Book Read Free

Hastings to Culloden - Battles in Britain 1066-1746

Page 30

by Glen Lyndon Dodds


  Though hard pressed, Barrell’s regiment fought courageously, as did Munro’s, but despite this some of the Highlanders managed to hack their way through the front line only to be killed by the men of Sempill’s and Bligh’s regiments of the second line. One of those who fell was MacGillivray of Dunmaglas. Other clansmen, who outflanked Barrell’s regiment, were likewise dealt with by the same regiments.

  The regiments in the centre of Cumberland’s front line were not subjected to such a ferocious onslaught. Few of the clansmen and members of John Roy Stewart’s regiment who charged towards the government soldiers in question managed to reach their adversaries owing to the grape-shot and musket fire which tore into their ranks. For instance, none of the MacLeans and MacLachlans closed with the enemy. Old Lachlan MacLachlan of MacLachlan, the father of Charles’ late ADC, was among those who perished.

  And what of the regiments on the left of the Jacobite front line? They likewise failed to come to blows. Cumberland relates what happened: ‘I had placed myself [on the right] imagining the greatest push would be there, they came down there several times within a hundred yards of our men, firing their pistols and brandishing their swords, but the Royals [i.e., St Clair’s] and Pulteney’s hardly took their fire-locks from their shoulders, so that after those feint attempts they made off: and the little squadrons on our right were sent to pursue them.’

  Although some of the ground between them and the enemy was waterlogged, the performance of the MacDonalds was nonetheless a bitter blow to Keppoch, whom the Chevalier de Johnstone—who was present— describes as ‘a gentleman of uncommon merit.’ Hence Keppoch despairingly cried: ‘My God, have the clansmen of my name deserted me?’ He then courageously charged with other determined individuals, most of whom soon fell under a hail of bullets, Keppoch among them. The rest, including Clanranald, who was wounded, joined their fellows in flight.

  The MacDonalds, and those with them such as the Chevalier de Johnstone, were not the only members of the Jacobite army falling back for it was obvious that the day was lost. Even on the right, where as noted fairly significant losses had been inflicted on the government troops, the men were retreating under enemy fire, including grape-shot from Belford’s guns. Reinforcements from the second line brought forward by Murray, who had returned from the charge to bring them up, failed to turn the tide. As Kirkconnel recalled, ‘nothing could stop the Highlanders after they had begun to run,’ while Johnstone later wrote: ‘What a spectacle of horror! The same Highlanders, who had advanced to the charge like lions, with bold, determined countenances, were in an instant seen flying like trembling cowards in the greatest disorder.’

  Nevertheless, pursuing government troops did encounter some resistance. The cavalry on the right, for example, after chasing after the collapsed left of the Jacobite front line, found themselves opposed by the Irish picquets and the Royal Scots of the second who stood firm, and were checked as a result until their doughty opponents also commenced retreating.

  The Argyll Militia also sustained casualties during this stage of the proceedings for upon seeing the Jacobites falling back in confusion, many of the Campbells who had entered the enclosures referred to above, climbed over the wall between them and the enemy—Ogilvy’s regiment had been unwisely withdrawn to form a reserve—and moved in for the kill with the result that several of their own number were cut down.

  Meanwhile, the dragoons in the westernmost of the enclosures had made their way out onto the moor through gaps made for them in the west wall. Seeing this, FitzJames’ Horse and Elcho’s Lifeguard were ordered by Murray to counter the threat. The dragoons were about 500 strong: their opponents no more than 160 men, if that. For a while a standoff occurred in the vicinity of Culchunaig, partly owing to the nature of the ground for a sunken road lay between them. Then, emboldened by the sight of the Jacobite army in flight, the dragoons moved forward. Saddles were emptied on both sides as shots were exchanged, and though the dragoons drove back their opponents, the delay which had occurred enabled many of the fleeing Jacobite right to escape the field.

  The Young Pretender seems to have been dazed by the rout of his army. Early in the campaign he had promised his followers that he would conquer or die, but in the event he allowed himself to be led from the field. According to Johnstone, following the battle the prince ‘was in total prostration, lost to all hope of being able to retrieve his affairs . . . and giving up every design but that of saving himself in France as soon as he possibly could.’

