James Wardlaw was a Colonel during the Smolensk War and the English Civil War.
Early life
James Wardlaw was born on 14 August 1603 in Scotland. He was the fifth surviving son of Sir Henry Wardlaw. Wardlaw began his military career at a relatively young age.
Military career
Wardlaw began his military career with Gustavus Adolphus, and he was sent, with other Scottish soldiers, to reform the Russian Imperial Army. Wardlaw was involved in the Siege of Smolensk in 1634. Wardlaw returned to the British Isles in 1641, but his ship was blown off course and it landed in Royalist-Occupied Newcastle. He was imprisoned in York. When Wardlaw was released, he was recruited by the Earl of Essex. It is thought that Wardlaw's regiment fought at the Battle of Edgehill and suffered immense losses while sacking their own baggage train and fled, but more research shows they didn't have a single casualty and they were likely defending the parliamentarian baggage train which was lagging behind the main army. It is also thought that the dragoons instead fought at Brentford and Turnham Green, as in Turnham Green, they were reduced to just one troop.
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