Killing Fields of Scotland

by R J M Pugh

  The problem of an eastern attack was that the Prince’s army would have to negotiate the difficult marshy ground without being observed or heard by the enemy picquets. Fortuitously, a local resident, Robert Anderson of Whitburgh, was brought before the Prince. Anderson was bold enough to suggest the Jacobites should indeed attack Cope from the east, where the ground was hard and dry. Then he volunteered to lead the Jacobite army through the marsh by way of a footpath he knew from his duck-shooting expeditions. This was a stroke of good fortune, boosting the morale of the Prince’s commanders, Lord George Murray and James Drummond.8 Before retiring for a few hours’ sleep, Murray and Drummond discussed the formation of their battalions. There was some ill-natured bickering about the placing of the clans, mainly from the MacDonalds who insisted their traditional position in past conflicts was on the right wing, an honour they claimed was bestowed on them by King Robert Bruce at Bannockburn. Alistair MacDonald of Glengarry (son of the Clan chief who had not declared for the Prince) argued that they and not the Camerons under Lochiel should fight on the right. Furthermore, Glengarry reminded Murray and Drummond that only two weeks earlier in Perth, the Prince himself had said he would respect such traditions; Lochiel argued that young Glengarry was not the Clan chief and that his views were therefore irrelevant. Glengarry refused to give way and threatened to withhold his men from the fight, confirming that the MacDonalds of Clanranald, Keppoch and Glencoe agreed with him and they too would not participate in the battle. Lochiel gave way, reputedly declaring that he would not have it said that a Cameron had brought misfortune to the field.9 Honour thus satisfied, the Prince’s battle formation was agreed. The front-line right wing commanded by James Drummond, Duke of Perth comprised the four MacDonald clans and the Grants of Glenmoriston; the left wing was led by Lord George Murray and consisted of Lochiel and his Camerons, the Stewarts of Appin, the Atholl Brigade and Clan Macgregor commanded by Major James Macgregor, Rob Roy Macgregor’s son. The second line was in the Prince’s charge, with Clans Robertson, Maclachlan, Lord Nairne’s own regiment and Clan Menzies.10

  At about 4am, the Highlanders began their stealthy negotiation of the marsh. The column snaked through the Riggonhead Defile led by the Duke of Perth and his MacDonalds, with Lord George Murray and the Prince bringing up the rear; at one point, leaping over one of the many deep ditches, the Prince fell on his knees and had to be hauled to his feet.11 As daylight began to break through the early morning mist at 5am, in the half-light Cope’s Redcoats mistook the Highlanders swathed in their voluminous plaids for stunted bushes.12 Then, as the sun broke through the mist, the Jacobites could see the light reflected by the Hanoverian army’s metal trappings; many of the clansmen later admitted that on seeing the artillery and the dragoons, they did not expect to survive the action. No matter, the clansmen advanced steadily, Murray’s left wing having been given the task of despatching the artillery guard and the cannoneers as soon as they came within musket range. When Murray’s men opened fire, a veteran cannoneer panicked and fled, taking his powder flask with him; he was quickly followed by the rest of the gunners and the ordnance guard.13 Lieutenant Colonel Whitefoord was left alone to discharge the loaded cannon. Single-handedly, Whitefoord managed to fire five of the six field pieces into Murray’s men, inflicting several casualties including Major James Macgregor. When they saw their officer fall wounded, the enraged Macgregors broke into a wild Highland Charge. Colonel Gardiner’s dragoons fired a single volley from their carbines then fled, most taking the road to Gardiner’s private dwelling at Bankton, Tranent. Gardiner and a few of his more dependable men made a last stand around some old thorn trees; they were slain to a man. Gardiner was felled by a Lochaber axe, dying later of his wounds.14

  Meanwhile in the centre, the Highlanders fired a single volley then threw away their muskets and discarded their cumbersome plaids to allow free use of their favourite weapons – broadsword, axe and dirk. The Redcoats fired a ragged volley prematurely then broke in disorder and panic, some failing to loose off a single shot. The clansmen executed savage work with their bladed weapons; heads were split to the shoulder, arms and legs hacked off; Hamilton’s dragoons fared no better than Gardiner’s men, the clansmen using scythes, swords and axes to hack at the horses’ underbellies and legs, despatching the fallen riders without ceremony. For the foot soldiers there were only two escape routes from the carnage – by way of Preston House whose walls had been breached the day before and the track to Bankton House. Those who sought refuge via Preston House found the breaches too high for them to clamber through; precious few managed to make their escape that way. The clansmen gave no quarter, slaughtering the unfortunate men without mercy; soon the bases of the walls were piled high with the dead and wounded.15

