Battle of Culloden: The Last Battle On British Soil | History Of Warfare | Battlefields Of History

early on the morning of the 16th of April 1746 a British Army began striking camp at Nan in the north of Scotland ahead of it lay a crucial battle not against a foreign foe but against a rebellious Army which threatened to wreck the fragile Union between Scotland and England and to strangle the British Empire at Birth one of the protagonists in this struggle was William Duke of Cumberland Second Son of George II the other was his cousin the young Pretender Charles Edward Stewart better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie they were to meet on Kaden [Music] Moore [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a terrible defeat of the Highland clans of Kad Moore is all too often seen simply as a battle between the Scots and the English or even as a dramatic death throws of the old galic world in fact it was no more than the last great act in the fall of the Royal House of stur a sad and bloody tragedy which brought pain and suffering to every corner of the British ISS if we are really to understand why British troops came to fight a Highland Army on a Barren stretch of moroland outside iness we must go back more than 100 years to the great civil war in the reign of the first Charles Stewart Charles I the great grandfather of Bonnie Prince Charlie the house of Stuart became the first dynasty to sit upon the combined Throne of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England when James I 6 of Scotland and first of England succeeded a childless Elizabeth the to the throne in 16003 James was canny enough to avoid alienating his people but his son Charles mismanaged his rule to such an extent that a civil war resulted which led Charles to his execution in 1649 Britain's only military dictatorship headed by Oliver Cromwell followed and despite the fact that Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 the sacred chains of absolute monarchy were broken the divine right of kings had been challenged and this truth was apparent to all As Sovereign now ruled only by the consent of his people with the overthrow of Charles I the people had removed one unsuitable ruler in 1688 they were to do it again within three short years of his Ascent to the throne the Second Son of Charles I James II had alienated his people ass surely as his father had done at the time of the Engish Civil War James was a convert to Catholicism a religion which most Britains loathed with a passion which is not easy for our modern more secular society to understand in the 17th and 18th centuries the church enjoyed far more influence than it does today and consequently the form and manner of worship was far more important to Ordinary People Scotland and England were both overwhelmingly Protestant the older Catholic religion survived in only small pockets in the north of England and around the gay fringes of Scotland and Ireland Catholics in general were feared and distrusted and a Catholic King was therefore regarded with great suspicion at first James was tolerated by the people but in 1688 the birth of a Catholic son and Heir caused the crisis which saw him toppled in the bloodless series of events known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James II was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange but from his Exile in France James plotted to regain the throne support for the return of a Catholic Monarch was non-existent in most of Britain so James raised his standard in Catholic Island and called for a simultaneous Uprising in Scotland this Rising was to lead to the battles of Kil cranky and the bo today the events of the bo still shaped the face of politics in Northern Ireland but their immediate effect was to send the defeated King James back into Exile this time for good with his death in 1701 the claim to the throne passed to his son also named James who would have become James III but was to become better known to posterity as the old Pretender the young James grew Restless as he watched the unfavor events in Britain from his Exile in France the successor to William and Mary Queen Anne died in 1714 and Parliament offered the crown to George elector of Hanover a staunch Protestant the change of Dynasty further weakened the Stewart cause but it was not universally popular and many government opponents were drawn towards the Jacobite Camp which came to be viewed as a natural party of opposition sensing the time to be right The Pretender too pinned his hopes of regaining his throne on the Celtic fringes of Britain in 1715 the Scottish Clans obligingly Rose in arms once again at this time in support of the man who would have been James III the Jacobite rebellion of 715 however fared no better than Jame II's ill-fated attempt in 1689 popular support was low and after the indecisive Battle of sheriff mure the Rebellion twinkled away arriving in Scotland only after the battler beam fought James quickly fled back into Exile were it not for the blood which was spilt the story of the next Jacoby Rising would contain more than a little element of f in 1719 another attempt by The Pretender to regain his throne by rising in Scotland failed even more ignominiously this time Spanish help had been enlisted but the main Spanish Invasion