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CULLODEN
MOOR
AND
THE STORY OF THE BATTLE |
The Retreat from
Culloden - Chapter 5 |
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Retreat from Culloden |
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THE PRINCE, when he at last
left the field, was accompanied by his chief counsellors and friends, and a
considerable body of horse, and followed by the foot of the portion of the
army who took this direction. They crossed the Nairn at the ford and old
Bridge of Faillie, on the old military road, between five and six miles from
the battle-field, and about 50 yards west of the present bridge. Passing a
peat moss till they got on firm ground, a council was held in a field by the
roadside, close to the Allt Ruadh, about 500 or 600 yards south from the
river. There was a large body of men present.
It was at Ballintruan, one and a half miles west of this, that the
Strathnairn and Strathdearn branches of the Clan Chattan had rendezvoused
and were embodied. Owing to the absence of the chief, who, as already
mentioned, was serving on the side of government, there was some difference
of opinion as to who should take the command. Lady MacIntosh, stepping up to
MacGillivray of Dunmaglass (a cadet of the clan Chattan), and, laying her
hand upon his arm, said there could be no doubt who should lead the clan.
The MacGillivrays nobly vindicated the distinction at Culloden, where so
many fell that from that day a perceptible decadence ensued in the number
and position of the small lairds among them.
From the Allt Ruadh the bulk of the force directed their steps to an
appointed rendezvous at Ruthven, in Badenoch, and were joined on the way,
near Loch Roy, by Cluny, with upwards of 400 men. The express for the
MacPhersons only reached Badenoch on the evening of the 14th; and, though
scattered, they were got together and marched with such expedition that they
had reached Dalmagarry, near the south end of Loch Moy, when the dismal news
was brought to them of the fate of the day. The very short notice they had
received demonstrates how much the Prince and the leaders of his army were
taken at unawares.
At Ruthven, a considerable body — but, it is now generally understood, not
several thousand men, as has been represented, but some 1500 or 1800 men —
assembled, noways daunted by their reverse; and the chiefs, among whom were
the Duke of Perth, the Marquis of Tullibardine, Lord George Murray, Lord
John Drummond, Lord Ogilvie and Lord Nairne, were eager to keep together and
continue the struggle, for the protection of their territories, and in the
hope of succours from France; at any rate, by protracting the struggle, to
compel favourable terms from government. Charles, however, was intent on
making his escape to France, in order, notwithstanding expectations hitherto
baffled, to use his personal influence for that aid which had been so
longingly looked for in vain; and he expected to fall in with some French
vessel on the west coast. The course he followed was most calamitous to
himself and his adherents. There was, at any rate, a respectable nucleus for
drawing together a formidable force; but the Prince seems of a sudden to
have had his eyes opened, by the severity of the reverse he had sustained,
to the utter hopelessness of a successful contest on the part of a portion
of the Highland clans with the strength of the British empire. It was only
by a coup de main any hope could ever have been entertained of success in
the enterprise. That blow had been delivered, and right gallantly; but
having proved not equal to the occasion, like the Highland onset on the day
of battle. the stroke could not be repeated.
Still, it seems to have been the Prince's duty to act at this crisis in
concert with those who had ventured their all for his sake. Taking his own
course, he had to skulk for five months a very outlaw, in momentary peril of
his life, subjected to excessive hardships, instead of dictating terms, if
not achieving success, at the head of a formidable army. In a few days a
communication was received from him, apprising the assembled chiefs at
Ruthven of his intentions; and, either directly or by implication, leading
to the conclusion that every man was to seek his safety as he best might;
and this, dispersing after a melancholy leave-taking, they proceeded to do.
Another abortive attempt to renew the war was concerted on the west coast,
at Muirlaggan, near the head of Loch Arkaig; a reunion which was attended by
Lochiel, Lord Lovat, Clanranald, Glenbucket, John Roy Stuart, Secretary
Murray, and others; in which they were encouraged by the arrival of a vessel
with no less than 38,000. But some of the parties were lukewarm, or lacked
confidence, and hung back from energetic action; and the appearance of the
Earl of Loudoun in Lochaber, with a large force of militia, nipped the
project in the bud. |
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Ruthven Barracks |
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FLIGHT OF THE PRINCE.
The Prince in his flight went to Tordarroch, where, getting no access, he
proceeded to Aberarder, and thence to Gortuleg, in Stratherrick, on the
Farigaig, and near Loch Farraline. He was accompanied by those who had been
his immediate counsellors during the campaign — Sir Thomas Sheridan, Mr.
