A Short History of Scotland by Andrew Lang

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The magistrates treated through a caddie or street-messenger with the
Prince. He demanded surrender, the bailies went and came, in a hackney
coach, between Charles's quarters, Gray's Mill, and Edinburgh, but on
their return about 3 A.M. Lochiel with the Camerons rushed in when the
Nether Bow gate was opened to admit the cab of the magistrates. Murray
had guided the clan round by Merchiston. At noon Charles entered "that
unhappy palace of his race," Holyrood; and King James was proclaimed at
Edinburgh Cross, while the beautiful Mrs Murray, mounted, distributed
white cockades. Edinburgh provided but few volunteers, though the ladies
tried to "force them out."

Meanwhile Cope was landing his men at Dunbar; from Mr John Home (author
of 'Douglas, a Tragedy') he learnt that Charles's force was under 2000
strong. He himself had, counting the dragoons, an almost equal strength,
with six field-pieces manned by sailors.

On September 20 Cope advanced from Haddington, while Charles, with all
the carriages he could collect for ambulance duty, set forth from his
camp at Duddingston Loch, under Arthur's Seat. Cope took the low road
near the sea, while Charles took the high road, holding the ridge, till
from Birsley brae he beheld Cope on the low level plain, between Seaton
and Prestonpans. The manoeuvres of the clans forced Cope to change his
front, but wherever he went, his men were more or less cooped up and
confined to the defensive, with the park wall on their rear.

Meanwhile Mr Anderson of Whitburgh, a local sportsman who had shot ducks
in the morass on Cope's left, brought to Charles news of a practicable
path through that marsh. Even so, the path was wet as high as the knee,
says Ker of Graden, who had reconnoitred the British under fire. He was
a Roxburghshire laird, and there was with the Prince no better officer.

In the grey dawn the clans waded through the marsh and leaped the ditch;
Charles was forced to come with the second line fifty yards behind the
first. The Macdonalds held the right, as they said they had done at
Bannockburn; the Camerons and Macgregors were on the left they "cast
their plaids, drew their blades," and, after enduring an irregular fire,
swept the red-coat ranks away; "they ran like rabets," wrote Charles in a
genuine letter to James. Gardiner was cut down, his entire troop having
fled, while he was directing a small force of foot which stood its
ground. Charles stated his losses at a hundred killed and wounded, all
by gunshot. Only two of the six field-pieces were discharged, by Colonel
Whitefoord, who was captured. Friends and foes agree in saying that the
Prince devoted himself to the care of the wounded of both sides. Lord
George Murray states Cope's losses, killed, wounded, and taken, at 3000,
Murray, at under 1000.

The Prince would fain have marched on England, but his force was thinned
by desertions, and English reinforcements would have been landed in his
rear. For a month he had to hold court in Edinburgh, adored by the
ladies to whom he behaved with a coldness of which Charles II. would not
have approved. "These are my beauties," he said, pointing to a burly-
bearded Highland sentry. He "requisitioned" public money, and such
horses and fodder as he could procure; but to spare the townsfolk from
the guns of the castle he was obliged to withdraw his blockade. He sent
messengers to France, asking for aid, but received little, though the
Marquis Boyer d'Eguilles was granted as a kind of representative of Louis
XV. His envoys to Sleat and Macleod sped ill, and Lovat only dallied,
France only hesitated, while Dutch and English regiments landed in the
Thames and marched to join General Wade at Newcastle. Charles himself
received reinforcements amounting to some 1500 men, under Lord Ogilvy,
old Lord Pitsligo, the Master of Strathallan (Drummond), the brave Lord
Balmerino, and the Viscount Dundee. A treaty of alliance with France,
made at Fontainebleau, neutralised, under the Treaty of Tournay, 6000
Dutch who might not, by that treaty, fight against the ally of France.