fleet was scattered by a great storm and the rising of 1719 ended in a half-hearted battle at Glen Shield by any sensible Reckoning the pretentions of the stewards to the throne of Britain should now have been dead and buried they had made three full-blooded attempts all of which were failures but there was still one last act to be played in the tragedy in 1743 Britain and France became embroiled in yet another major war despite all their previous experiences the jacobites had long been planning another rising at this time the French agreed to help seeking to destabilize Britain at home now nearly 60 years of age the old Pretender sensibly passed out the prospect of a further foror attempt at a prize which was obviously well beyond his reach however French military help was promised so his son the 25-year-old Prince Charles with a rashness of Youth was prepared to stake everything on one last throw of the dice in an eerie echo of the storm which had wrecked the Spanish Fleet gather to support his father in 1719 a second storm now wrecked the French invasion Fleet which had been assembled to assist the princess cause in 1744 but Charles Edward Stewart was clearly no respector of Omens and unded by the loss of his Fleet he decided to carry on and Lead an uprising without substantial French military help the basic problem for the whole of the Bonny Prince Charles's cause in the 45 was a lack of popular support he received in Scotland above all he's not always realized only six Clans actually red to him the rest either stayed passive or red to the government and when he got down into England it was much the same although there were plenty of Jacobite sympathizers in England except at Manchester there was no sign of real rallying to his cause so he is that the failure to really inspire a widespread movement I think made it impossible for him to win in the long term Bonny pin Charlie of course inherited certain traits from his ancestors both Charles I and James II for example were absolutely pigheaded and stubborn as mules and I think we have to say that Bonnie Prince Charlie was that as well at several times in this adventure the other side of the coin is of course that the King George II was very popular at this period he' been the last king of England ever to serve on the battlefield at the Battle of detan in 1743 he spoke English which his father George the first had never done and there's no doubt he was a popular Monarch so once again there was no appeal against an unpopular foreign ruler to be background for the Jacobite cause Charles and a handful of companions sailed in just two ships but yet more ill luck followed in his way 100 Mil west of Cornwall they were intercepted by HMS lion in a 5-hour battle The Lion and the larger of Charles 2 ships the Elizabeth were reduced to little more than floating WS needless to say the Elizabeth carried the bulk of the arms for the planned Rising as she limped back to a French Harbor the young Pretender must have felt more exposed than ever if his resolve was tested by the loss of the Elizabeth and her vital cargo it was strain to Breaking Point by his reception in Scotland Landing with only seven companions at AR on the west coast of Scotland the prince did not give the appearance of a man about to lead a triumphant Crusade the clan Chiefs had agreed to support a rising in the belief that they would be assisting an invasion by French regular troops in fact the prince had landed amongst them without a single French Grenadier at his back now that it was obvious that the entire burden of the Venture would fall upon the Highland Clans a number of the most influential Chiefs wisely withdrew their support a shrewder man might have abandoned the scheme at that point but undaunted and with the flawed judgment which typified the house of Stuart the young Pretender Soldier da here at Glenn finnen on the 19th of August 1745 his standard was raised more in Hope than expectation much against their better judgment Cameron of Lo heel and the McDonald's of glenary kok and Clan ranold brought in their followers the 45 had begun once raised this small army marched on Edinburgh as they marched southwards additional numbers came in and one of those who joined them was an eding Merchant's son a well-connected man named James Johnson as soon as the news of the prince's Landing was confirmed at Edinburgh I immediately repaired to the house of Lord Ru the father-in-law of my sister there to await the arrival of the prince at Perth and on the 6th of September I left it accompanied by the two M Rolo who presented me to their relations the Duke of Perth and Lord George Murray on my arrival I was greatly surprised to find so few followers with the prince as public report at Edinburgh had increased them to a prodigious number the prince appointed Lord George and the Duke of Perth as his leftenant generals Lord George proposed that I should be his Aid to Camp which proposal I accepted and began immediately to enter on the exercise of the duties attached to the situation night and day my occupations were incessant and I could scarcely find the time to sleep 2 hours in the 4 and 20 the jacobites whom Johnson joined were often referred to as the Highland Army and the major maity of them wore Highland clothes whether they spoke the Gaelic or not most