O'Sullivan, Captain O'Neal, and Mr. John Hay, with a few others of inferior
rank. At Gortuleg he was received by Lord Lovat. It may well be conceived
that to the selfish and wily, though courageous and talented old chief, who
had spent his life in playing fast and loose, and had latterly even
attempted to screen himself at the expense of his first-born, no apparition
could have been more unwelcome than that of the fugitive Prince and his
little group of attendants, breathless with hot haste; Nemesis in their
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train; castles in the air dispersing at their
approach, as adissolving view. Yet he is said to have met the Prince with
expressions of attachment, but to have expressed great indignation on
learning his intention of abandoning the enterprise.
After some refreshment, the
Prince proceeded on his journey, and arrived in the course of the early
morning of Thursday at Invergarry Castle, which, however, was at the time
untenanted by any save a single domestic. Thence he made his way by the head
of Loch Arkaig to Arisaig, and thence to the Long Island, the Isle of Skye,
and back to the mainland, landing on the south side of Loch Nevis. From this
he wandered through the singularly rugged country between Loch Shiel and
Loch Hourn, contriving, with much difficulty, to penetrate the toils of his
pursuers. He thereafter received protection, in the mountains between
Glenmoriston and Strathglass, from the famous Seven Men of Glenmoriston men
reduced by the exigencies of the time to a wild life of reprisal on the
military parties who had ravished and held forcible possession of their
native glen; but, in their broken fortunes, proof, like some fifty others of
various ranks from time to time in the knowledge of his whereabouts, against
the government reward of £30,000
offered for the person of their Prince. The fugitive afterwards found
means, passing through Lochiel's country, to join his staunch friends, Cluny
and Lochiel, in their celebrated retreat — the Cage - on the south face of
Ben Alder, and off the west side of Loch Ericht, whence eventually. being
advised of the arrival in Loch nan Uamh of two French vessels which had been
fitted out for the purpose of his escape, he once more made his way to
Borradale, re- embarking on at the very spot where he had first landed in
the previous year.
His adventures and hair-breadth escapes were truly marvellous; and the young
Pretender's bearing at this period of his career, throughout dangers and
hardships of the most trying description, was in every way worthy of his
exalted birth. His equanimity and cheerfulness never failed him, though
suffering from frequent returns of a painful ailment. The Rev. John Cameron,
Presbyterian preacher and chaplain to Fort-William, thus describes the
Prince's personal appearance on occasion of a meeting in a hut in the wood
betwixt Achnasual at the end of Loch Arkaig:— "He was then barefooted, had
an old black kilt coat on, a plaid, philibeg, and waistcoat, a dirty shirt,
and a long red beard; a gun in his hand, a pistol and dirk by his side. He
was very cheerful, and in good health." In the words of Mr. Cameron, "He was
cautious and circumspect in the greatest danger; never at a loss in
resolving, with coolness, what to do uncommon resolution and fortitude in
all extremities." (Lyon in Mourning, i., 97, 101.)
PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD
It could not be but that in the ruin of a rash undertaking the principal
actor should be subjected to censorious detraction; and, accordingly,
Charles has been accused by some few of rashness, irresolution, ingratitude,
meanness, and want of feeling. That, in his latter days — disappointed,
hopeless, and aimless — he sank into selfish and gross indulgence, with all
its moral concomitants, is but too true. And when, after his vain struggle
for a kingdom, and then for bare life, the strain was relaxed, and all his
efforts to incite the courts of France and Spain to interpose, with men and
arms, for reinstatement of his family, reproved vain and futile his
disposition, indeed. altered for the worse. But it is remarkable how such
very slight trace of calumny or disaffection has transpired, considering the
hundreds involved in ruin — their persons exiled, relations numbered with
the dead, hearths desolated, and fortunes irretrievably broken. Were there
just cause for recrimination, the Highland clans and their Lowland fellows
showed a rare magnanimity in their silent endurance. He, in fact, seems to
have become the more endeared to them by the sacrifices they were called to
make.
Charles's was not a great character, and of qualities rather showy than
solid. But his enterprise was in the highest degree chivalric, and the
object of his ambition was pursued with great tenacity of purpose. He had
wonderful attractions of person and manner. His powers of persuasion
overcame the strong repugnance of the chiefs to take up arms without
effective foreign co-operation. Of commanding stature and vigorous frame, he
at once won hearts of the Highlanders, by his great bodily energy and
hardihood, by his adoption of the Highland dress and customs, and the
cordial and ready manner in which he shared the hardships of the campaign,
and by his courtesy, cheerful spirits, and affability; while amongst all
ranks of Jacobites, Highland and Lowland, he excited quite a furore of
loyalty and personal devotedness, the embers of which still smoulder in
hearts removed by several generations from the period of the '45. That a
sanguine temperament made him rash in the extreme, is evidenced by his
conceiving and executing the design of landing at Eriskay with but seven
persons to dispute a kingdom. Unfortunately for himself and his adherents,
he was not equally prompt and vigorous; and, like too many of his ancestors,
was too easily influenced by the opinion of other men, and of those who
studied the bent of his inclination rather than what was best to do. He lost
six precious weeks in Edinburgh after the victory of Prestonpans, instead of
pushing at once into the heart of England while the government was
unprepared, and leant too much to his foreign advisers, giving but a half
confidence to the natural leaders in the enterprise.
