It is not very easy to estimate satisfactorily the losses on both sides during the six days of the siege. We have very full details, but unfortunately all the accounts are written by Parliamentarians, and no one-sided descriptions of Civil War battles can be relied upon. Heyrick for instance roundly says of the Monday operations when fighting was the most severe of all, "in this day's fight blessed be God we lost not one man." One writer states that the townsmen lost no one at all except one boy who was looking on from a stile; and they all estimate the royalist casualties at some hundreds. It is of course to be expected that few of the defenders were killed but surprising that many lives were lost at all. Seventeenth century musketry was very erratic, and the besieger's cannon was probably wholly useless; and the combatants came to close quarters very little except on the first day of the siege. The "Sutherland Diary," which seems altogether the most accurate and moderate account estimates the royalist losses at 220 killed and 85 prisoners; detailed losses of the defenders amount only to 19. But on the first day the losses are said to be 125 and 3 respectively, which sounds very unlikely. It is, however, not possible to arrive at any greater accurateness for all the accounts agree in the main that about 80 prisoners were taken by the town, and that the royalists lost from 100 to 250 men. Nineteen is the largest total given for the defenders' losses.[63] A very glowing picture of the state of the town during the siege is given by Heyrick and other writers. Heyrick says "our Souldiers from first to last had prayers and singing of Psalmes daily at the street ends, most of our Souldiers being religious honest men of a civill and inoffensive conversation, which came out of conscience of their oath and protestation. The Townsmen were kind and respective to the Souldiers; all things were common: the Gentlemen made bullets night and day; the Souldiers were resolute and coragious and feared nothing so much as a Parley; the deputy Lieutenants, Captaine Chantwell and other gentlemen took paines night and day to see that the Souldiers did their duty."[64]
If this description is not somewhat overdrawn, it is because the town did not stand by itself in the matter of defence. The neighbouring Deputy-Lieutenants and Bradshaw's men probably did much not only in numbers but in moral effect to strengthen the resistance. For there was certainly a party in the town less inclined to stand out. Manchester contained many royalists; and as we have seen, they were at least the majority in Salford. Probably Lord Strange counted on a far less stubborn resistance than he encountered; and judging by the support given him in July he was justified in doing so. This may have had something to do with the badly organised state of his force, though there is no need to credit all the stories which the other side told about its composition. It was evidently without discipline or efficiency;[65] and the attack was ill-planned and conducted with no vigour. The royalists attacked Manchester which was not a strong position on the whole, at two of its strongest points. At Deansgate they had no advantage of ground, and in Salford they were at a disadvantage, having to advance across a narrow sloping bridge which was commanded by the higher opposite bank of the river; whereas at Shude Hill or at Market Stead Lane the royalists would have had the advantage of ground, and their guns would have proved much more effective at these positions than pointing up Salford Bridge. The principal attacks should have been delivered at these two points.