  Cope and a few of his officers attempted to rally the shattered command but the panic-stricken Redcoats could think only of flight. The Earl of Home managed to scrape together some 400 – 450 foot and dragoons to make a stand but ‘as soon as a small body of Rebels appeared the dragoons could not be brought to move against them’.16

  Some of Cope’s officers ran away in a cowardly manner to seek safety wherever they could. The Prince had taken no part in the action; he was appalled by the blood-letting and galloped over the field of Prestonpans, pleading that the clansmen stop the massacre as Cope’s men were his father’s subjects and that he did not wish their deaths on his conscience. Some Highlanders had shown quarter to their victims; the Camerons took many prisoners, as did Lord George Murray who stopped further slaughter by ordering his men to accept the surrender of several terrified Redcoats. At last the bloodshed ceased.

  The battle of Prestonpans was over in less than fifteen minutes. Estimates of the Jacobite casualties vary; in his account the Chevalier de Johnstone, aide-de-camp (ADC) to the Prince gives between thirty and forty dead, with many more wounded. On the Hanoverian side accounts vary, the lowest estimate of Redcoat dead being between 150 and 500, the highest given as 1,300.17 The government’s official report gave 500 dead, 900 wounded and 1,400 taken prisoner. The six light field pieces, four mortars and around £4,000 in Cope’s war-chest fell into the Jacobites’ hands.18

  Prestonpans was a spectacular victory for the Prince, won for him by the brilliant Lord George Murray, his haughty, hot-tempered commander, a man the Prince never trusted and detested for his outstanding military strategic and tactical skills.

  The battle of Prestonpans, also known as the battle of Gladsmuir in fulfilment of an old Jacobite prophecy is commemorated by the famous ballad Hey Johnnie Cope with its endearing refrain or chorus:

  Hey Johnnie Cope are ye waukin’ [awake] yet?

  Or are ye sleepin I would wit [guess]

  O haste ye get up for the drums do beat

  O fye Cope rise in the morning.’19

  Another version goes thus:

  Hey Johnnie Cope are ye waukin’ yet?

  Or are your drums a-beating yet?

  If ye are waukin’ I would wait

  Tae gang [to go] to the coals in the morning.’20

  (Going to the coals in the morning was a local phrase, deriving from the coalfields in the vicinity of Prestonpans and Tranent.)

  Although Prestonpans was the highwater mark of the ’Forty-Five and instilled the Prince and his raggle-taggle Highland army with Jacobite hope and ambition at last realized, the morale-boosting glory which the Jacobites needed for the invasion of England, we must in all conscience place the victory in perspective. In so many ways, Prestonpans was a fluke, a lucky event which would lead to the ultimate conclusion; the untrained, undisciplined, ill equipped, frequently unpaid and often starving warriors – the clansmen were hardly soldiers – who followed the White Rose standard had little chance of ultimate success over the well trained, well fed, well equipped soldiers in the pay of George II, King of Britain. It is often the case that the outcome of the first major action in a military campaign will determine the pattern of what will follow; this appeared to be true after the delusory tri
umph of Prestonpans but sadly the outcome was never in any doubt. As for Cope, his soldiers were of poor quality, the second-rate sweepings of the Hanoverian army, the best troops being in Flanders. However, for the moment, the Prince and his Jacobites were in jubilant mood; they believed they could defeat anything that the London government could send against them.