Bishop MacIntosh, in one of his letters, mentions that he had known many
individuals who had gone out to fight for Prince Charles, but he never knew
one who regretted having fought for him, or did not seem as if he would have
gladly perilled his life again for him. In Paris, on his return, he became
an object of the greatest possible interest. Though much sympathy was
expressed for him by the royal family of France, a stipulation was agreed
to, in the treaty of peace between that kingdom and Great Britain, that he
should be obliged to leave the French dominions; and when he disregarded all
intimations of the necessity of compliance, he had to be arrested (the
melodramatic distinction of silken ropes being used to bind him),
imprisoned, and forcibly deported out of France.
"Whenever the young Chevalier appeared in any of the public walks at Paris,
all the company followed the path he took, as impelled by irresistible
attraction. When he came to the theatres, the attention of the audience was
fixed upon him, regardless of what was presented upon the stage; upon his
entrance into a box, a general whisper in his favour ran from one side of
the theatre to the other, and few of the fair sex but let fall tears of pity
and admiration; while he alone seemed to be above a sense of his
misfortunes, and talked to the young nobility, with whom he was constantly
surrounded, in the same easy, cheerful, and affable manner he had always
done. The magnanimity with which he supported this last stroke, which was
looked upon as so fatal to his hopes, was now the general topic of eulogium
in all places; and the Princess Talmont spoke so largely of it, even in the
king's presence, that she was forbid the Court; and several other great
personages were highly in disgrace on the same account." — (Lockhart Papers,
vol. ii. p. 575).
There is something affectingly spirited in his patriotically, if
wrong-headedly, open expression of British sympathies in a foreign country
at enmity with his country, and to whose Court he was a suppliant. Of his
expulsion from France, Voltaire says:— "Quant a Charles Edouard il fut
arreté, garotté, mis en prison, conduit hors de France. Ce fut le dernier
coup dont la destinée accabla une generation des Rois pendant trois cent
années."
Such tokens of attachment and tributes of respect and goodwill, seem
sufficiently to belie the calumnies of a few. And, making every concession
for faults and defects, from which none are free, there is necessarily left
a large residuum of princely qualities suited to the time, to have commanded
such general approval of his conduct in circumstances the most trying.
"Humanity and gentleness were surely rather the prominent qualities of this
amiable Prince than any real vigour of mind, or any extraordinary
perspicuity. Personal courage, and the ardour of enterprise, few will doubt
that he possessed, notwithstanding the invidious suggestions as to the
former by some of his adherents. And it will be acknowledged by all, that in
the hour of trial, and in a long series of misfortunes, he displayed an
equanimity and a fortitude that may possibly have been equalled, but
certainly were never surpassed, by any individual. Although justice must
class him among the men not greatly fitted to recover a crown, yet he might
have worn it had it descended to him without reproach." — (Anti-Jacobin
Review, vols. xii. and xiii). |
THE PURSUIT.
To return to the battle-field. The right wing, or rather the portion of the
army which directed its course in a body to the south-west, as it
comprehended most of the other Clans, in its retreat presented so formidable
an appearance, that a large party of dragoons, who had been sent to
intercept them on their way to cross the Nairn, opened their ranks and
allowed them to pass unmolested, with the exception of a solitary officer,
who, attempting to seize a Highlander, was cut down with a single blow of
the claymore, and coolly despoiled of his gold watch in presence of his
astounded comrades. |
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Jacobites hiding from the
Redcoats after Culloden |
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In the course of the
retreat of this body it was that Gillies MacBean, a native of Strathnairn, a
man of prodigious bodily strength, said to have been 6 feet 4 inches in
height, one of the MacIntosh regiment and a member of one of the smaller
tribes connected with the powerful and old Celtic Clan Chattan, signalised
himself in a manner that has handed down his name to merited notoriety. It
appears from the Records that Gillies was proprietor of Kinchyle, near Dores,
at the lower end of Loch Ness, and his elder brother was proprietor of
Faillie, in Strathnairn, where the Prince and his followers crossed the
Nairn in their flight. At the farm- steading of Balvraid, being wounded, he
could not keep up with his companions; but, setting his back to the house
wall, determined to sell his life dearly. Tradition relates that he was not
cut down till he had made no less than thirteen troopers bite the dust; some
of the officers vainly crying "to save that brave fellow." Though left for
dead, he was found still in life and conscious, by an old woman from one of
the houses, who covered him, at his own desire, with straw; but he died
shortly after. Gillies had endeavoured to arm himself with the tram of a
louban or peat-cart, but was not able to disengage it. It is said that it
was by getting on the house-roof some of his assailants got the better of
him. The house was one of several there at the time, and stood within what
is now the corn-yard. He was buried beside it, and a large stone laid over
him, the position of which is still shown; but his friends removed the body.
