Month: April 2025

I’m currently reading the first volume of Ronald Hutton’s excellent biography of Oliver Cromwell. One of the many things that make this book stand out, not just from other Cromwell biographies, but also biographies of other famous people, is how Hutton balances accepted narrative against the documented evidence. Much of what has been written about Oliver Cromwell, especially after the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660, either makes Cromwell out to be a saint, or an agent of the devil.

As with most people, I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between, and that is where Hutton takes us.

The reason for mentioning this is that Hutton intersperses the dry narrative with almost fiction like descriptions of the countryside and lands that Cromwell rode through during his time as a cavalry commander in the Parliamentary Armies. The battle of Edgehill (October 23, 1642) is covered in some depth as are the battles of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644) and Naseby (June 14, 1645). It’s Hutton’s description of Marston Moor that caught my attention, and triggered this piece.

The first thing you’d notice, Hutton tells us, is likely the smell. Thousands of unwashed men and horses standing for twelve or more hours, sweating and answering calls of nature and enveloped in powder smoke from the cannon fire. Powder smoke and deposits that get in the eyes, nose, and mouth, and when swallowed act as a powerful and fast acting laxative.

I don’t write many battle scenes, although there’s a couple of projects coming up where that’s likely to change. The points Hutton describes would never have occurred to me to include in the narrative of a battle scene. And it’s not just the British Civil War, think about the Confederate Brigades waiting to charge Cemetery Ridge on the third day of Gettysburg, and breathing the smoke from over 150 cannon bombarding the Union positions for two hours.

It’s these little pieces of information, unpleasant though they may be, that help bring our writing alive and keep the reader engaged. I’ll certainly bear them in mind when I write the next battle scene.