  Despite the victory, it is perhaps appropriate at this juncture to examine the deep divisions in the Jacobite high command which had existed almost from the outset of the ’Forty-Five, divisions which would bedevil the campaign up to the very eve of Culloden. The Prince was fired with enthusiasm and overconfidence; his personal charm won over the hearts and minds of the clansmen and their Chiefs. The truth of it was less attractive; he was a vindictive young man, jealous of the prowess and military skills of better men than those he favoured – Irish officers such as the grossly inept Colonel William O’Sullivan – most being incompetent and even reckless as unlike the Clan chiefs, they had nothing to lose in the event of defeat. The Prince could switch on his undoubted charm when it suited his purpose; he also paid grudging respect to Lord George Murray, the real leader of the Jacobite army. From the beginning, the Prince harboured a deep and ingrained distrust of Murray with, it has to be said, some justification. Despite having taken part in the ’Fifteen and ’Nineteen rebellions, Murray had made his peace with the Hanoverian government. Besides, his father John Murray, 2nd Marquis and 2nd Duke of Atholl was staunchly pro-Hanoverian, as was Murray’s brother John, the future Duke of Atholl. (It was also said of Lord George Murray that he had initially disapproved of the ’Forty-Five and that he had made friendly overtures towards Sir John Cope before he joined the Prince.)21 The Prince was aware of a rumour spread by a MacDonald woman that Murray intended to raise the men of Atholl, then lead them into service in the Hanoverian army. This was reported to the Prince by a Sir John MacDonald, a man jealous of Murray’s military skills. From his later dealings with Murray the Prince apparently believed – and wanted to believe – this rumour which affected his subsequent treatment of Murray.

  As for Murray, he was jealous of James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth, a Catholic in whom the Prince confided and often excluded Murray from his plans; Perth had never commanded a regiment nor fought in any major battle before Prestonpans. Perth was, however, a zealous supporter of the Jacobite cause, loyal to the Prince and his father; sadly, he lacked the ability to command men in the field. The Prince placed his trust in Perth simply because of his devotion to the House of Stuart. Murray’s jealousy of Perth increased when the Prince appointed Perth and Murray as joint Lieutenant Generals of the Highland army, serving on alternative days as commanders in chief. If ever there was one, Murray and Perth were an ill-assorted pair. The animosity between the two men, one Protestant, the other Catholic, was one of several causes which would contribute to the failure of the ’Forty-Five.

  After Prestonpans, the Jacobite army spent the next month in Edinburgh, enjoying good food and convivial company. During that time the Prince exercised the powers of a sovereignty he did not possess; he issued proclamations, commandeered supplies and the best horses from the outlying districts of Edinburgh to form the cavalry he lacked and which he would need in his proposed invasion of England. He also attempted to form a Scottish parliament which he promised would impose a ban on the ‘Pretended parliament’ of the Elector of Hanover (George II) when that parliament convened in London on 17 October. Wherever his authority was secure, the Prince appropriated public money from towns such as Glasgow, money he used to pay, feed and arm his men. The Prince promised the people of Edinburgh that he would abolish the union with England, the National Debt would be managed by a legal Scottish parliament and everyone in the kingdom would be allowed to worship in whatever manner and form they chose. It was all pie in the sky. Lowland Scotland was underwhelmed by the young Prince’s promises and there was no movement among the staunch burghers of the towns to join the Jacobite cause. One bone of contention was the presence of the Prince’s Irish (Catholic) officers in the army, men who had been favoured above the largely Protestant and Episcopalian clans in the north. These Irish adventurers had nothing to lose by supporting the Prince unlike the Clan chiefs who were risking all they possessed for the Jacobite cause. A further hindrance to the unity in the high command was the mutual dislike of and rivalry between Lord George Murray and John Murray of Broughton, the capable if devious secretary who influenced the Prince’s decisions on many occasions. (Murray of Broughton would prove a traitor to the cause even before Culloden, later turning King’s Evidence to secure his freedom.)

  It was during his sojourn in Edinburgh that the Prince announced he would invade England, a proposal which did not sit well with the Clan chiefs; many had joined the Cause to restore the Old Pretender to the throne of Scotland, not caring about England where there had been no indication of a Jacobite rising. Wiser counsel suggested that the Highland army remain in Edinburgh until the French arrived in strength with money, arms, ammunition and provisions, as had been promised by the Treaty of Fontainebleau signed on 24 October, a month after news of the Jacobite victory at Prestonpans reached Paris. (The Treaty formally established a military alliance between Louis XV and the Prince as regent of Scotland; it was little more than gesture, a cynical promise made by a French King publicly declaring his support for the Prince; the real reason was that the Prince’s ‘adventure’ would relieve pressure on the French army with the recall to England of the Duke of Cumberland’s troops fighting Louis.) The French commitment to the ’Forty-Five was paltry; Louis XV knew that his navy would have to face the mighty Royal Navy as well as the notoriously capricious North Sea weather which had frustrated earlier French attempts to invade mainland Scotland. However, the French began to ship support for Scotland, albeit in penny packets; four French vessels reached the east coast of Scotland between 9 and 19 October carrying small arms, artillery, ammunition and specialist military advisers. Significantly, there were no French troops on board.