In forming the corn-yard, a skeleton was discovered at the south-west
corner; and in removing a little mound for the formation of the west side of
the square of offices, where the servant girls, little wotting what was
underneath, used to rest their pails when carrying water from an adjoining
wall, another was dug up. On the north side of the offices there was a
malt-kiln, in which some of the wounded Highlanders sought refuge. In the
Moor, between Balvraid and Stable Hollow (the line of flight), in cutting
turf or otherwise, skeletons have been repeatedly turned up. All the
buildings at Balvraid were set on fire by the dragoons on the afternoon of
the Battle, to signal their victory to the fleet in the Firth. The cracked
and calcined state of the stones was to be seen in those last pulled down.
From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. One of the residents at
Balvraid fled on horseback. He was owner of a large pot, used for boiling in
the yearly washing of blankets; and being, it is said, the only article of
the kind on the Moor, it would seem to have been regarded as of peculiar
value; for, strange to say, it was borne away by the fugitive in his flight.
His solicitude, however, was in vain; for the precious pot was perforated by
a bullet, designed by the dragoons for a more deadly billet. The pot, with
the hole in it, was long to be seen, and may possibly be yet in some
household on the Moor.
The pursuit to Inverness was most disastrous to the fugitives. These
retreated, not in terror, but broken- hearted and in despair. Chevalier
Johnstone gives the following account, in his Memoirs of the Rebellion, of
the first movement in retreat, and of his own escape, so vividly realising
the situation, that the length of the extract may be excused:—
"My friendship for the unfortunate MacDonald of Scothouse, who was killed by
my side at the battle of Culloden, had induced me to advance to the charge
with his regiment. We were on the left of our army, and at the distance of
about twenty paces from the enemy, when the rout began to become general,
before we had even given our fire on the left. Almost at the same instant
that I saw Scothouse fall — the most worthy man I have ever known, and with
whom I had been connected, by-the-bye, in bonds of the purest friendship
from the commencement of our expedition — to add to the horror of the scene,
I perceived all the Highlanders round me turning their backs to fly. I
remained for a time motionless and lost in astonishment; I then, in a rage,
discharged my blunderbuss and pistols at the enemy, and immediately
endeavoured to save myself like the rest but having charged on foot and in
boots, I was so overcome by the marshy ground, the water on which reached to
the middle of the leg, that instead of running I could scarcely walk. I had
left my servant Robertson with my horses, on the eminence, about 600 yards
behind us [Culchuinag ?], where the Prince remained during the battle, with
orders to remain near the Prince's servants, that I might easily know where
to find my horses in case of need. My first object in retreating was to turn
my eyes toward the eminence, to discover Robertson, but it was to no
purpose. I neither saw the Prince not his servants, nor any one on
horseback. They had all gone off, and were already out of sight. I saw
nothing but the most horrible of all spectacles — the field of battle, from
the right to the left of our army, covered with Highlanders, dispersed and
flying as fast as they could to save themselves.