Highlanders joined in the Rebellion because they had been ordered to do so by their Clan Chiefs some came willingly but others had to be forced out under the threat of having their homes burnt and their cattle taken a clan Chief exercised a frightening authority over his tenants and followers he expected and usually got absolute obedience one of those forced out was a carpenter from near drumad dret named Andrew uret who later gave this testimony at his [Music] trial at first the jacobites could must only some 12200 men but their support was growing the commander of the British troops in Scotland General Sir John cope therefore took a difficult decision he had two choices either he could stand fast and defend the line of the fourth as the Duke of aril had done against the jacobites in 1715 or he could March into the highlands to nip the rebellion in the bud as general Whitman had done in 1719 the first option was out of the question it meant abandoning most of Scotland to the jacobites and the ing might then take months to suppress cope therefore marched northwards hoping to enlist the support of the Protestant Highland Clans who were sympathetic to the government to his dismay he found none of the prover clans were willing to support him although the vast majority of the Scottish population would opposed to the jacobites they were indifferent in the matter of actually taking up arms against them so with the jacobites rapidly gaining strength strength cope was forced to turn aside rather than risk a battle he therefore made for abedine with cope out of the way the road to the South now lay open and the jacobites race southwards to Edinburgh which they captured on the 17th of September Edinburgh had once been known as the Geneva of the north and one English Observer a member of the privy Council named Steven points commented upon its fall with some Aston ment that a nation like Scotland which makes a strict profession of the Protestant religion and values itself on respecting the sanctity of an oath should suffer the pretend a son with a handful of rabble to walk the Protestant succession out of the Kingdom without lifting up a single weapon or hand against him is astonishing to the last degree and fills on with Dreadful apprehension for the behavior of England had the town of Ed made good the profession of their address they might easily have destroyed such an undisciplined crew from the windows of their high stone houses but how far it may now be in Sir John cop's power to dislodge them or how far it may be practicable for him with his handful of men to engage them now they are strengthened I tremble to think relatively few of the Highlanders who occupied Edinburgh actually carried the broadswords and targes with which they are usually depicted broadswords were expensive and generally speaking only the Highland gentlemen in the front ranks carried them the first Jacobite forcers were very makeshift in character Patrick kryon and edur Burgess recall the jacobites whom he had seen during the occupation of Edinburgh I entered the town by the Bristo Port which I saw to my indignation in the keeping of these caterpillars a boy stood with a rusty drawn sword and two fellows with things like guns of the 16th century sat on each side of the entry to the poor house and these were catching the verman from the lurking places about their plaids and throwing them away I said to Mr jardan minister of Liberton are these the Scoundrels who have surprised Edinburgh by treachery he answered I'd rather see in the hands of Frenchmen but the devil and the deep sea are both as bad the officers with their troops in rank and fome marched from the parliament close down to the cross with their bag pipes and their lousy crew and they made a circle around it I observed their arms there were guns of different sizes and some of enormous length some with butts turned up like a herrings tail some tied with pack thread to the stock and some matchlocks some had swords instead of guns one or two had pitchforks and some bits of size upon pole with a Hulk and some old loab axes as the jacobites settled down to the occupation of the capital General cope had meanwhile found enough shipping to take his army South by sea he had hoped to retake Edinburgh but instead his troops were surprised and routed by the Highland Army in less than 10 minutes at the Battle of Preston pounds early on the morning of the 21st of September 1745 Scotland was now secure and Charles father was proclaimed James II of Scotland but at this moment of Triumph the first signs of descent began to appear in the ranks of the Highland army they had won Scotland for the stewards and many felt they had discharged their obligation to The Prince and accordingly quit the r Banks to head home however Charles Edward Stewart had his sights firmly set on the English Throne as well still unsupported by French troops he viewed his Island Army as the only option for regaining that Throne too but even the prince himself must have suspected its unsuitability for the job nonetheless the news of the easy victory at Preston pans swell the Jacoby ranks and within a month the Jacobite Army mustered over 5,000 men against the express wishes of many of the Highland Chiefs on the 1st of November 1745 Edinburgh was abandoned and the invasion