Culloden Battlefield Tour: How Were The Jacobites Defeated?

[Music] the last pitch battle in British history at which the Jacobite cause was snuffed out for good and the Hanoverian British Army was victorious with these blue flags here this is the Jacobite frontline note I do not say Scottish because they were English troops the Jacobite army predominantly Highland troops but they're English troops of some French troops and over there and the British Army there were also regiments recruited in Scotland there was Scotsman fighting on both sides of this battle early morning of the 16th of April 746 about 6,000 Jacobites were gathered here approximately 6,000 British troops marched in from that direction and the scene was set for the final battle of this of Britain's last Civil War effectively the battle started right here with a few small Jacobite cannons firing some shots at the British Army and that provoked quite a response big cannon firing cannonballs this way killing whole files of men dead and at which point these men charged so Honda's were jogging across this battlefield it was wet underfoot they were bunching hit they were lacked coordination but they started their Highland shriek as they reached about 300 meters before the British ranks because at that point 300 250 meters the British were able to load their cannons with canister shot canisters packed with musket balls turning each cannon into a giant shotgun and as they blasted off about 40 seconds between each shot it's quite difficult terrain hist Hill as they blasted those cannons whole groups of Highlanders would be obliterated the Highlanders charge forward then about 50 metres from the British line the British were able to start firing musket volleys they're the most highly trained infantryman in Western Europe by this point they've been drilled again and again and again and they blasted musket shots they were standing in three lines 1 2 3 6 seconds between each volley and still Highlanders came at about 50 metres from the British lines the Highlanders made a quick stand took their muskets fired a volley at the British hold them down through their long swords and charged [Music] I've come now to the British line it is marked by these red flags stretching all the way down there this is the very left end of the British line and this for various reasons is where a massive spearhead of the Highlanders were heading bearing down upon there was a cannon there Mound by a sergeant Bristow and he waited to the Highlanders were at point-blank range you could see the whites their eyes and then he put his slow match on the Gunpowder on top of the cannons breech and it blasted out a lot of canister those musket balls tearing through Highland ranks and then the Highlanders are upon them a British source said it was like watching a pack of hungry wolves descending upon them the Hartness fired that one last volley through their muskets down through their broad swords and came in now the British here were able to fire one shot every 20 seconds each rank so each rank for a shot then the next rank then the next rank keeping up a fusillade that was cutting the Hinds down as they got closer but eventually the hind is closed to hand-to-hand combat they had their targes their little shields their plan was they knock the British musket and bayonet away and then going with their long sword causing horrible slashing injuries the British had to stand their ground they had a they were they outnumbered the Highlanders and each of their muskets had a around 16-inch steel bayonet sharp razor sharp bayonet on them so it became a brutal hand-to-hand battle bayonets and muskets against the Highlanders long sword and also short stabbing knife the arrangement here basically imploded the Highlanders smashed through it and moved on to the second line but the Highlanders found themselves in a salient they pushed the British line back here which meant the British soldiers there and there and to certainly sit there were able to fire on them from three sides so in this appalling crossfire despite these stunning bravery and martial prowess the Highlanders they were hacked down and shot down in their hundreds in the space of just a few minutes the commanding officer of this regiment had his hand chopped off and he was clinging desperately onto the regimental colors to make sure that his unit didn't have the dishonor of his of their flag being taken but on the whole Highlanders were outnumbered outgunned and they were scythe down here elsewhere along the line the Highlanders never even reached the British front line they were just pummeled by the relentless professional musket volleys and cannon fire and fell back across the field here too finally behind has realised they were defeated and they turned tail and fled the defeat turned into a rout as British soldiers surged across the battlefield bayonetting the wounded catching up with Highland troops and murdering them in cold blood it would have been a dismal dismal sight this man [Music] the battle was over around about an hour after it started it was the decisive end to the Jacobite cause after generations of scheming rebellions and civil wars the Stuart family would never again make a serious attempt to claim the throne of Britain the Highlanders that men that had died for them were buried where they fell in these long burial mounds here that helped to make this one of the most special and important battlefields in Britain it was the last time two armies fought on British soil and 100 years or so after the battle these stones were placed on the mounds with the names of the various clans on them and people still come and leave flowers and mementos on these stones the Jacobite uprising of 1745 - six had shaken the British states to its core it could never be allowed to happen again and the British government took measures up here to ensure that it didn't

Channel: History Hit

Views: 254,811

Keywords: Battle of Culloden, dan snow, history hit, history videos, the history of, what happened at, scottish history, history channel, bonnie prince charlie, british history, charles edward stuart, battle of culloden moor, jacobite rebellion, jacobite risings, battle of prestonpans, key dates in scottish history, history buffs, jacobite rising, scottish clans, culloden moor, jamie fraser, battle of culloden outlander, battle of culloden moor 1746, battle of culloden scotland

Id: NAoyWOMLpUk

Length: 6min 27sec (387 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019