by John Buchan
CHAPTER XII. KILSYTH (July-August 1645)
When we look back upon the great things which God hath done for us, and our former deliverances out of dangers and difficulties, which to us appeared insurmountable, experience breeds hope; and when we consider how, in the midst of all our sorrows and troubles, the Lord our God hath lightened our eyes with the desirable and beautiful sight of His own glory in His temple, we take it for an argument that He hath yet thoughts of peace and a purpose of mercy towards us. Though for a small moment He hath forsaken us, yet with great mercies He will gather us. He hath lifted up our enemies that their fall may be the greater, and that He may cast them down into desolation for ever. Arise! and let us be doing. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge!
— Proclamation of the General Assembly, 1645.
1645 July
The Covenant made one last effort to ride the storm. The plague had broken out in Edinburgh, so Parliament was compelled to move to Stirling on the 8th of July. Stirling, however, proved no refuge, and the seat of government was transferred to Perth. Fresh orders were sent to the nobles and gentry of the Lowlands, and an Act was passed to levy a new army of 10,000 foot and 500 horse, a considerable part of which was appointed to assemble at Perth on the 24th of July. Baillie had brought back no infantry from his last campaign, but he had saved a respectable cavalry contingent, probably at least 400 strong. He had returned in a sullen temper, and had resigned his office; but Parliament passed a vote of thanks to him for his services, and insisted on his taking command of the new levies. For his comfort it appointed the usual committee “to advise,” a phrase which, as Baillie well knew, meant to dictate. Among the sixteen members were Argyll, Tullibardine, and Burleigh — experts in their way, for all had already suffered at Montrose’s hands.
Alford was fought on the royalist side lacking Alasdair and most of his Irish, the western clans, and the Atholl men. For the final assault on the Lowlands it was necessary to collect all available forces. This meant some weeks of waiting at the shortest, and Aboyne was dispatched to Strathbogie to enlist troopers. He made little speed, either because the Gordons were disinclined to fight south of the Highland Line, or because he was a poor recruiting sergeant, and Montrose had to send him back to try again. Aboyne is a difficult figure to decipher on the page of history. He was devoutly loyal to the king’s service; his gallantry was beyond question; but he had much of the intractable and suspicious temper of his brother Lewis and his father Huntly. The fine flower of the Gordon race had gone with the young lord. Montrose waited for a few days at Craigton, on the south side of the Hill of Fare (where is a spot still called Montrose’s Trench), till the news of the muster and the session at Perth decided him to go south. It was a sovran chance to strike at the heart of the opposition.
The Campaign of Kilsyth
He forded Dee, and marched through the hills to Fordoun in the Mearns, where he waited to receive his expected allies. They arrived in good force. Alasdair brought the rest of his Irish, and a body of Highlanders some 1,500 strong. Among them came the ever-faithful Macdonalds of Clanranald and Glengarry, and not less than 700 Macleans from Mull, under their chiefs Lachlan of Duart and Murdoch of Lochbuie. This warrior clan as a fighting force was second only to the Ulstermen. There were Macphersons from Badenoch, Camerons from Lochaber, Stewarts from Appin, Farquharsons from Braemar, and Macnabs and Macgregors from the southern Highlands. Young Inchbrakie arrived later with a contingent of the Atholl men. Save for his lack of cavalry, Montrose had now the strongest force he had yet commanded. He marched by his old route down the Isla to Dunkeld, to watch the movements of the Covenanters in Perth, and to wait for Aboyne and the Gordons.
Parliament met on the 24th of July under the guard of a large body of infantry and 400 horse. If Montrose was to upset their peace of mind and have leisure for his own business, it was necessary to make a show of cavalry to keep the 400 at home. Accordingly he mounted some of his foot on baggage horses, and as the Perth citizens cast their eyes to the north they were amazed to see a cloud of royalist cavalry on the horizon. It was sufficient to make them shut their gates and keep close within their walls. For a few days, from their camp at Methven eight miles off, the royalists held the ancient city in terror. At any moment the assault might come, and Parliament debated with the fear of sudden death in each debater’s heart.
