The Battle of Culloden: Forty Six

the events at culloden battlefield on the 16th of april 1746 have been well documented of how the jacobite army under the command of charles edward stewart assembled along this line they numbered about six thousand they were fatigued they were hungry and they were poorly equipped on the opposite side of the field in an easterly direction the government army under the command of prince william augustus the duke of cumberland who was the son of the reigning monarch george ii had assembled about one o'clock in the afternoon the cannon was fired and the jacobite army advanced towards the government army on the opposite side of the field when they came within range of the main government batteries a contingent of highlanders fired their muskets threw them down in the header through their claymores and began a suicidal hail in charge towards the government troops it was described by one of cumberland's officers as like being set upon by a pack of wolves but within an hour the jacobite army had been decimated around 2 000 lay dead are wounded in the field and the battle of culloden was over cumberland showed no mercy in the wake of the battle ordering the wounded to be shot or clubbed to death some of his officers even refused this order including cardinal wolf but it was carried out by ordinary soldiers on the day following the battle cumberland ordered the contingent of troops back to the field where a further 70 of the wounded were slain in the header a search was initiated of nearby houses and a further 72 were taken out and shot or clubbed to death a contemporary account reads the misery and distress of the fugitive rebels is inexpressible hundreds are being found dead of their wounds and of hunger at a distance of 12 14 and even 20 miles from the field so we're going to travel out from the site of the battlefield and learn something of the fate of the fugitives and of the ordinary people caught up in the aftermath of gallaudet this is the prisoner's stone and there's a story attached to it that 17 officers from the clan fraser were being held captive at culloden house after the battle and they were put in a cart and they thought they were being taken to inverness to have their wounds treated they were however brought here to the prisoner stone lined up against the stone and shot and then clubbed one of them is said to have survived and crawled away after being left for dead finding refuge in a nearby house and actually living into old age disfigured and walking in crutches but able to relate the story of what happened here at the prisoner's stone cumberland moved into inverness after the battle and he stayed for about a month and it became the scene of a brutal occupation there was an apple tree at the town cross and bodies were being stripped naked and hung from the apple tree and left for days it became a kind of temporary gallows and in the tower behind me uh jacobite prisoners from the battle were being held and they were being brought out here into the graveyard propped up against a gravestone possibly too weak to resist or move and shot by a redcoat executioner there's a stone in the graveyard it's a kind of heart-shaped stone and it's said to be the stone where the executioners balanced on muskets and two came and fired at the jacobite prisoners this is the actual execution stone you can see the groove where the musket would be placed and the gravestone a few yards distant where the prisoners would be propped up and shot this is doors at loch ness and this is the site of cumberland's military encampment on the 23rd of may as he moved his army from inverness to fort augustus following general wade's military road by the time cumberland reached doors what had gone about that he and his soldiers were behaving very extremely and there was even a story going about that he was ordering his soldiers to stab male infants in their cradles and as a consequence some young boys were taken into caves in the hills to be given refuge there was a presbyterian minister indoors called reverend banatine and he had actually been an ardent government supporter he had actually campaigned to stop people joining the jacobite cause leading up to culloden but even he could see how viciously cumberland and his troops were behaving and he actually had two escaping jacobi officers and the cellar of his mans he also intervened to stop a party of accused jacobites being burned alive inside his church reverent banner time was a frequent site on the road between doors and fort augustus once cumberland moved there appealing for clemency on behalf of the accused this is gorflick or gortalik as it was known in 1746 and was the residence of tamvor fraser and it said that gotlight was the focus of the rebellion in many ways leading up to the battle of culloden because lord lovett had stayed here for around six months and the story goes that goethelag was to be the scene of a celebratory meal following the battle of culloden had victory ensued prince charlie left the field of culloden with the right wing of his army he split with a large contingent of them at fairly bridge over the river nain and continued with the body of men into stratheric where gothelek is situated the people at the house who had prepared the meal had come out and seen this bedraggled wounded army coming towards them and were absolutely shocked and they ran down with food and bandages for the wounded soldiers these are the fields directly below garlic house where prince charlie's followers are said to have encamped though there are