of England began the invasion progressed rapidly and the jacobites were soon in control of Manchester the youthful Duke of Cumberland with a substantial field Army tried to to intercept the jacobites near Lichfield but they slipped by him and by the 4th of December were at Derby only 127 mi from London Panic swept the capital and there was a run on the bank of England the mood of desperation and spreading Terror was captured by Hogarth in this famous scene londoners may have been terrified but the French were delighted with the news from England Hasty orders were given to mount a force to send across the channel to assist the jacobites however some French generals argued that the troops should go to Flanders to fight the British army there instead although some French regulars would ultimately be sent to help the jacobites they would not arrive for some time while the French prevaricated the Jacoby Army halted at Derby there the young Pretender and his officers argued for 2 days about what to do next Charles was for pushing on to London but the others disagreed they pointed out that the French had still not landed and that crucially there was no sign of real support from the English population a rational man could see that they could not possibly hope to capture London a city of 1 million inhabitants with just 5,000 men in the end Charles had to accept their decision but he ever more considered himself betrayed by the Highlanders and increasingly relied upon his Irish quartermaster General John William O salivan in preference to the Highland Chiefs represented by Lord George Murray the problems of the Highland High command really split down into two first of all there was the prince himself although he had a fairly High idea of his abilities to got totally from reading books I might say as a soldier in fact he'd never been on any active service this at all in his life he had once attended as a young teenager a Siege on the continent as a spectator but he really believed that streak of Stuart's stubbornness that he knew it all and therefore he did not need all mat mat's guidance but the second problem which compounded the first one was the fact that his staff if we can call it that in his Entourage were divided into two Waring parties which were daggers drawn with one another on the one side there was Lord George maray who was by far the most able Soldier in the uh Jacobite Entourage and then there was of course OS Sullivan the famous quartermaster general of the army who in the end Prince Charles decided to favor because he talks more and more from Darby onwards about treachery how he's being betrayed by both the English and above all the Scots not rising in big enough numbers so he tended to swing behind this rather inadequate person who was not a good quartermaster General never mind a strategist who was of course an exile like he had been himself as Napoleon would say a generation and more later better one bad General than two good ones and this division of command therefore within the army of the B Prince Charlie was a fatal complication with the Fateful decision to turn north although few could have known it the Jacobite cause had reached its high watermark on the 6th of December the Army turned around and began retreating northward w s still expecting the jacobites to move on London Cumberland had planned to fight them near centry and he was taken completely by surprise by the sudden change of Direction so the Highland Army had almost reached Scotland before he managed to reestablish contact but just as Cumberland reached the jackaby forces a false report of a French invasion sent him scurrying southwards toward London again unh hindered for the moment the jacobites made for Glasgow and there laid Siege to Sterling Castle General Henry Hy attempted to relieve the Garrison but he was defeated in a hard-fought battle outside ferk on the 17th of January despite the fact that it is normally regarded as a Jacoby Victory the Battle of Fula nonetheless gave the jacobites something of a fright While most of H's Army run away some government regiments for the first time in the Rebellion stood firm against the Highlanders who faltered in the face of their resistance by now a small contingent of French regulars had finally arrived in Scotland to assist the jacobites and it was this Detachment which saw off the government troops and thus won the battle for Charles unfortunately these were the only French troops to be sent to assist the 45 the French invasion had again been called off and the Duke of Cumberland hurried North again to take over H's defeated Army his arrival was received with great enthusiasm in the name of his father King George I second he set out to destroy the jacobites once and for all all of the predictions that the rising was bound to fail without French help were now coming true rather than risk another battle the prince bowed to pressure from the Highland Chiefs and the jacobites retreated northwards to iness Cumberland pursued them slowly halting for a month at abine but on the 8th of April he left the butter and within 6 days was at nen only a few miles short of the Jacobite headquarters at in vaness the speed of cuman's sudden Advance caught the jack jacobites by surprise although many of their best men were away there was no real