But the bluff could not be long sustained. Presently it was discovered that the cavalry were a sham, being no more than eighty troopers and some amateurs on pack-horses. The courage of the Covenant horse revived, and a sally was ordered. Montrose had no wish to fight a battle till the time was ripe, so he fell back on his camp at Methven. But Methven was too near the plains to be any permanent refuge, and as the Covenanters advanced he was compelled to retire, till he had reached the skirts of the hills. The Covenant horse harried his rear, but his Highland sharpshooters lay in wait for them, and, stalking them through the undergrowth, emptied a saddle with every shot. The retreat, however, had been too hurried to be without disaster. Some of the Irish women among Alasdair’s camp-followers had straggled too far behind in Methven wood, and were seized and butchered by the Covenanters. “As at Naseby,” says Mr. Gardiner, “the notion of avenging injured morality probably covered from the eyes of the murderers the inherent brutality of their act.” But these poor creatures were no painted madams of the court, but the womenfolk of humble soldiers, who followed their fathers, husbands, and lovers for the same motive that had attracted Scotswomen in hundreds to the tail of Leven’s army in England.
For a week Montrose waited at Dunkeld till Aboyne arrived with 200 Gordon cavalry and 120 musketeers mounted on baggage ponies. These latter were the equivalent of the dragoons of the New Model Army, and acted both as light cavalry and as mounted infantry. Not the least welcome was old Lord Airlie, now recovered from his sickness, who rode in with 80 of his Ogilvys, including his son, Sir David Ogilvy of Baldovie, and young Alexander of Inverquharity. Montrose now commanded a force of at least 4,400 foot and 500 cavalry, a seasoned force, for all were tough fighting men, and the thousand Irish were probably the best infantry at the time in Britain. Most of the troops had, under his leadership, been present at more than one victory, and all had wrongs to avenge on some section or another of the Covenanters. It was the first time, with the exception of Alford, that he had commanded an army comparable in the strength of all arms to its opponents.
1645 August
Meanwhile Baillie at Perth was in a sombre and distrustful mood. He thought little of his new levies, and he was distracted by his committee of advice. He considered that he could have cut off Montrose from the hills in his sally from Perth but for the negligence of Hurry and his cavalry. Once again he resigned, and once again he was induced to withdraw his resignation. Montrose marched by way of Logiealmond to have a look at the enemy, and the Covenanters promptly retired to their fortified camp of Kilgraston on the Earn. As Montrose followed at his leisure by way of the field of Tippermuir, he had news which determined his strategy. The Covenant was making a desperate bid for success. Cassilis, nicknamed the “Solemn,” a zealot of the old rock; Eglinton, called “Grey Steel,” one of the chief promoters of the Solemn League; Glencairn, the eternal Laodicean whose actions no man could forecast — were raising the Covenanting westlands. Lanark had collected the Hamilton tenantry, and with 1,000 foot and 500 horse was hastening from Clydesdale. Baillie’s army was already superior in numbers to his own, and Montrose did not wish the odds to be too great, for he realized as well as did the Covenant that on the coming fight must depend the future of the king’s cause in Scotland. He resolved, therefore, to fling himself between Baillie and Lanark. Baillie was lying at Kilgraston waiting on the Fife regiments. If he fought him now, he would still have the men of Fife to deal with, not to speak of Lanark. If he cut off the Fife men, he would still have Baillie, and during these manoeuvres Lanark would have arrived. The wiser plan was to let Baillie get his Fife recruits, and then
cut him off from the west. Besides, the farther he could draw the Fife levies from their own country, the less stomach would those home-keeping souls have for fighting. Lanark he knew of old, and he may well have argued that, if he routed Baillie, he could have little to fear from the Hamiltons.
