  The mass of royalist dragoons on Daniel's tail were now closer to him than his own men racing away in front of him. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if any of the royalist dragoons were close enough to shoot at him. Luckily he was looking forward when his own men swerved left towards the verge on the outside edge of the Devizes coach road and he followed them. At first this swerve was a mystery to him, but within two more strides the reason stared him in the face. Ahead of him blocking the road was a veritable wall of men armoured head to foot and riding enormous armoured horses. It surprised him that he had ridden far enough to be so close to the Lobsters. Millie must have been running faster than he thought. But that was not the reason. The wall of Lobsters was moving, moving towards him, moving towards the dragoons chasing him.

  Finally he understood why his men had swerved left. If they had swerved right, they would likely have been mistaken as enemy dragoons by Waller's musketeers, and shot down. They had no choice but to swerve left, away from the army so that they could hide from the musketeers behind the Lobsters. But wait, if that were true of his dragoons, then...."

  He followed his men around the eastern end of the moving wall of Lobsters, and to every officer he saw he yelled out at the top of his voice, "Get back, get back, you are blocking your own musketeers."

  His words were lost in the din of the Lobster carbines that were being fired at the royalist dragoons who had been chasing Daniel. In the realization that the first line of Lobsters had just saved his life, he hauled Millie up and tried to turn her. Six Lines of lobsters were now past him and as they charged forward they were doing the shuffle-on-the move maneuver where the second line was taking the lead with their carbines, while the first line was dropping back to reload.

  Meanwhile the royalist dragoons were pulling up sharply and doing a typical dragoon turn where they fired their pistols as they turned and ran away. Luckily none of them firing dragon's breath, and their pistol balls were just bouncing off the fine armour of the Lobsters. That trick never worked. While fighting for the Dutch Militia he had soon found out that the only way a pistoleer could beat a heavy cavalryman was to blind them with dragon's breath, or to shoot a heavy ball into the horse. The royalist dragoons did not know this, and now their smaller horses were being physically muscled aside by the heavier horses of the Lobsters, while their boiled leather armour was being breached by carbine balls and sabre slashes.

  What saved the royalist dragoons from being slaughtered was that they were lighter and more nimble than the Lobsters, and that is what they were doing to survive - dancing, and ducking, turning and fleeing. Meanwhile Daniel kept up behind the Lobsters hoping for a chance to warn them that they were blocking their own musketeers, as a thanks for them saving his life. Even if anyone had turned to listen to him, his words would have been drowned out by Waller's trumpets. They were loudly and insistently recalling the Lobsters.

  He glanced around and then saw why. For the same reason that the Lobsters had charged forward to protect Daniel's dragoons, the southernmost regiment of the royalist light cavalry were now charging forward to protect their dragoons from the Lobsters. Meanwhile Waller's trumpets had been heard by the Lobsters despite their fully enclosing steel helmets, and they were slowing their horses and stopping. The combined weight of man, huge horses, and all the armour was so great that they could not turn at speed. They first had to slow down.

  As they slowed they had the chance to look around and realize how out of position they were. Waller’s artillery and muskets were no longer of any help to them because they themselves were blocking the shots. Not only that, but most of them had still not reloaded from firing on the royalist dragoons. And that is about when the royalist light cavalry charge hit them. As Daniel watched, the most surprising thing happened. Instead of the light cavalry getting into a full fight with the Lobsters, they were firing their pistols at close range and then swerving around them to the left, the outside, the same way that Daniel and his men had gone around them. They were using the Lobsters as a shield against Waller's musketeers.

  When the Lobsters had formed their original line, they had stretched from Waller's infantry line all the way to and across the Devizes road, but that road ran at an angle. This meant that as the Lobsters had moved forward the space widened and now their line was not as wide as the space. This meant that the royalists could easily go around them and use the Lobsters as cover. They must have been watching how Daniel's men had gone around, and now they were doing the same thing. Their leaders were racing past the Lobsters and once past there was nothing between them and Devizes. Well, nothing except for Daniel.

  Well, in truth, nothing except for Daniel and his company, for his lads had pulled up their horses as soon as they were safe behind the Lobster lines. While reloading their dragons, they had been signaling to the infantry that they were friendlies. Now seeing the pickle that Daniel was in, they spurred their horses to rally around him. And since the original first line of Lobsters had also been reloading, it wasn't at all true that Daniel was the only man between the lead royalists and Devizes, but for a few worrisome moments that is exactly how it seemed to him.