  On the other hand Cumberland was elated. He rode around the field congratulating his men and was in turn applauded by them. Though cheerful, he was not in a magnanimous mood. Wounded Highlanders were thus systematically butchered. Most were bayoneted or shot but some who had sheltered in barns and huts were burnt alive when the buildings were set alight. In his dispatch, Cumberland reported that he had ‘made a great slaughter and gave quarter to none but about fifty French officers and soldiers.’

  Government casualties were said to be fifty killed, 259 wounded and one missing. According to Cumberland, rebel fatalities amounted to about 2,000 killed on the field or during the pursuit. That they were very high is undoubted. For instance, only three of Clan Chattan’s 21 officers survived the battle, while half of the Atholl brigade perished.

  Lord George Murray, who fought with typical courage at Culloden and perforce largely conducted the battle, blamed Charles for the disaster and gave vent to his feelings in a letter to the prince written the day after Culloden. For a start, he declared, it was ‘highly wrong’ of the prince ‘to have set up the royal standard [at Glenfinnan] without having positive assurance’ that France would fully back a rising. Moreover, among other things he lamented the prince’s reliance on the incompetent O’ Sullivan, who had been entrusted ‘with the most essential things’ in regard to operations and whose choice of ground, Drummossie Moor, the prince had accepted to do battle with Cumberland.

  Drummossie Moor had undoubtedly been a disastrous choice of battlesite. To make matters worse, the prince had compounded the error by making others. Prior to the battle’s commencement, he overruled a suggestion by Murray that a close inspection of the terrain be undertaken. Consequently, unbeknown to the Jacobites, some of the ground before their position was boggy and thus hindered the clansmen’s subsequent charge. Furthermore, the prince blundered by allowing the enemy to secure the enclosures to the right of his position. Murray had wanted to partly demolish their walls but had been overruled by the prince.

  During the battle itself, Charles appears to have displayed chronic indecision. His only chance of victory was launching a ferocious charge, but by the time it commenced his ranks had been seriously weakened by the cannon fire to which they had been subjected for far too long. In fairness to the prince, he later maintained that he had given the order to advance on eight occasions. This seems rather unlikely, but if true, would of course nullify or at least weaken the accusation that he was indecisive, while indicating that the standard of communications in the Jacobite army was abysmal.

  Although we have to deplore the savagery Cumberland showed to the defeated Highlanders (savagery which earned him the sobriquet, ‘Butcher’), it must be conceded that his overall performance deserves respect. Though he generally despised Highlanders, he did not underestimate their prowess. Hence, as noted earlier, in the weeks prior to Culloden he drilled and re-drilled his men, training them to withstand a Highland charge and ensured through this and other measures that morale was high. Moreover, he behaved with alacrity upon hearing of the Jacobites’ abortive night march on Nairn, and led his men competently when they came face to face with their adversaries on Drummossie Moor.

  George II received the news of his son’s victory on 25 April and was overjoyed. The defeat of the Jacobites was also well received by the majority of his subjects, some of whom now felt compassion for the routed. Shortly after Culloden young Edmund Burke wrote, ‘
how the minds of people are in a few days changed, the very men who but awhile ago, while they were alarmed by [the prince’s] progress so heartily cursed and hated those unfortunate creatures are now all pity and wish it could be terminated without bloodshed.’

  Cumberland, however, remained implacable. ‘All the good we have done’, he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, ‘is a little blood-letting, which has only weakened the madness, not cured it. I tremble for fear that this vile spot may still be the ruin of this island and our family.’ He was determined to continue the work of destroying Jacobitism which he had commenced at Culloden.

  One objective was of course the apprehension of the Young Pretender. But much to their chagrin, the government forces failed to arrest the fugitive prince, for on 20 September 1746, after many adventures in the Highlands and the Western Isles, he sailed for France on board l’Heureux accompanied by a few companions, one of whom was Cameron of Lochiel. Charles’ high hopes of ousting the House of Hanover had come to nothing and Jacobitism was a spent force: he was a sad and disillusioned man.

  In their endeavours to capture him, and cow the Highlanders into permanent submission, the government forces inflicted great suffering; killing people for little or no reason, ransacking and destroying property, and slaughtering livestock. As Kybett comments: ‘Added to the toll of lives taken at Culloden and the reprisals of that summer were many stillbirths and deaths from starvation in the winter of 1746. It was the beginning of the decimation of the Highland population, from which they never recovered.’