  By the first week in November, the Prince commanded an army of at least 4,500 foot, 400 cavalry and twenty field pieces, largely supplied by French ships which had docked at Stonehaven and Montrose along with the six cannon and four mortars captured from Cope at Prestonpans.22 The Jacobite army crossed the Border on 8 November, intent on taking Carlisle for use as a base on the march to London. Carlisle capitulated on 10 November.

  London might have been as far away as the moon. On 30 November, the march on the capital began. The Jacobite army reached Derby on 4 December, by which month the Duke of Cumberland, recalled from Flanders with a superior army, had reached Lichfield, Staffordshire, less than thirty miles from Derby. The expected Jacobite recruits in England amounted to a paltry 300 raised in Manchester, along with three gentlemen from Wales and ‘some few common people’ from Preston who were incorporated into what became known as the Manchester Regiment.23

  Despite the lack of English recruits, the Prince was inflamed with a false hope that all England would rise in his support, believing as he did that a French landing was imminent. It was a forlorn hope. Closing on the Jacobite army were two English armies, the Duke of Cumberland’s 8,000 and Marshal George Wade’s 10,000. A war council convened on 5 December decided that it would be unrealistic to continue the advance on London; a retreat north was the only logical option. The Prince alone protested against this decision but he was over-ruled. Between 6 and 20 December, the Jacobites marched back the way they had come, leaving the Manchester Regiment and a few clansmen in Carlisle; the town surrendered to Cumberland on 30 December; the garrison were taken prisoner, with many shot later on a charge of treason.

  Inverurie II

  The long, dreary retreat from Derby ended on 20 December, the Prince’s twenty-fifth birthday, the day his dispirited army forded the river Esk at Longtown. From there the Jacobites marched to Glasgow, an openly hostile city. Despite about 500 desertions, the Prince’s spirits were somewhat raised when news arrived that his forces in the
north of Scotland had won a small but morale-boosting action on 23 December 1745 at Inverurie, about sixteen miles south-west of Aberdeen.

  King George’s commander in chief in the north, John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudon despatched a Hanoverian force of 500 commanded by Laird Macleod of Macleod from Inverness to confront a Jacobite force commanded by Lord Lewis Gordon. Macleod was joined by the Laird of Grant and 500 clansmen, then George Munro of Culcairn and 200 Munro clansmen. This brought the government force up to 1,200. Facing Macleod were Lord Gordon’s two battalions, one commanded by Lieutenant General James Moir of Stoneywood and Gordon of Abbachy, with five field pieces. Lord Gordon was joined by Lord John Drummond’s contingent of French troops who had recently landed at Montrose. Gordon was further reinforced by Francis Farquharson, Laird of Monoltrie and 300 Farquharsons, bringing his force up to 1,200. The sides were thus evenly matched.

  When word arrived in Macleod’s camp that Gordon was in the vicinity, the Laird of Grant withdrew with his 500 clansmen, fearing his lands would be ravaged. George Munro of Culcairn and his 200 Munro clansmen were detached to occupy nearby Old Meldrum, leaving Macleod with only 500 men. Macleod, now outnumbered more than two to one foolishly decided to occupy the town of Inverurie. When Lord Gordon learnt of this incautious movement, he was determined to confront Macleod; to do so, he split his force, sending 300 French troops and clansmen to attack Macleod from the south-west while leading 800 clansmen to engage Macleod east of the town. Gordon took Macleod completely by surprise; despite a spirited defence by the Macleods who opened fire from ditches and behind walls, Macleod suffered many casualties, fifty of his clansmen being taken prisoner. Gordon’s losses are not recorded. Inverurie was a minor action but a welcome Christmas gift for the Prince