The Prince entertained no illusions. Without French forces, he told
D'Eguilles, "I cannot resist English, Dutch, Hessians, and Swiss." On
October [15/26] he wrote his last extant letter from Scotland to King
James. He puts his force at 8000 (more truly 6000), with 300 horse.
"With these, as matters stand, I shal have one decisive stroke for't, but
iff the French" (do not?) "land, perhaps none. . . . As matters stand I
must either conquer or perish in a little while."

Defeated in the heart of England, and with a prize of 30,000 pounds
offered for his head, he could not hope to escape. A victory for him
would mean a landing of French troops, and his invasion of England had
for its aim to force the hand of France. Her troops, with Prince Henry
among them, dallied at Dunkirk till Christmas, and were then dispersed,
while the Duke of Cumberland arrived in England from Flanders on October
19.

On October 30 the Prince held a council of war. French supplies and guns
had been landed at Stonehaven, and news came that 6000 French were ready
at Dunkirk: at Dunkirk they were, but they never were ready. The news
probably decided Charles to cross the Border; while it appears that his
men preferred to be content with simply making Scotland again an
independent kingdom, with a Catholic king. But to do this, with French
aid, was to return to the state of things under Mary of Guise!

The Prince, judging correctly, wished to deal his "decisive stroke" near
home, at the old and now futile Wade in Northumberland. A victory would
have disheartened England, and left Newcastle open to France. If Charles
were defeated, his own escape by sea, in a country where he had many well-
wishers, was possible, and the clans would have retreated through the
Cheviots. Lord George Murray insisted on a march by the western road,
Lancashire being expected to rise and join the Prince. But this plan
left Wade, with a superior force, on Charles's flank! The one
difficulty, that of holding a bridge, say Kelso Bridge, over Tweed, was
not insuperable. Rivers could not stop the Highlanders. Macdonald of
Morar thought Charles the best general in the army, and to the layman,
considering the necessity for an _instant_ stroke, and the advantages of
the east, as regards France, the Prince's strategy appears better than
Lord George's. But Lord George had his way.

On October 31, Charles, reinforced by Cluny with 400 Macphersons,
concentrated at Dalkeith. On November 1, the less trusted part of his
force, under Tullibardine, with the Atholl men, moved south by Peebles
and Moffat to Lockerbie, menacing Carlisle; while the Prince, Lord
George, and the fighting clans marched to Kelso--a feint to deceive Wade.
The main body then moved by Jedburgh, up Rule Water and down through
Liddesdale, joining hands with Tullibardine on November 9, and
bivouacking within two miles of Carlisle. On the 10th the Atholl men
went to work at the trenches; on the 11th the army moved seven miles
towards Newcastle, hoping to discuss Wade at Brampton on hilly ground.
But Wade did not gratify them by arriving.

On the 13th the Atholl men were kept at their spade-work, and Lord George
in dudgeon resigned his command (November 14), but at night Carlisle
surrendered, Murray and Perth negotiating. Lord George expressed his
anger and jealousy to his brother, Tullibardine, but Perth resigned his
command to pacify his rival. Wade feebly tried to cross country, failed,
and went back to Newcastle. On November 10, with some 4500 men (there
had been many desertions), the march through Lancashire was decreed. Save
for Mr Townley and two Vaughans, the Catholics did not stir. Charles
marched on foot in the van; he was a trained pedestrian; the townspeople
stared at him and his Highlanders, but only at Manchester (November 29-
30) had he a welcome, enlisting about 150 doomed men. On November 27
Cumberland took over command at Lichfield; his foot were distributed
between Tamworth and Stafford; his cavalry was at Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Lord George was moving on Derby, but learning Cumberland's dispositions
he led a column to Congleton, inducing Cumberland to concentrate at
Lichfield, while he himself, by way of Leek and Ashburn, joined the
Prince at Derby.