  The harshness of the government forces, and measures such as an Act of Parliament of 1747 prohibiting the wearing of tartan or any item of Highland dress other than by soldiers serving in regiments of the British Army, had a profound effect on Highland society. Many of those who had dreamt of the restoration of the House of Stuart found that the dream had become a nightmare—they must have bitterly lamented the day Charles Edward Stuart ever had cause to say: ‘I am come home, sir.’

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  In addition to primary sources, the following have been used:

  Abels, R.P., Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England, 1988.

  Ashdown, C.H., Armour and Weapons in the Middle Ages, 1925.

  Ashley, M., The English Civil War, 1990.

  Ashley M., The Battle of Naseby and the Fall of King Charles I, 1992.

  Asquith, S.A., The Campaign of Naseby: 1645, 1979.

  Asquith, S.A., The New Model Army, 1981.

  Aylmer, G.E., Rebellion or Revolution, 1986.

  Barlow, F., William I and the Norman Conquest, 1966.

  Barthorpe, M., The Jacobite Rebellions, 1689-1745, 1982.

  Bates, C.J., ‘Flodden Field’, Archaeologia Aeliana, vol. 16, New Series, 1894.

  Baynes, J., The Jacobite Rising of 1715, 1970.

  Becke, A.F., ‘The Battle of Bannockburn’, Complete Peerage vol. XI, Appendix B, 1949.

  Bennett, M., The Battle of Bosworth, 1985.

  Bennett, M., Traveller’s Guide to the Battlefields of the English Civil War, 1990.

  Bernstein, D., ‘The Blinding of Harold and the Meaning of the Bayeux Tapestry’, Anglo-Norman Studies, V, 1983.

  Bernstein, D., The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry, 1986.

  Black, J., Culloden and the Forty-Five, 1990.

  Black, J., ‘Could The Jacobites Have Won?’, History Today, vol.45 (7), July 1995.

  Boardman, A.W., The Battle of Towton, 1994.

  Bone, P., ‘The Development of Anglo-Saxon swords from the Fifth to Eleventh Century’, Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. S.C. Hawkes, 1989.

  Bradbury, J., ‘Battles in England and Normandy, 1066-1154’, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland, 1992.

  Brown, H., History of Scotland, vol. III, 1911.

  Brown, R.A., ‘The Battle of Hastings’, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland, 1992.

  Burne, A.H., Battlefields of England, 1950,

  Campbell, J., ‘Some Agents and Agencies of the Late Anglo-Saxon State’, Domesday Studies, ed. J. Holt, 1987.

  Carpenter, D.A., The Minority of Henry III, 1990.

  Carpenter, D.A., ‘English Peasants in Politics, 1258-1267’, Past and Present, no. 136, August 1992.

  Chibnall, M., ‘Military Service in Normandy before 1066’ Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland, 1992.

  Contamine, P., Warfare in the Middle Ages, 1984.

  Cornish, P., Henry VIII’s Army, 1987.

  Davies, G., The Early Stuarts, 1603-1660, 2nd ed. 1959.

  Davies, R.C.H., ‘Did the Anglo-Saxons have warhorses?’, Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. S.C. Hawkes, 1989.

  Denton, B., Naseby Fight, 1988.

  Douglas, D.C., William the Conqueror, 1964.

  Firth, C., Cromwell’s Army, 1912.

  Firth, C., ‘Rupert’, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XLIX, 1897.

  Firth, C., ‘Thomas Fairfax’, ibid, vol. XVIII, 1889.

  Firth, C., ‘William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle’, ibid, vol. IX, 1887.

  Fisher, A., ‘Wallace and Bruce: Scotland’s Uneasy Heroes’, History Today, February 1989.

  Fletcher, A., The Outbreak of the English Civil War, 1981.

  Foss, P.J., ‘The Battle of Bosworth: towards a reassessment’, Midland History, XIII, 1988.

  Foss, P.J., The Field of Redemore: the Battle of Bosworth, 1485, 1990.

  Fraser, A., Cromwell, our Chief of Men, 1973.