  Situations change very quickly with cavalry charges, which is why they are so dangerous but also why they sometimes go
so horribly wrong. For a moment the leaders of the royalist regiment were gleeful that they had a clear run down the road to Devizes. Their balls and sabres had bounced off the lobster's armour, but had allowed them to get around their lines. In the next moment that all changed because now those leaders rode headlong into a stinking cloud of stinging, blinding smoke. While they were fully busy blinking to clear their sight, and sawing at the reins with both hands to control their mounts, they were hit from behind by the original first line of Lobsters - the ones who had dropped back to reload.

  The Lobsters took over the fight, just as the last of Daniel's lads emptied their dragons. Daniel looked around for a place where his men could reload in relative safety. Waller's trumpets were still sounding the recall over and over, and it woke him up to where this fast moving battle had carried them. They were now actually behind Waller's infantry line, so he yelled to his men and told them to ride towards Waller's reserve cavalry who were also behind the infantry line.

  Meanwhile the lead men of the royalist regiment must have realized that they were at risk of being trapped between the Lobsters and Waller's reserve, so they broke off their fight with the Lobsters and danced their horses away from them so they could turn and retreat back towards the rest of the royalist flying army.

  By the time the royalists had broken away from the Lobsters, Daniel had reached Waller's command post. He leaped off his horse and pushed his way through Waller's life-guard and the group of messengers waiting around him to carry his orders. Waller was personally yelling to his trumpeters, "Keep sounding the recall," but when he saw Daniel he turned to him and asked, "What the hell is Haselrig thinking? He keeps blocking my guns. If they hadn't dashed into our way, we could have unhorsed half of that first charge."

  Daniel was not about to criticize Haselrig, the man who had just saved his life, so instead of joining in the criticism he told Waller, "We just disabled their only two field guns. They were Swedish gallopers."

  Waller was the only other man in earshot who fully understood the importance of this news. He stopped raging about and stopped still and asked, "Swedish gallopers? Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure. It means that the modern munitions have reached Oxford. The ones that the queen bought in Holland by hawking the crown jewels."

  "Never mind Oxford," Waller said, almost in shock, "they have arrived here. I wonder how many of those cavalryers out there are the queen's mercenaries?" He stared out over the battlefield and then looked again at the tall fair captain and said, "Daniel."

  Daniels stomach churned. The only time Waller ever called him Daniel was when he wanted him to do something dangerous.

  "Leave your men here with Duett and the reserve," Waller told him, "but take five of them and go and tell Haselrig to form his living wall across the Devizes road again, and tell him to keep his Lobsters the bloody hell out of the way of my guns."

  Daniel looked out over the battlefield. The Lobsters were now more or less back to their original position blocking the road. The first royalist charge had been abandoned and that first regiment was regrouping back where they started from. He smiled. Perhaps this wouldn't be so dangerous after all. "The Lobsters are no long in the way , sir," he told Waller. "Why not do some shooting to make your point to them.” The situation had not gone unnoticed by the infantry, and his words were punctuated by sporadic musket fire from the front lines of the infantry. Waller gave the order to fire his cannons.

  There were five field guns on the crest of the hill behind and above them on Roundway Hill, and an ensign ran up the slight slope to pass the order to the gunners. Luckily they were field guns, not full siege guns, but even these smaller guns were very loud when you were standing just in front of them. The first of them boomed out. Since they were firing over the heads of the general staff and the infantry, the smoke and ash billowed over them and occasionally glowing embers of gun cloth floated down over the men.

  Another boom. They were firing balls. They were firing them low so that they would bounce through the ranks of the closest cavalryers, the ones who were trying to regroup. "Why balls? You would do more damager with grapeshot or chains or bars." Daniel said in a loud voice to no one in particular.

  Another boom. "Because I ordered it," Waller told him in an angry tone. "As I was ordered by Lord General Essex. No grape to be used against the king's mounted gentlemen."

  This time the BOOM was much louder. Much, much, louder. So loud that everyone in the lines winced and ducked. A shard of metal tore at the small awning that Waller's dispatch clerk was using to keep his paper dry from the drizzle and the clerk cried out in a panic.

  "That wasn't right," an ensign stated the obvious. Daniel heard him say it as he ran by him up the rise of the hill to the gun emplacement. What he saw there made him want to throw up. A month ago he had seen what a pistol blowing up had done to John Hampden's hand. Now he was seeing what a cannon blowing up did to five gun crews. The six gunners who had been standing the closest to the ruptured fourth gun were shredded beyond recognition, and the rest of the gunners had all been injured or stunned beyond the point of being able to work the guns.