The army was in the highest spirits. The Duke of Richmond on the other
side wrote from Lichfield (December 5), "If the enemy please to cut us
off from the main army, they may; and also, if they please to give us the
slip and march to London, I fear they may, before even this _avant garde_
can come up with them; . . . there is no pass to defend, . . . the camp
at Finchley is confined to paper plans"--and Wales was ready to join the
Prince! Lord George did not know what Richmond knew. Despite the
entreaties of the Prince, his Council decided to retreat. On December 6
the clans, uttering cries of rage, were set with their faces to the
north.

The Prince was now an altered man. Full of distrust, he marched not with
Lord George in the rear, he rode in the van.

Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, who, on November 22, had landed at Montrose
with 800 French soldiers, was ordered by Charles to advance with large
Highland levies now collected and meet him as he moved north. Lord John
disobeyed orders (received about December 18). Expecting his advance,
Charles most unhappily left the Manchester men and others to hold
Carlisle, to which he would return. Cumberland took them all,--many were
hanged.

In the north, Lord Lewis Gordon routed Macleod at Inverurie (December
23), and defeated his effort to secure Aberdeen. Admirably commanded by
Lord George, and behaving admirably for an irregular retreating force,
the army reached Penrith on December 18, and at Clifton, Lord George and
Cluny defeated Cumberland's dragoons in a rearguard action.

On December 19 Carlisle was reached, and, as we saw, a force was left to
guard the castle; all were taken. On December 20 the army forded the
flooded Esk; the ladies, of whom several had been with them, rode it on
their horses: the men waded breast-high, as, had there been need, they
would have forded Tweed if the eastern route had been chosen, and if
retreat had been necessary. Cumberland returned to London on January 5,
and Horace Walpole no longer dreaded "a rebellion that runs away." By
different routes Charles and Lord George met (December 26) at Hamilton
Palace. Charles stayed a night at Dumfries. Dumfries was hostile, and
was fined; Glasgow was also disaffected, the ladies were unfriendly. At
Glasgow, Charles heard that Seaforth, chief of the Mackenzies, was aiding
the Hanoverians in the north, combining with the great Whig clans, with
Macleod, the Munroes, Lord Loudoun commanding some 2000 men, and the
Mackays of Sutherland and Caithness.

Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, Strathallan, and Lord Lewis Gordon, with
Lord Macleod, were concentrating to meet the Prince at Stirling, the
purpose being the hopeless one of capturing the castle, the key of the
north. With weak artillery, and a futile and foolish French engineer
officer to direct the siege, they had no chance of success. The Prince,
in bad health, stayed (January 4-10) at Sir Hugh Paterson's place,
Bannockburn House.

At Stirling, with his northern reinforcements, Charles may have had some
seven or eight thousand men wherewith to meet General Hawley (a veteran
of Sheriffmuir) advancing from Edinburgh. Hawley encamped at Falkirk,
and while the Atholl men were deserting by scores, Lord George skilfully
deceived him, arrived on the Falkirk moor unobserved, and held the ridge
above Hawley's position, while the General was lunching with Lady
Kilmarnock. In the first line of the Prince's force the Macdonalds held
the right wing, the Camerons (whom the great Wolfe describes as the
bravest of the brave) held the left; with Stewarts of Appin, Frazers, and
Macphersons in the centre. In the second line were the Atholl men, Lord
Lewis Gordon's levies, and Lord Ogilvy's. The Lowland horse and
Drummond's French details were in the rear. The ground was made up of
eminences and ravines, so that in the second line the various bodies were
invisible to each other, as at Sheriffmuir--with similar results. When
Hawley found that he had been surprised he arrayed his thirteen
battalions of regulars and 1000 men of Argyll on the plain, with three
regiments of dragoons, by whose charge he expected to sweep away
Charles's right wing; behind his cavalry were the luckless militia of
Glasgow and the Lothians. In all, he had from 10,000 to 12,000 men
against, perhaps, 7000 at most, for 1200 of Charles's force were left to
contain Blakeney in Stirling Castle. Both sides, on account of the heavy
roads, failed to bring forward their guns.