  Gardiner, S.R., History of the Great Civil War, vols.I and II, 1893.

  Garrett, R., Clash of Arms: The World’s Great Land Battles, 1976.

  Gentles, I., The New Model Army in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1645-1653, 1992.

  Gillingham, J., ‘William the Bastard at War’, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. M. Strickland, 1992.

  Goodman, A., The Wars of the Roses, 1981.

  Goodman, A., and Tuck, A., War and Border Societies in the Middle Ages, 1992.

  Gransden, A., ‘1066 and all that Revised’, History Today, Sept. 1988.

  Grant, N., The Campbells of Argyll, 1975.

  Gravett, C., Hastings 1066: the fall of Saxon England, 1992.

  Griffiths, R.A., and Thomas, R.S., The Making of the Tudor Dynasty, 1985

  Hammond, P.W., and Sutton, A.F., Richard III: the Road to Bosworth, 1985.

  Hampton, W.E., ‘Sir Robert Brackenbury of Selaby, County Durham’, The Ricardian vol. VII no.90, Sept. 1985.

  Harris, O.D., ‘The Bosworth Commemoration at Dadlington’, The Ricardian vol. VII. no. 90, Sept. 1985.

  Harris, O.D., “‘Even Here in Bosworth Field”,a disputed site of battle’, The Ricardian, vol. VII, no. 92, March, 1986.

  Henderson, T.F., ‘John Campbell, second Duke of Argyll and Duke of Greenwhich’, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. VIII, 1886.

  Henderson, T.F., ‘John Erskine, Earl of Mar’, Dictionary of National Biography vol. XVII, 1889.

  Hirst, D., Authority and Conflict: England 1603-1658, 1986.

  Hodgkin, T., ‘The Battle of Flodden’, Archaeologia Aeliana, vol. 16, New Series, 1894.

  Holden, M., The British Soldier, 1974.

  Hollister, C.W., Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions, 1962.

  Hooper, N., ‘The Housecarls in England in the Eleventh century’, Anglo-Norman Studies, VII, 1985.

  Hooper, N., ‘The Anglo-Saxons at War’, Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. S.C. Hawkes, 1989.

  Horrox, R., Richard III: a study in service, 1989.

  Hutton, R., The Royalist War Effort, 1642-46, 1982.

  Jacob, E.F., The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485, 1961.

  James, A.J., ‘A Personal View of the Road to Bosworth Field’, The Ricardian vol. VIII no.105
, June 1989.

  James, A.J., ‘An Amended Itinerary to Bosworth Field’, The Ricardian, vol.IX no.113, June 1991.

  John, E., Orbis Britanniae, 1966.

  John, E., ‘The End of Anglo-Saxon England’, The Anglo-Saxons, ed. J. Campbell, 1982.

  Kenyon, J., The Civil Wars of England, 1988.

  Kinross, J., The Battlefields of Britain, 1979.

  Kishlansky, M., The Rise of the New Model Army, 1979.

  Kitson, F., Prince Rupert - Portrait of a Soldier, 1994.

  Koch, H.W., Medieval Warfare, 1978.

  Kybett, S.M., Bonnie Prince Charlie: a Biography, 1988.

  Lander, J.R., Conflict and Stability in Fifteenth-Century England, 3rd ed., 1977.

  Lander, J.R., Government and Community: England 1450-1509, 1980.

  Lander, J.R., The Wars of the Roses, 2nd ed. 1990.

  Lang, A., History of Scotland, vol. IV, 1907.

  Lemmon, C.H., The Field of Hastings, 1957.

  Lenman, B., The Jacobite Risings in Great Britain 1689-1746, 1980.

  Lovatt, R., ‘A Collector of Apocryphal Anecdotes: John Blacman Revisited’, Property and Politics: Essays in Later Medieval English History, ed., A.J. Pollard, 1984.

  Loyn, H.R., The Norman Conquest, 3rd ed., 1982.

  Lucy, B., Twenty Centuries in Sedlescombe, 1978.

  MacDougall, N., James IV, 1989.

  MacFarlane, K.B., England in the Fifteenth Century, 1981.

  MacKenzie, W.M., The Battle of Bannockburn, 1913.

  MacKenzie, W.M., The Secret of Flodden, 1931.

 

‹ Prev