  Waller and his officers had followed him up the slope and now they looked in horror at the bloody mess. By the lack of orders it seemed that no one knew what to do first. "Well there's a lot to do, and it doesn't matter where we start so long as we start," Daniel told Waller as he walked to the very crest of the hill from where he could look down on the infantry.

  He blew on his ship's whistle, hard, to get the attention of the closest few hundred men and then he called out the news about the one blown gun and the injured men. "We still have four serviceable guns!" he yelled. "We need volunteers to help the gunners! Anyone who has worked big guns before, come up here on the double!" Dozens of men began to move backwards through the lines of musketeers to reach him. When the first of them reached the gun emplacement, their first task was grisly. Dragging the bodies out of the way, and carrying the wounded men down to the field hospital.

  Meanwhile the royalists had realized what had happened and were quick to take advantage of the confusion with the cannons and in the lines of musketeers. They charged down the Devizes road again and slammed into the Lobsters. The musketeers were all busy looking backwards at what was happening with the field guns, so they missed their best chance yet of making their shots. Once again the royalist cavalry attacked as if they were dragoons. They rode up close and personal to the Lobsters, fired their pistols at point blank range, and then veered off. As in the first charge, they veered around the outside flank of the Lobsters and gained the open road to Devizes.

  While that fight was underway, the volunteers hauled the remaining four guns back into shooting position, but then refused to load and fire them. You couldn't blame them. One of the guns had just blown apart and shredded the gun crew, so how safe were the rest of them. Daniel turned away from watching the Lobster fight and understood the fear of the volunteers. He had no intention of standing close to these guns when they fired the next balls.

  "I suggest that we test them with grape shot this time," Daniel told the volunteers in a voice loud enough for Waller to hear. "No gun ever exploded from firing grape, 'cause there is no heavy lead ball plugging up the barrel.” The volunteers knew common sense when they heard it and began loading the guns with grape. Daniel walked over to stand with Waller who was still watching the latest charge against the Lobsters, and was surprised that Waller did not countermand his order. He kept the talk positive by telling him, "We were lucky that the powder kegs were all kept capped because of this drizzle, else they would have all blown and there would be nothing left up here."

  "For the record, I did not hear your order to load with grape," Waller hissed at him. "Not that it matters anymore. That bloody Haselrig has done it again."

  Daniel looked out over the battlefield. The Lobsters had fought off most of the second charge and the royalist cavalryers had pulled back to regroup. Unfortunately the Lobsters had been dra
wn into chasing them and were again out of position, effectively blocking the musketeers while no longer blocking the Devizes road. "They must have seen our guns out of action," Daniel made excuses for Haselrig. "Since there are no guns to block, they decided to give chase."

  "They are still blocking my muskets. I have over a thousand muskets down there and not a one of them has a good shot because of Haselrig."

  "Perhaps you should wheel your infantry line so it runs along the road. At its current angle to the road, your whole left wing will never have a good shot."

  "Didn't I ask you to do something for me?" Waller said with thunder in his look. Things were going wrong and he was a meticulous man who was angered when things went wrong. "Go and tell Haselrig to get back into position and stop blocking my guns."

  By the time Daniel found Millie, and handed command of his company over to one of Duett's captains, and picked five volunteers to ride out with him, the battle had changed yet again. The fleeing regiment of royalists had been saved by the charge of the second regiment of royalists. Again the Lobsters found themselves facing a fresh charge with their own guns empty. Waller’s trumpets were yet again sounding the recall. Again the Lobsters were slowing and stopping to turn, and again that is when the attacking cavalry reached them. It was like a repeat of the last fight, even in how the royalists did not just fire at them, but then rolled around them on the outside and continued riding down the steep coach road towards Devizes.

  Haselrig was playing the fool, and that was why Waller was in such a foul mood. Haselrig's Lobsters were trying to prove that they were better than the royalist cavalry. In truth they were neither better nor worse, because they were so different. This time however, the tactics of the royalists had changed. This time they were quicker to hurry around the Lobsters and did not waste as much time bashing at the heavy armour with their sabres. This time they spurred their horses on, for there were no dragoons making clouds of stinging smoke, and there was still confusion in Waller's infantry line, and Waller's reserve cavalry were watching what was going on at the gun emplacement and waiting for orders. This time the royalists did not turn back to regroup but instead kept running down the steep road towards Devizes.