Hawley then advanced his cavalry up hill: their left faced Keppoch's
Macdonalds; their right faced the Frazers, under the Master of Lovat, in
Charles's centre. Hawley then launched his cavalry, which were met at
close range by the reserved fire of the Macdonalds and Frazers. Through
the mist and rain the townsfolk, looking on, saw in five minutes "the
break in the battle." Hamilton's and Ligonier's cavalry turned and fled,
Cobham's wheeled and rode across the Highland left under fire, while the
Macdonalds and Frazers pursuing the cavalry found themselves among the
Glasgow militia, whom they followed, slaying. Lord George had no pipers
to sound the recall; they had flung their pipes to their gillies and gone
in with the claymore.

Thus the Prince's right, far beyond his front, were lost in the tempest;
while his left had discharged their muskets at Cobham's Horse, and could
not load again, their powder being drenched with rain. They received the
fire of Hawley's right, and charged with the claymore, but were
outflanked and enfiladed by some battalions drawn up _en potence_. Many
of the second line had blindly followed the first: the rest shunned the
action; Hawley's officers led away some regiments in an orderly retreat;
night fell; no man knew what had really occurred till young Gask and
young Strathallan, with the French and Atholl men, ventured into Falkirk,
and found Hawley's camp deserted. The darkness, the rain, the nature of
the ground, and the clans' want of discipline, prevented the annihilation
of Hawley's army; while the behaviour of his cavalry showed that the
Prince might have defeated Cumberland's advanced force beyond Derby with
the greatest ease, as the Duke of Richmond had anticipated.

Perhaps the right course now was to advance on Edinburgh, but the
hopeless siege of Stirling Castle was continued--Charles perhaps hoping
much from Hawley's captured guns.

The accidental shooting of young AEneas Macdonnell, second son of
Glengarry, by a Clanranald man, begat a kind of blood feud between the
clans, and the unhappy cause of the accident had to be shot. Lochgarry,
writing to young Glengarry after Culloden, says that "there was a general
desertion in the whole army," and this was the view of the chiefs, who,
on news of Cumberland's approach, told Charles (January 29) that the army
was depleted and resistance impossible.

The chiefs were mistaken in point of fact: a review at Crieff later
showed that even then only 1000 men were missing. As at Derby, and with
right on his side, Charles insisted on meeting Cumberland. He did well,
his men were flushed with victory, had sufficient supplies, were to
encounter an army not yet encouraged by a refusal to face it, and, if
defeated had the gates of the hills open behind them. In a very
temperately written memorial Charles placed these ideas before the
chiefs. "Having told you my thoughts, I am too sensible of what you have
already ventured and done for me, not to yield to your unanimous
resolution if you persist."

Lord George, Lovat, Lochgarry, Keppoch, Ardshiel, and Cluny did persist;
the fatal die was cast; and the men who--well fed and confident--might
have routed Cumberland, fled in confusion rather than retreated,--to be
ruined later, when, starving, out-wearied, and with many of their best
forces absent, they staggered his army at Culloden. Charles had told the
chiefs, "I can see nothing but ruin and destruction to us in case we
should retreat." {287}

This retreat embittered Charles's feelings against Lord George, who may
have been mistaken--who, indeed, at Crieff, seems to have recognised his
error (February 5); but he had taken his part, and during the campaign,
henceforth, as at Culloden, distinguished himself by every virtue of a
soldier.

After the retreat Lord George moved on Aberdeen; Charles to Blair in
Atholl; thence to Moy, the house of Lady Mackintosh, where a blacksmith
and four or five men ingeniously scattered Loudoun and the Macleods,
advancing to take him by a night surprise. This was the famous Rout of
Moy.

Charles next (February 20) took Inverness Castle, and Loudoun was driven
into Sutherland, and cut off by Lord George's dispositions from any
chance of joining hands with Cumberland. The Duke had now 5000 Hessian
soldiers at his disposal: these he would not have commanded had the
Prince's army met him near Stirling.

