Editing Battle of Worcester (section)

==Battle analysis==
Cromwell's plan of battle divided his army into three parts, each part having a specific target: Colonel Robert Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge on the enemy's line of retreat. Lambert and Fleetwood were to force their way across the Teme and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. Cromwell himself and the main army were to attack the town itself.<ref name=EB-GR-CrowningMercy>{{harvnb|Atkinson|1911|loc=59. The Crowning Mercy}}</ref>

This plan was executed, and was the prototype of the [[Battle of Sedan]].<ref name=EB-GR-CrowningMercy/>{{efn|According to C.F. Atkinson, the author of the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]] article on the Civil War, and German critic, [[Fritz Hoenig]]. The same point had been made by the British military historian Sir [[John William Fortescue]].{{sfn|Fortescue|1899|page=[https://archive.org/stream/historyofbritisharm01fort#page/247/mode/1up 247]}}}} Worcester resembled Sedan in much more than outward form. Both were fought by "nations in arms", by citizen soldiers who had their hearts in the struggle, and could be trusted not only to fight their hardest but to march their best. Only with such troops would a general dare to place a deep river between the two halves of his army or to send away detachments beforehand to reap the fruits of victory, in certain anticipation of winning the victory with the remainder. The result was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous.<ref name=EB-GR-CrowningMercy/>