Parliamentarian skirmishers harrass the edges of the enemy force, hoping to slow them down and weake
Parliamentarian skirmishers harrass the edges of the enemy force, hoping to slow them down and weaken their morale. . Skirmishers are light infantry who were deployed ahead, to the sides, or behind an army to protect larger bodies of friendly troops from the enemy. They are usually deployed in a spread-out, irregular formation called a ‘skirmish line’ and would be engage the enemy in order to delay their movement, disrupt their attack, or weaken their morale. . English Civil War commanders often used skirmish lines to harrass an enemy and they could easily slow down a larger force, especially one that was inexperienced or in unfamiliar territory. At the Battle of Worcester in 1651, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood commanded a new force drawn from the militias of the southern counties. As it advanced north towards Worcester, Fleetwood’s army was persistently attacked by Royalist skirmishers who slowed its approach almost to a crawl - it took almost nine hours for them to reach their first objective, so long that Oliver Cromwell feared Fleetwood’s advance had stalled completely. . Michael Johnson https://www.instagram.com/p/CATqcVfnYY7/?igshid=lqswmlfbs7gk -- source link