This Day in History: 1645-04-05

On 5th April 1645, a party of horse under the command of Washington and Beale, and forty musketeers, under the command of Captain Smith, attacked the Parliamentary forces besieging the castle. The horses compelled the Parliamentarians to retreat into the town and to double the number of their cavalry and return and renew their attack, supported by 100 musketeers lining the hedges. Though the Parliamentary forces kept up heavy fire, the royalist party stood its ground and captured two butchers coming into the town loaded with meat for the market, thus providing the castle with fresh meat.