option left but to fight so on the morning of the 14th of April 1746 they marched out from iness prepared to take up their battle positions on Kaden Moore but the government Army did not appear that day nor the next the 15th of April was cumberland's birthday and to celebrate he gave Army a day's rest at Nan before committing them to the battle on the 16th on the 15th of April while the jacobites waited in vain for the British army to advance they hatched A desperate plan the Jacoby leaders supposed that as his men were celebrating the Duke's birthday they were likely as Lord George put it to be drunk as Beggars they therefore agreed the ill-fated plan to secretly advance Dan on cuman's Army by night and mount a dawn attack on the sleeping camp this was to result in the infamous allight March which preceded the Battle of kadon about 8:00 p.m. on the night of April the 15th the whole Jacoby Army set off hoping to surprise the Government Camp at n 8 mil distant but by the first light they were still 2 m short of their objective and it was clear that the British army would be ready and waiting for them in broad daylight Lord George Murray therefore abandoned the attempt and ordered his men back to kadon the prince was Furious but there was nothing to be done after a night spent blundering around in the darkness all that had been achieved was to exhaust his men on the eve of their greatest trial worse still the jacobites makeshift Supply system couldn't provide food for the returning Army despited Ed tired and hungry large numbers wandered off in the vain hope of finding some food while others simply sought to sleep for many it would be their last exhausted with hunger and worn out with the fatigue of the last three nights I turned off as fast as I could to iness there to recruit my strength with a little sleep but when I already had one leg in the bed and was on the point of stretching myself Between the Sheets what was my surprise to hear the drum beat to arms and the trumpet sounding the call to boot and saddle I hurried on my clothes my eyes half shut and mounting a horse instantly repaired to our army on the Eminence where we had remained for 3 days and from which we saw the British army at a distance of 2 miles in movement towards us the Battlefield upon which the two armies faced each other was a broad Ridge of Morland 5 miles to the southeast of iness the jacobites took up position between two sets of wall parks on their right the kiac park stretching down to the river and on their left the walls of the kadam parks the mo to their front was flat and open ideal for the Fearsome Highland charge which had brought victory at Preston pans and ferk by the time of Kadin the Highland Army was more conventionally equipped and most had French muskets and beets though the front rank still kept their swords and tares the Highland method of fighting however was still very different from that of the red coated regulars opposite they had neither the training nor indeed sufficient ammunition to engage in protracted exchanges of musket fire instead led by The Swordsman in the front ranks they came down to within musket shot fired a single volley and then ran in with sword and shield hoping to induce panic in the enemy ranks this was the famous Highland charge Highland charge is usually seen as a bunch of men Kilts bounding over the Heather waving swords axes and all sorts of wonderful things which are then proceed to literally carve the opposition apart in actual fact it didn't really walk that way it walked on Panic they come hling down great big mob and literally frighten Living Daylights out of the enemy who' promptly turn on the way and then die in the hundreds T hundreds and so on so forth this worked well at Preston pans didn't work quite so well at folk but it Coden it all went wrong mainly because it's so far to come they 500 yards there and all the time they're being fired on first by cannon firing Round Shot then grape shot then musket the red coat saw them coming they had time they they stood their ground and although the Highlanders did break in on the right flank really it hadn't worked the main tactic of frightening the opposition hadn't worked and the bayet in the end won the battle behind the Highland regiments in the front rank of the Jacobite Army stood a second line of Loland Scotch regiments stiffened by two regiments of French regular one was called the Irish pickets and the other was the blue jacketed Royal eosa or Royal Scots many of the men serving in both these regiments were deserters from the British Army and would face summary Justice after the battle all in all the jackyes ought to have mustered some 6 and a half thousand infantry in addition there were a smaller number of Cavalry men and Gunners unfortunately far too many of the Highlanders had straggled off in search of food and shelter and the jackaby Army probably amounted to little more than 4,000 infantry on the field that day in front of the Jacoby line were placed 11 three pounder Cannon and it was these ill- fated guns which would signal the commencement of the battle on the other side of the Moore Cumberland had some 6 and a half th000 infantry drawn up in two lines he also had a regiment of government Highland ERS the argal militia together with 14 troops of mounted drons on his