Battle of Sourton Down

The battle of Sourton Down was a successful Parliamentarian ambush at Sourton Down, in South West England, on 25 April 1643, during the First English Civil War. After a failed attack on Royalist-held Launceston, the Parliamentarians fell back to their base at Okehampton, pursued by a Royalist army under Sir Ralph Hopton, who marched overnight, planning to attack the town at dawn.

When the Parliamentarian commander, Major-General James Chudleigh, found out, he had a dilemma; he was outnumbered, but did not want to leave his artillery for the enemy to capture. He opted to counterattack, and ambushed the 3,600-strong Royalist force on Sourton Down, laying in wait with just 108 of his own cavalry.

The ambush caught the marching army completely by surprise, and a large part of their force was immediately routed. Chudleigh called for reinforcements from his infantry in Okehampton, but they were spotted on the march there, and scattered under fire from the Royalist artillery. The Parliamentarians, still outnumbered despite their successes, chose to retreat; the Royalists, who were in complete disarray, and still did not know the size of the force they had faced, did likewise.

The defeat was humiliating for Hopton. Along with the weapons and equipment abandoned by his forces and captured by the Parliamentarians, Chudleigh captured instructions from King Charles, ordering Hopton to meet up with an army from Oxford. The discovery made the Earl of Stamford, Parliamentarian commander in Devon, overly confident. At Stratton three weeks later, Hopton won a decisive victory that secured the West Country, while Chudleigh was captured, and switched sides.