conflicting accounts as to how long he actually spent here following the battle some say he was only here for a short while and had to flee with the redcoats in pursuit but according to captain simon fraser who was our famous highland composer was born in 1773 and was the maternal grandson of tamvar of goth like prince charles edward stewart spent the night here and there's a tune called hard as my fate which captain simon fraser composed and it's said to be based on a quote made by prince charles edward stewart while he was here he had been disturbed by the noise of some children playing and thought he was going to be captured and is quoted as saying hard as my fate when i can be so annoyed by the prattling of innocent children [Music] in 1746 during the redco occupation a funeral was taking place here and there's a story that a provision cart belonging to the red coats had been going along the road on its way to fort augustus and someone had stolen a loaf of bread and fed it to their dogs and as a consequence redcoat soldiers had opened fire indiscriminately on the people at the funeral party here in burlesque in graveyard and the funeral party must have been situated where the large monument is between the two yew trees or possibly the crowd ran in this direction for cover just to the right of the monument set into the wall there's an older gravestone which has the holes from three musket balls so here are the bullet holes from the musket fire one here one here and one here i'm on a hill called cardin jerich among the caves and boat holes of a fugitive called james fraser of foyers james is said to have spent seven years here hiding out from the government troops in one cave in particular called dunbonnet's cave there's a story that a boy was bringing a cask of ale to james in his cave and was captured by red coat soldiers they demanded to know the whereabouts of james fraser and the boy refused to answer even after they had severed his hand with a sword on one occasion james was looking out from the hill and he saw a girl bringing food to him but unbeknownst to the girl she was being followed by a red coat soldier james came down through the woods two came at the soldier and shot and killed him so somewhere in the head are just behind me there's the skeleton of a redcoat soldier this is where a local character called alexander mcdonald who was also known as corey made an assassination attempt in the duke of cumberland as he came down the road with a detachment of troops corey was a local reaver and poacher and skilled in firearms and the local people had decided that the lot might be better if cumberland could be done away with so corey dug a trench here on the hillside within view of the bridge he got his blunderbuss and he filled it with scrap iron and nails he took the fork branch of a tree stuck it in the ground rested the muzzle in it and waited for the duke of cumberland and his men to come down the military road towards the bridge as they approached the two came and fired but not being used to firing a detachment of soldiers he missed his aim and the chance to assassinate the duke of cumberland was lost cumberland and his army arrived at fort augustus on the 26th of may 1746 and set up their encampment and this would be the center from which cumberland would issue orders for the subjugation of the local population now it really made no difference whether a family or a township had followed the jacobite cause universal punishment was to be meted out one of cumberland's officers wrote from fort augustus the people are deservedly in a most deplorable way and must perish either by sword or famine a just reward for traitors his royal highness has carried fire and sword through their country and drove off their cattle which we bring into our camp in great quantities sometimes two thousand and i drove on eighth of july cumberland issued a command that no provision of any kind was to be sold or supplied to the starving people of the neighborhood and anyone contravening this order was to be flogged for the first offense with greater punishments to be inflicted for further offences and the camp here was a scene of frivolity and debauchery the duke organized foot races and pony races for camp wives and prostitutes contended for the prize of six plates offered up by his royal highness and cumberland's atrocities and those of other government officers are many in number they were collected by an episcopalian bishop called robert forbes and he checked their veracity with people of authority such as presbyterian ministers and merchants and published them in a book called the lion in mourning and they really read as a catalogue of horrors a woman is accosted by four soldiers and slashed in her face and body a man in his sick bed has his throat cut from ear to ear three men working in a field in glenn morriston a father and a son and another elderly man are shot down their bodies stripped and they are hung by the feet from a roadside gallows a pregnant woman in the braze of glenn morrison is raped by government soldiers these are only a handful of examples as the shock waves from killorden would carry out through the north and west of the country cumberland was rewarded with 25 pound per annum additional income for his efforts amounting to around three million pounds per annum in today's money he died in 1765 at the age of 44 and is buried in westminster abbey lauded as an all-conquering hero you

Channel: Hamish MacDonald

Views: 17,181

Keywords:

Id: kVa_VEWZsnM

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021