flanks unlike the civilians Manning the cannon of the jacobites all of cuman's artillery men were well-trained professionals who handled the guns with deadly efficiency at this period Firepower normally decided the outcome of regular battles but sometimes it was not enough and the soldier then had to turn to his beet which was a fearsome weapon utilizing the lessons from Preston pans and ferk at kaladin a departure on the normal beet drill was used instead of lunching straight forward at the man in front of him who would be protected by a shield each Soldier was trained to thrust Instead at The Swordsman attacking the man on his right by doing this he would have a clean thrust at the unprotected right hand side of the Highlander this new will was to prove itself deadly effective in a very few short hours the British army which was to fight on Kad Moore is often pictured as being composed of the very dregs of society led by aristocratic officers who despise their men in actual fact it was in many ways surprisingly similar to the modern British Army the rank and file took a fierce pride in their regiments and their officers were dedicated professional soldiers there were however some men who were not there by choice known as vestri men they were Petty criminals delivered up by their parishes to serve until the end of the Rebellion unwanted and IL disciplined they were to play a Sinister role after the battle but there were as many honest men in the ranks a very high proportion of them Scots standing in the British front line was a royal Scots fuselier named Edward Lynn afterwards he wrote to his wife telling her what he saw that day ah we waited up to our knees and glass through the mirr we a good well to be at them and they wind consider we through this winter a Four Wind Gage it rained off a a both hail and Rain the strong wind were bucks but just enemy began to fire their big guns that grew into an half a f like they then the Duke rode through a front line just beun and desired to be fear of depend myads in your B says he but them can the man hat to deal with I what we did sometime around midday one of cumberland's Staff officers Lord bu rode forward to count the Jacoby guns and was fired on by two of them the government artillery fired back and the battle was begun the ill served jackaby guns were soon silenced and for as long as the Islanders stood their ground the government artillery kept up a steady rhythm of one round a minute with the 10 guns no one knows how long the Highlanders stood facing the bombardment it could have been for as little as 10 minutes or as many as 20 but they had to endure it because hundreds of men were still hurrying to the mo to rejoin their regiments at this delay was exacerbated by the unwillingness of the prince to give the order to attack the Jacobite commanders hoped to delay their charge until as many of the men as possible had rejoined their colors but although the effects of the government artillery were ging to the jacobites it was to be General Hy's drons and the government Highlanders who eventually forced their hand and precipitated the Highland charge one of the big stories about clodin is the fact the Highlanders stood for so long being fired on by the government artillery in some accounts it suggested most of the Highlanders died up on the back on the ridge there where the red flag is fired on by the government artillery while Bonnie Prince Charlie sat diing wondering what to do in fact this was not really a problem it was if you got hit by can ball of course but in military terms the canonade was not very effective the guns were knocking over on average about one man with every shot fired they had 10 guns each one firing at once a minute with a canonade lasting only a quarter of an hour that's not killing very many jacobites where the killing really started was once they got down close to the government line and the artilleryman switched from firing cannonballs to firing grape shot which is effectively a bag full of musket balls worked like a shotgun now that did kill people as the Jack of Army St de mobile awaiting the order to charge General Hy ordered his four companies of arala Highlanders to Break Down The Walls in the enclosure on the Jacoby right flank in order to let the drons through to attack them soon he was threatening the right flank and rear of the Jacoby Army a brief rest bite was gained for the jacobites when Lord Lewis Gordon's two Lan battalions from abdine swung around to face the approaching drons but faced with this threat the order was given for a general assault on cuman's position while they were still time what is not always realized is how multinational both of the armies of the battlefield of kadon were take for example Bonnie Prince Charlie's Army he had Irish he had Frenchman presence and of course he had a few Lan troops although the great majority of the Scots were Highlanders of course from the Clans strangely enough you get exactly the same social or national mixture of forces within the army of Cumberland the Royal Army of the 16 regiments was made out the bulk of cumberland's army no less than four or one man in for a quarter were in fact Scottish regiments despite the Cosmopolitan makeup of the Jacobite Army the principal tactic was still the Highland charge over the