Charles was now at or near Inverness: he lost, through illness, the
services of Murray, whose successor, Hay, was impotent as an officer of
Commissariat. A gallant movement of Lord George into Atholl, where he
surprised all Cumberland's posts, but was foiled by the resistance of his
brother's castle, was interrupted by a recall to the north, and, on April
2, he retreated to the line of the Spey. Forbes of Culloden and Macleod
had been driven to take refuge in Skye; but 1500 men of the Prince's best
had been sent into Sutherland, when Cumberland arrived at Nairn (April
14), and Charles concentrated his starving forces on Culloden Moor. The
Macphersons, the Frazers, the 1500 Macdonalds, and others in Sutherland
were absent on various duties when "the wicked day of destiny"
approached.

The men on Culloden Moor, a flat waste unsuited to the tactics of the
clans, had but one biscuit apiece on the eve of the battle. Lord George
"did not like the ground," and proposed to surprise by a night attack
Cumberland's force at Nairn. The Prince eagerly agreed, and, according
to him, Clanranald's advanced men were in touch with Cumberland's
outposts before Lord George convinced the Prince that retreat was
necessary. The advance was lagging; the way had been missed in the dark;
dawn was at hand. There are other versions: in any case the hungry men
were so outworn that many are said to have slept through next day's
battle.

A great mistake was made next day, if Lochgarry, who commanded the
Macdonalds of Glengarry, and Maxwell of Kirkconnel are correct in saying
that Lord George insisted on placing his Atholl men on the right wing.
The Macdonalds had an old claim to the right wing, but as far as research
enlightens us, their failure on this fatal day was not due to jealous
anger. The battle might have been avoided, but to retreat was to lose
Inverness and all chance of supplies. On the Highland right was the
water of Nairn, and they were guarded by a wall which the Campbells
pulled down, enabling Cumberland's cavalry to take them in flank.
Cumberland had about 9000 men, including the Campbells. Charles,
according to his muster-master, had 5000; of horse he had but a handful.

The battle began with an artillery duel, during which the clans lost
heavily, while their few guns were useless, and their right flank was
exposed by the breaking down of the protecting wall. After some
unexplained and dangerous delay, Lord George gave the word to charge, in
face of a blinding tempest of sleet, and himself went in, as did Lochiel,
claymore in hand. But though the order was conveyed by Ker of Graden
first to the Macdonalds on the left, as they had to charge over a wider
space of ground, the Camerons, Clan Chattan, and Macleans came first to
the shock. "Nothing could be more desperate than their attack, or more
properly received," says Whitefoord. The assailants were enfiladed by
Wolfe's regiment, which moved up and took position at right angles, like
the fifty-second on the flank of the last charge of the French Guard at
Waterloo. The Highland right broke through Barrel's regiment, swept over
the guns, and died on the bayonets of the second line. They had thrown
down their muskets after one fire, and, says Cumberland, stood "and threw
stones for at least a minute or two before their total rout began."
Probably the fall of Lochiel, who was wounded and carried out of action,
determined the flight. Meanwhile the left, the Macdonalds, menaced on
the flank by cavalry, were plied at a hundred yards by grape. They saw
their leaders, the gallant Keppoch and Macdonnell of Scothouse, with many
others, fall under the grape-shot: they saw the right wing broken, and
they did not come to the shock. If we may believe four sworn witnesses
in a court of justice (July 24, 1752), whose testimony was accepted as
the basis of a judicial decreet (January 10, 1756), {290} Keppoch was
wounded while giving his orders to some of his men not to outrun the line
in advancing, and was shot dead as a friend was supporting him. When all
retreated they passed the dead body of Keppoch.

The tradition constantly given in various forms that Keppoch charged
alone, "deserted by the children of his clan," is worthless if sworn
evidence may be trusted.

