 Fairfax was eager to engage them, and held a council of war, during which Oliver Cromwell, who had recently been re-appointed the army's Lieutenant General, arrived with some cavalry reinforcements.The New Model Army moved in pursuit of the Royalist army, and late in the day Commissary General Henry Ireton (Cromwell's son-in-law and second in command of the cavalry) attacked a Royalist outpost at Naseby, to the south of the main body of the King's army.The King now had to accept battle or retreat with Fairfax in close pursuit.