Cromwell's Convicts not only describes the Battle of Dunbar but
concentrates on the grim fate of the soldiers taken prisoner after the
battle.
On 3 September 1650 Oliver Cromwell won a decisive victory over the
Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar - a victory that is often
regarded as his finest hour - but the aftermath, the forced march of
5,000 prisoners from the battlefield to Durham, was one of the cruelest
episodes in his career.
The march took them seven days, without food and with little water, no
medical care, the property of a ruthless regime determined to eradicate
any possibility of further threat. Those who survived long enough to
reach Durham found no refuge, only pestilence and despair. Exhausted,
starving and dreadfully weakened, perhaps as many as 1,700 died from
typhus and dysentery. Those who survived were condemned to hard labor
and enforced exile in conditions of virtual slavery in a harsh new world
across the Atlantic.
Cromwell's Convicts is the first book to describe their ordeal in
detail and, by using archaeological evidence, to bring the story right
up to date. John Sadler and Rosie Serdiville describe the battle at
Dunbar, but their main focus is on the lethal week-long march of the
captives that followed. They make extensive use of archive material,
retrace the route taken by the prisoners and describe the recent
archaeological excavations in Durham which have identified some of the
victims and given us a graphic reminder of their fate.