As for the unhappy Charles, by the evidence of Sir Robert Strange, who
was with him, he had "ridden along the line to the right animating the
soldiers," and "endeavoured to rally the soldiers, who, annoyed by the
enemy's fire, were beginning to quit the field." He "was got off the
field when the men in general were betaking themselves precipitately to
flight; nor was there any possibility of their being rallied." Yorke, an
English officer, says that the Prince did not leave the field till after
the retreat of the second line.

So far the Prince's conduct was honourable and worthy of his name. But
presently, on the advice of his Irish entourage, Sullivan and Sheridan,
who always suggested suspicions, and doubtless not forgetting the great
price on his head, he took his own way towards the west coast in place of
joining Lord George and the remnant with him at Ruthven in Badenoch. On
April 26 he sailed from Borradale in a boat, and began that course of
wanderings and hairbreadth escapes in which only the loyalty of Highland
hearts enabled him at last to escape the ships that watched the isles and
the troops that netted the hills.

Some years later General Wolfe, then residing at Inverness, reviewed the
occurrences, and made up his mind that the battle had been a dangerous
risk for Cumberland, while the pursuit (though ruthlessly cruel) was
inefficient.

Despite Cumberland's insistent orders to give no quarter (orders
justified by the absolutely false pretext that Prince Charles had set the
example), Lochgarry reported that the army had not lost more than a
thousand men. Fire and sword and torture, the destruction of tilled
lands, and even of the shell-fish on the shore, did not break the spirit
of the Highlanders. Many bands held out in arms, and Lochgarry was only
prevented by the Prince's command from laying an ambush for Cumberland.
The Campbells and the Macleods under their recreant chief, the Whig
Macdonalds under Sir Alexander of Sleat, ravaged the lands of the
Jacobite clansmen; but the spies of Albemarle, who now commanded in
Scotland, reported the Macleans, the Grants of Glenmoriston, with the
Macphersons, Glengarry's men, and Lochiel's Camerons, as all eager "to do
it again" if France would only help.

But France was helpless, and when Lochiel sailed for France with the
Prince only Cluny remained, hunted like a partridge in the mountains, to
keep up the spirit of the Cause. Old Lovat met a long-deserved death by
the executioner's axe, though it needed the evidence of Murray of
Broughton, turned informer, to convict that fox. Kilmarnock and
Balmerino also were executed; the good and brave Duke of Perth died on
his way to France; the aged Tullibardine in the Tower; many gallant
gentlemen were hanged; Lord George escaped, and is the ancestor of the
present Duke of Atholl; many gentlemen took French service; others fought
in other alien armies; three or four in the Highlands or abroad took the
wages of spies upon the Prince. The 30,000 pounds of French gold, buried
near Loch Arkaig, caused endless feuds, kinsman denouncing kinsman. The
secrets of the years 1746-1760 are to be sought in the Cumberland and
Stuart MSS. in Windsor Castle and the Record Office.

Legislation, intended to scotch the snake of Jacobitism, began with
religious persecution. The Episcopalian clergy had no reason to love
triumphant Presbyterianism, and actively, or in sympathy, were favourers
of the exiled dynasty. Episcopalian chapels, sometimes mere rooms in
private houses, were burned, or their humble furniture was destroyed. All
Episcopalian ministers were bidden to take the oath and pray for King
George by September 1746, or suffer for the second offence transportation
for life to the American colonies. Later, the orders conferred by
Scottish bishops were made of no avail. Only with great difficulty and
danger could parents obtain the rite of baptism for their children. Very
little is said in our histories about the sufferings of the Episcopalians
when it was their turn to be under the harrow. They were not violent,
they murdered no Moderator of the General Assembly. Other measures were
the Disarming Act, the prohibition to wear the Highland dress, and the
abolition of "hereditable jurisdictions," and the chief's right to call
out his clansmen in arms. Compensation in money was paid, from 21,000
pounds to the Duke of Argyll to 13 pounds, 6s. 8d. to the clerks of the
Registrar of Aberbrothock. The whole sum was 152,237 pounds, 15s. 4d.

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