past 100 years yelling mobs of clansmen had inspired fear and panic amongst regular troops on a score battlefields but aadin it was to prove a disastrous failure the mo was not as featuress as it might at first have appeared the iness road ran diagonally across it from the bottom corner of the Clon Park to Oak and the ground between the road and the British army was wet and boggy the armies were drawn up 500 yard apart a comparatively long distance to charge over especially over difficult terrain as the jacobites set off towards the British lines the Highland left made up of McDonald's regiments blundered into the morass while those in the center desperately tried to avoid it by swinging to their right Unfortunately they had once collided with Lord George Murray's right wing which was itself veering to the left in order to avoid the leonar enclosure wall for a moment they were all brought to a confus used Halt and cumberland's Gunners switching from Round Shot to canister lacerated the stationary jumble of men with hundreds of musk boards after this pause the Camerons and macintoshes led the jacobites on again so that the whole weight of the attack fell upon just one battalion Barrel's fourth for foot now the king's own Royal border regiment the men of Barrel's Battalion fought back savagely but were overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers losing one of their and nearly a third of their strength in killed and wounded however two regiments from the government's second line were ordered by a watchful Cumberland to March up to attack the Jacoby flank while two more including seil Scots borders engaged them from the front the jacobites were brought to a halt for the second time jammed in a dense column that was estimated by contemporary accounts to be as many as 20 or 30 men deep those at the front had already fired or thrown away their muskets now they could only reply with pistols or even with stones some were even shot down from behind by their own men further back in the column there was now ranged around them some 1,700 well- drilled soldiers who proceeded to fire five or six bolies into the column at Point Blank Range in the space of just two terrible minutes 800 transmen were killed or wounded and the maab outline of that massive column can still be traced today in the great slew of graves stretching southwards from The Well of dead onad Mo such merciless Slaughter could not continue faced with those terrible point blank volleys of musketry some jacobites began surrendering but most of the survivors turned and ran back across the mo on the other flank of the Highland Army the McDonald's struggled to within 20 yards of cumberland's men but then the Relentless musket fire of the royal Scots and 13th foot brought them to a complete halt not one of the McDonald's even reached the British line then seeing the rest of the Highlanders falling back the McDonald men ran too and Captain Johnson went with them we were on the left of our army and at the distance of about 20 Paces when the route began to become General in a rage I discharged my blunder bus and pistols at the enemy and immediately endeavored to save save myself like the rest but having charged on foot and in Boots I was so overcome by the marshy ground that instead of running I could scarcely walk all at once I perceived a horse without a rider about 30 Paces before me I ran and laid hold of the bridal which was held fast in the hand of a man lying on the ground whom I suppose dead what was my surprise when the Cowardly P Tron dared to dispute the horse with me fortunately Finley camon an officer in lal's regiment happened to pass near us I called on him to assist me and he immediately placed his pistol at the head of the man and threatened to blow out his brains the fellow who had the look of a servant at once yielded the horse and took to his heels the high regiments in the Jacoby Army had been routed but the Battle of kuton was still far from Over the Lan units standing in the second line were rather a mix bag but there were some good regiments among them and as the Highlanders came running back a desperate fight began to protect their Retreat General Hy's drons and the Highlanders of the argile militia were pushing into the jackaby rear threatening to encircle them but James Moore as Stony Wood's abedine regiment played a major role in keeping the government Cavalry at Bay it was about this time that The Pretender himself made his Escape Lord Elco the leader of his own bodyguard called bitterly after him run you cowardly Italian with elko's cry ringing in his ears he rode off the field with a small escort of French Cavalry to look to his own destiny the prince had spent most of the battle far in the rear and now he was only intent on escaping to France as soon as possible his followers were ungraciously ordered to fend for themselves even with the prince gone and the Highland regiment scattered the remnants and the last Jacoby Army continued its final death struggle and in one of History's sad little ironers the Scot soldiers of the French Royal e in the Jacoby ranks exchanged fire for a Time with the British royal Scots of the government Army the brave actions of the royal eosay gave the fleeing McDonald's the brief rest pite they needed to escape but as Government troops