They lost in this action Colonel Needham, who commanded a regiment
called the Tower Guards, and who fought very desperately; Captain
Cox, an old experienced horse officer, and several other officers
of note, with a great many private men, though, as they had the
field, they concealed their number, giving out that they lost but a
hundred, when we were assured they lost near a thousand men besides
the wounded.
They took some of our men prisoners, occasioned by the regiment of
Colonel Farr, and two more sustaining the shock of their whole
army, to secure the retreat of the main body, as above.
The 14th, the Lord Fairfax finding he was not able to carry the
town by storm, without the formality of a siege, took his
headquarters at Lexden, and sent to London and to Suffolk for more
forces; also he ordered the trained bands to be raised and posted
on the roads to prevent succours. Notwithstanding which, divers
gentlemen, with some assistance of men and arms, found means to get
into the town.
The very same night they began to break ground, and particularly to
raise a fort between Colchester and Lexden, to cover the general's
quarter from the sallies from the town; for the Royalists having a
good body of horse, gave them no rest, but scoured the fields every
day, and falling all that were found straggling from their posts,
and by this means killed a great many.
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