new model army

This article deals with the English Civil War army. For information on the band, see New Model Army (band).

The New Model Army became the best known of the various Parliamentarian armies in the English Civil War. It comprised professional soldiers led by trained generals, unlike other military forces of the era, which tended to have aristocratic leaders with no guarantee of military training. Apart from their military successes, the New Model Army troops also became famous for their Puritan religious zeal. Oliver Cromwell started the formation of the New Model Army from the existing Roundhead forces on February 15, 1645 with the progression of the Self-denying Ordinance to remove the former leadership of the Roundheads. Sir Thomas Fairfax took up the overall command, with Cromwell himself at first only in charge of the cavalry. The Army finally came into being in April 1645. The New Model Army consisted of 22,000 soldiers, including 11 regiments of cavalry (6600 men), 12 regiments of infantry (14,400 men) and 1 regiment of 1000 dragoons. Soldiers conscripted from all over the country and transferred from older regiments joined together to form the army. The original founders intended that proficiency rather than social standing or wealth should determine the Army's leadership and promotions. However, Cromwell also preferred soldiers devoted, like himself, to Puritan ideals, and some of them sang psalms prior to battle. Cromwell also instituted standard daily pay (8 pence for infantry, 2 shillings for cavalry) and guaranteed food, clothing and other provisions. Cavalrymen had to supply their own horses. Cromwell merged men from multiple regiments into a single one and provisioned them with red uniforms to replace their former regimental colors. A "Soldier's catechism" dictated new regulations and drill procedures. Prince Rupert, one of the King's followers, gave them their nickname of Ironsides. This referred more to their ability to cut through opposing forces than to their armour, as sometimes claimed; their armour extended to leather jerkins. The New Model Army based its tactics on fast hit-and-run attacks against the flanks of the enemy. Frontal attack would have meant exposing them to the Royalist artillery. Cromwell specifically forbade his men to pursue a fleeing enemy, but demanded they hold the battlefield. The New Model Army won important victories at Naseby (14 June 1645, its baptism of fire) and Preston (August 1648). After the end of major civil war hostilities in England, they fought in Scotland, Ireland, Flanders and Spain. After the campaigns in Ireland in the 1640s some of them retired to settle in what is now Northern Ireland. Increasingly concerned at the political maneuverings by King Charles and by some in Parliament, the army marched to London in August 1647 and debated proposals of their own in the Putney Debates. In 1649 a mutiny occurred over pay and political demands. After the resolution of the pay issue, 400 troopers (under the command of Captain William Thompson) who had sympathies with the Levellers continued to negotiate their political demands. Cromwell launched a night attack (13 May 1649) on the "Banbury mutineers". Several mutineers perished in the skirmish, but Captain Thompson escaped only to die in another skirmish near the Diggers community at Wellingborough. Three other leaders were hanged, William Thompson's brother, Corporal Perkins and John Church on May 17, 1649. This destroyed the Levellers' power base in the New Model Army. Later that year the New Model Army landed in Ireland (15 August 1649) to start the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. During the Battle of the Dunes (1658) the red-coats of the New Model Army under the leadership of Sir William Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, in Turenne's army astonished both the French and Spanish armies by the stubborn fierceness of their assaults, particularly with a successful assault up a strongly defended sandhill 50 meters (150 feet) high. (The English had learnt a lot about war since two rabbles had met at the battle of Edgehill in 1642) With the exception of General Monck's regiment (which became the Coldstream Guards), the New Model Army disbanded after the Restoration of 1660. During World War I, Douglas Haig re-introduced the term for his units of the British Expeditionary Force decimated at the Somme.

New Model Army

See also