arrived they were soon surrounded by Cavalry and after a fierce fight which left half of them dead or wounded they laid down their arms surrendering as prisoners of War once the Royal EAS had surrendered there was nothing left to restrain the drons and mercilessly rode down the jackaby fugitives an indiscriminate Slaughter of the fleeing men and women and children who followed in the wake of the army began and continued all the way into iness no mercy was shown in respect of age or sex and many innocent civilians were brutally murdered in the ensuing Bloodshed back on the field the battle was now over and Cumberland marched its infantry forward across the mo to stand on the ground formerly occupied by the jacobites by this symbolic act he forly claimed his victory Edward Lynn remembered the desperate events of the day it a way bit after 12:00 when the battle began and then 1:00 was a finished like the jacobites come up off a BAL like in a mle great bori they had the swords in their hands but we get them s a warm like volley and kept BL our continuous fire locks and with canister they pretty Sly treated back again faster than they come then were the goons that in the left and left Wings pursued with sword and Pistol and cutting half a money of them down and never s Park thicker we did in own place we lost half a few men of our regiment only a puckle wounded like in fact theyy lost than about 200 C wounded all together we never had such good luck as for the thank God for in all the British army lost a total 50 killed at kuton on the other hand something like 1,500 jacobites were slain on the field or cut down on the road to iness hundreds more of the jackaby Wounded were taken prisoner and by evening on the 16th of April the British army had no fewer than 326 Jacoby prisoners in its charge at iness besides the 229 French regulars many of the jacobites wrote One officer with were desperately wounded indeed over the next few days the number of prisoners Rose dramatically as the wounded jacobites were brought in from the Moore and fleeing fugitives were captured many of their later complaints about bad treatment alleged that wounds were left unattended history has colored the aftermath of clutton as a Savage frenzy of killing by an outof control government Army in fact there was no systematic Massacre of wounded men on the field directly after the battle but a series of barbaric atrocities were undoubtedly committed in the days that followed by small groups and squads of government soldiers under the direction of their officers there was an ugly rumor that the jacobites had themselves ordered that no prisoners were to be taken if kadon was a Jacoby Victory aumand himself referred to it in orders he issued and this ensured that there was no sympathy for the wounded jacobites still on the Moore and many of whom were killed in a barbarous fashion those jacobites who were captured fared little better they were guarded by the despised vestri men an unsavory collection of petty offenders and other undesirables foed upon the Army by Parish constables he would be hard to find a worse or more brutal set of jailers it was they who were responsible for many of the acts of Cruelty and murder which followed Kadin in the months which followed many jacobites were tried and executed while hundreds more were transported to the American colonies or most ironic of all conscripted into the British army inevitably for a man pledged to break the power of the Clans forever cuman's pacification of the Highlands was heavy-handed and brutal the innocent suffered with the guilty but the punitive Expeditions served their purpose the Clans refused ever to rise in arms again if that is a single shaft of redeeming light from the terrible aftermath of Kaden it was this despite the vicious and inhuman excesses of the clearances Scotland was spurred forever the horror of another series of increasing in ly pointless rebellions most Scots of the time like Edward Lynn and Patrick kryon thank God for it we your Majesty's most beautiful and loyal subjects the noblemen gentlemen and freeholders of the Shire of Edinburgh beg leave with our hearts full of joy to congratulate your majesty on the victory of obtained by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland over the jacobites on the 16th of April the evils we felt during this wicked unnatural and unprovoked rebellion and the more Dreadful evils we had reason to fear if it should Prevail the imminent danger we were in of being robbed of our religion laws Liberties and properties the complete overthrow of the jacobites by The Bravery of your own troops under under the command of your heroic son and the safety of his great life and the heat of action all make this a glorious [Music] victory [Music] [Music]

Channel: Battlefields of History

Views: 86,181

Keywords: Ancient Strategies, Battle Chronicles, Battle of Culloden history, Battlefield Chronicles, Battlefield Heroes, Highlanders, Historical Insights, Inverness, Last Jacobite Rising, Medieval Warfare, Military Encounters, Strategic Warfare, battle stories, battlefield chronicles, battlefield strategies, history, medieval battles, military history, military strategy, tactical warfare

Id: 60V95lWihHM

Length: 54min 8sec (3248 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2024