Battle of Culloden

Background

In July 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled King James VII and II, landed in the western Highlands to win back the throne for his father. He raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August, took Edinburgh, and on 21 September routed a government army at Prestonpans. In November he invaded England and reached Derby on 4 December, but English Jacobites did not rise and the promised French invasion did not come, so his council insisted on retreat. The Jacobites won again at Falkirk Muir on 17 January 1746 and then withdrew into the north. The Duke of Cumberland, the younger son of George II, took command of the government army, rebuilt it at Aberdeen and advanced along the coast in April. By mid-April the Jacobites at Inverness were short of money and food. On the night of 15-16 April they attempted a surprise attack on Cumberland's camp at Nairn, but the march fell behind schedule and was called off. The men returned exhausted, and many went off to look for food or sleep.

The Battle

The Jacobites formed up on Drummossie Moor, a stretch of open, partly boggy ground near Culloden House, about five miles east of Inverness. Lord George Murray, the most capable Jacobite commander, thought the ground favored the enemy. Estimates vary, but Charles probably had about 5,000 to 5,500 men in line against some 7,500 to 8,000 under Cumberland. The Jacobite army was not only Highland. It included Lowland regiments and French regulars of the Irish Picquets and the Royal Écossais. Fighting began early in the afternoon with an exchange of artillery. The government guns, served by trained gunners, fired round shot and then grapeshot into the Jacobite ranks, while the Jacobites' own few guns did little. The Jacobites stood under this fire for perhaps twenty to thirty minutes before orders to charge reached the whole line.

On the Jacobite right and center the Atholl men, Camerons, Stewarts of Appin, Frasers and Clan Chattan charged, drifting to their right because of the ground, and struck the government left held by Barrell's and Munro's regiments. They broke into Barrell's regiment in fierce hand-to-hand fighting, but Wolfe's regiment moved forward to fire into their flank and the second line came up to close the gap. On the Jacobite left the MacDonald regiments had further to go over wet ground, never closed, and fell back under fire as government dragoons advanced. Government cavalry and the Argyll militia worked round the Jacobite right through the enclosures. The Jacobite army broke, and the French regulars covered part of the retreat. The main fighting was over in less than an hour.

Weapons

Cumberland's infantry carried the Land Pattern flintlock musket, the Brown Bess Musket, with the Socket Bayonet. They fired by platoons, keeping up a steady fire as the Jacobites came on. Many Jacobites also carried muskets, a large number supplied from France, and pistols. The weapon of the Highland charge was the basket-hilted broadsword, the Scottish Claymore, carried with the round Targe and the Highland Dirk. A story told after the battle says that Cumberland trained his men to thrust not at the Highlander in front of them but at the man to their right, whose sword arm was raised and whose side was exposed beyond his targe. The account is not well supported, and historians doubt that it was a new drill or that it decided the battle. Some poorly armed Jacobites may have carried the Lochaber Axe or improvised polearms, but there is little firm evidence of this at Culloden.

Aftermath

The Jacobites lost perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 killed, many of them in the pursuit and in the killing of wounded men on the field afterward, which earned Cumberland the name "Butcher". The official government return gave about 50 killed and some 250 wounded. Charles escaped and spent five months as a fugitive in the Highlands and islands, helped at one stage by Flora MacDonald, before sailing for France in September 1746. The government occupied the Highlands and passed the Disarming Act of 1746, which also banned Highland dress, and the Heritable Jurisdictions Act of 1747, which ended the legal powers of the clan chiefs. Culloden ended the Jacobite Risings and marked the beginning of the end of the traditional clan system in Scotland.