On or about the 10th of August Montrose, having crossed the Earn between Dupplin and Forteviot, swept down Glenfarg to the neighbourhood of Kinross. Baillie must have guessed that he had gone to cut off the Fife recruits, but the arrival of these levies presently in his camp convinced him that this was not Montrose’s aim. Then came the news that the grim tower of Castle Campbell, above Dollar, an Argyll possession, had been sacked and burned. While the Covenanters lay at the north-east end of the Ochils, Montrose was turning the southern flank. He could only have one object — to get to the west of Baillie and frustrate his junction with Lanark. Further tidings of him came from the lands of Lord Mar, who was the father-in-law of the Master of Napier. In so large a force Montrose could not exercise the personal supervision which is possible in a small army, and the Irish seem to have got out of hand, for they plundered the little town of Alloa and some of the Mar holdings. Mar, however, bore no grudge, for, while Alasdair led on the foot in advance, he invited Montrose and his staff to dine with him at Alloa House.
By this time Baillie had made up his mind. As Montrose was at dinner he received the intelligence that the Covenanters were marching with all speed along the north side of the Ochils to cut him off. It was vital to his strategy that he should keep ahead of them, so, hastily catching up his foot, he led his army that night across the Forth by the Fords of Frew, a few miles above Stirling. Next day he continued his march in the direction of Glasgow, passing over the field of Bannockburn, and by the evening of the 14th of August was encamped in an upland meadow on the Colzium burn, one of the affluents of the river Kelvin, about a mile north-east of the town of Kilsyth. He argued that it was now Baillie’s business to find him and fight him, for the Covenanters must pass beneath him before they could join Lanark, who was marching from Glasgow.
Baillie, making the best possible speed past Dunblane and down the Allan Water, was compelled by Argyll to waste time in burning Lord Stirling’s castle of Menstrie, and the Graham house of Airth. He found, as he expected, that the presence of the committee made discipline almost impossible. That band of heroes was now enlarged, and included Argyll, Lindsay, Burleigh, Tullibardine, Balcarres, and Elcho; Montrose had beaten them all except Lindsay, whom as yet he had only scared. The Fife levies, too, grew more out of humour and spirit with every mile that increased the distance from their homes. On the evening of the 14th he was encamped at Hollinbush, on the road from Stirling, only two and a half miles from where Montrose lay. His scouts — for he was in a friendly country — had kept him well informed of the enemy’s whereabouts, and a great dispute arose in the committee. Baillie, realizing the gravity of the coming engagement, was for taking no risks, and waiting till Lanark, now only twelve miles distant, brought up his reinforcements. But Argyll and his colleagues would brook no delay. They had 6,000 foot and 800 horse. They were in the Lowlands at last; Lanark, at the latest, would be with them in a few hours; Montrose had the Forth behind him to cut off his retreat to the Highlands; he lay in a hollow, and had left the higher ground unoccupied. Let them strike home at once, and Lanark, when he arrived, would help to take order with the fugitives.
It had been a hot summer, the weather that breeds pestilence, and the bent on the hills was as yellow as grain. The dawn of the 15th was windless and cloudless, giving promise of a scorching August day. With the first light the Covenanters were on the move. They left the road and made straight across country in the direction of Montrose’s camp, wading through fields of ripening bear and oats, and scrambling up the slopes of the Campsie Hills. Soon they reached the rim of the basin where the royalists lay, and Baillie, believing his men to be tired by the rough journey, would have preferred to halt in what seemed an impregnable position. He held the high ground, and below him the hill fell steeply to the little burn, beyond which lay Montrose. But the military genius of the committee conceived a plan. A quarter of a mile to the right the glen closed in, and the burn descended through a narrow ravine. They believed that Montrose was doomed to defeat, and their only fear was lest he should escape to the north, for there was still a way open to the Highlands through Menteith. If they could outflank him and take up a position on the ridge due north from his left, he would be pinned inexorably between them and the Lowlands.
As Montrose watched the enemy’s doings he was content with the ground he had chosen. He had left the higher ridge unoccupied as a bait to draw his opponents into action. He did not believe that Baillie would charge down the steep; if he did, the use of horse on such ground was impossible, and he could guess the condition in which the heavily accoutred Lowland infantry would arrive at the bottom. He believed that the Covenanters would simply wait for Lanark, and he had made up his mind to charge their position, since the slopes of the Campsies were nothing to men who knew Glencoe and the Rough Bounds. He asked his army whether they were for retreat or fight, and the fierce cry for battle assured him of their spirit. Foreseeing the heat of the day, he bade his Highlanders cast their plaids and fight in their coarse saffron shirts, knotting up the long tails of the latter between their legs to give them freedom of action. His horse he ordered to wear their shirts above their buff jerkins in order that they might be easily distinguishable from the enemy. It was a necessary precaution in an army of many different levies, where the separate parts were scarcely known to each other. Alasdair’s men in the heat of battle must have some clear mark to distinguish friend from foe, or regrettable incidents might occur. Near the head of the glen, and on the hill where the Covenanters stood, were several cottages and little gardens walled with dry-stone dykes. It was a sort of Hougoumont, a place which any prudent commander must seize, so he ordered its occupation by an advance guard of Alasdair’s centre, which happened to be a body of a hundred Macleans, under Ewen of Treshnish.
But as Montrose watched the crest of the hill he observed the Covenanters in motion. He could scarcely believe his eyes when he perceived that they were about to attempt a flank march across his front. It is never a safe or an easy manoeuvre, more especially when the foe is almost within musket shot, and in mobility and speed is the superior of the side attempting it. Baillie bitterly protested, and he was supported by Balcarres, but the committee would have their way, and for the rest of the day he was carrying out orders not his own. To reach the hill directly above Montrose’s left it was necessary to make the circuit of the glen and cross the ravine of the burn. The movement was led by Balcarres and the horse, and Baillie, accompanied by Lindsay and Burleigh, followed close behind with the foot. His three field-pieces, which might have been of incalculable value in covering the movement, were apparently forgotten.
On one condition alone might such a course have succeeded. If the Covenanters had kept behind the ridge in their march, leaving a small force to occupy their old position on the crest of the hill, they might have safely reached their goal; and once there, with a gradual slope before them on which horse could be used, they would have seriously embarrassed Montrose. But such tactics needed a speed and a precision which the Covenanters did not possess. Almost at once they were visible to the royalists below, owing to a grave breach of discipline. A certain Major Haldane, observing the cottages which Treshnish had occupied, decided, on his own authority, that he must attack the position. Accordingly, with a handful of musketeers, he broke off from the main march and started down the hill. He was soon driven back, but it was never the Highland way to repel without a counterstroke. Alasdair launched the whole body of Macleans against the assailants, and they were at once followed by their old rivals, the Macdonalds of Clanranald, who vied with them in the race for the ridge. Young Donald of Moidart won, but Lachlan of Duart was little behind. On surged the billow of Celtic war till it struck the Covenant line in
the middle. Colonel Hume, who commanded there, drew four foot regiments — his own, Argyll’s, Cassilis’, and Glencairn’s — behind some dykes on the hill-top, and attempted a stand. But the Highlanders leapt the walls with their targes high and their heads down, and in a few minutes the Covenant centre was in flight. Alasdair’s breach of orders had succeeded beyond its deserts, and Baillie’s army was cut in two.
The Battle of Kilsyth
Meanwhile the Covenant van had crossed the burn and rounded the head of the glen. Montrose, who at first can only have guessed at the aim of the flank movement, now saw clearly its motive. It was impossible to let the enemy occupy the height on his left, so he dispatched a body of Gordon foot, under their adjutant, to forestall them. The bulk of Balcarres’s horse must have been still behind the ridge, for if Montrose had seen their full force he would have attempted to hold the hill in greater strength. The Gordons found the task beyond their power. They were driven back, and to the eyes of Aboyne — whom Montrose, remembering Lord Gordon’s fate at Alford, had kept at the rear with a strong bodyguard — seemed to be caught in a death-trap. He broke away with the Gordon horse to the assistance of his kinsmen. But he, too, was surrounded, so Montrose called upon Airlie and his Ogilvys to redeem the day. The gallant old man, for all his sixty years, led his troopers to the charge, and the tide of battle on the hill began to turn. Then Montrose dispatched Nathaniel Gordon with the remainder of the cavalry, seeing that Alasdair was having his own way in the rest of the field. Balcarres’s cuirassiers were driven off the ridge, the advance foot were routed, and the Covenant van shared the fate of the Covenant centre.