"Being no longer able to keep myself on my legs, and the enemy always
advancing very slowly, but redoubling their fire, my mind was agitated and
undecided whether I should throw away my life, or surrender a prisoner,
which was a thousand times worse than death on the battle-field. All at once
I perceived a horse, about thirty paces before me, without a rider. The idea
of being yet able to escape gave me fresh strength, and served as a spur to
me. I ran and laid hold of the bridle, which was fast in the hand of a man
lying on the ground, whom I supposed dead; but what was my surprise, when
the cowardly poltroon, who was suffering from nothing but fear, dared to
remain in the most horrible fire to dispute the horse with me, at twenty
paces from the enemy! All my menaces could not induce him to quit the
bridle. Whilst we were disputing, a discharge from a canon loaded with
grape-shot fell at our feet, and covered us with mud, without, however,
producing any effect upon this singular individual, who obstinately
persisted in retaining the horse. Fortunately for me, Finlay Cameron, an
officer in Lochiel's regiment, a youth of twenty years of age, six feet
high, and very strong and vigorous, happened to pass near me. I called on
him to assist me. 'Ah, Finlay,' said I, 'this fellow will not give me up the
horse.' Finlay flew to me like lightning, immediately presented his pistol
to the head of the man, and threatened to blow out his brains if he
hesitated a moment to let go the bridle. The fellow, who had the appearance
of a servant, at length yielded, and took to his heels. Having obtained the
horse, I attempted to mount him several times; but all my efforts were
ineffectual, as I was without strength, and completely exhausted. I called
again on poor Finlay, though he was already some paces from me, to assist me
to mount. He returned, took me in his arms with as much ease as if I had
been a child, and threw me on the horse like a loaded sack, giving the horse
at the same time a heavy blow to make him set off with me; then, wishing
that I might have the good fortune to make my escape, he bounded off like a
roe, and was in a moment out of sight. We were hardly more than fifteen or
twenty paces from the enemy when he quitted me. As soon as I found myself at
the distance of thirty or forty paces, I endeavoured to set myself right on
the horse, put my feet in the stirrups, and rode off as fast as the wretched
animal could carry me.
"I was too much indebted to Finlay Cameron not to endeavour continually to
ascertain his fate; but all my inquiries were in vain. His conduct on this
occasion was the more noble and generous, as I never had any particular
intimacy with him."
No quarter was given in the pursuit. All wearing the Highland dress, without
regard to age or sex, including several of the inhabitants of Inverness whom
curiosity had led towards the scene, were indiscriminately massacred. The
course of retreat was strewn at intervals with the slain to within a short
distance of Inverness, dead bodies being found at Kingsmills and Millburn,
and indeed close to the town, where, and within which, too, several,
disarmed and helpless, were remorselessly hacked to death. The retreat was
more fatal than the engagement. One poor gentleman is reported, on the
authority of the quartermaster of Sempill's regiment, at a distance of two
miles from the battle-field, staggering in his wounds, to have begged
protection for his ebbing life from the latter, while he recommended his
soul to God: but a general officer came up, who cried out, "Damn you, Shaw!
do you mean to save the life of a rebel?" on which he had to forsake the
suppliant, whom he saw in an instant cut to pieces. The same narrator says
(see Jacobite Memoirs and Lyon in Mourning, ii. 310) —
"The third day after the battle I intended to have gone the length of the
field; but, on travelling little more than a mile, I was so shocked with the
dismal sight I saw in that distance of the carnage made on both sides, that
I returned; and pretty near Stoneyfield (which is 1½ miles from the town) I
saw a beggar [some word omitted here] with his meal-pock about his neck; and
at a half-a- mile's distance from that, a woman stripped. On my return, I
came by the King's-mills (within ½ mile of Inverness), and discovered some
of that people, at whose doors there were twelve or fourteen corpses lying
all stripped; and when I, under my breath, or with a low voice, said that it
was an ugly sight, I was answered that it was as much as their lives were
worth to disapprove of it." They also told him, he says, that they had
wounded a woman in one of their houses, and "an infant whom they found at
his mother's breast when she was dead; and when the soldiers killed her,
that they had carried the infant several yards from the dead body, but that
it had crawled afterwards to it. I saw, betwixt the King's-mills and John
Clark's park, a boy betwixt ten and twelve years of age, and his head cloven
to his teeth."
"A very honest old gentleman of the name of MacLeod was pursued by two of
the light horse from the place of action to the hill near Inverness, called
the Barnhill; and when he came there, and found it impossible to save his
life any farther by flight, he went on his knees and begged quarter of the
two that pursued him, but both of them refused his request, and shot him
through the head."
The principal lines of flight of the fugitives to Inverness are laid down on
an old plan, apparently of the time of the battle, as by about the west end
of the Culloden Birch Wood to Drakies, and also along the north edge of the
Moor, and to the west of and above Inshes, and from both to King's-mills.
But others descended towards the sea. In the wall of the former old house at
Ashton, near Stoneyfield, a cannon-ball was found imbedded. In the field to
the west of the barn, behind the stables at Culloden House, a skeleton was
turned up. It has been remarked, as a curious coincidence, that the horses
of persons living in Culloden House almost invariably shy in passing the
road opposite to the spot. |
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Murder by Redcoats in the
streets of Inverness (Genocide) |
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INCIDENTS AT INVERNESS.
Old John MacLean, who survived to his 103rd year, whose Reminiscences of a
Clachnacudin Nonagenarian, were published in 1842, states that Inverness was
almost deserted by the inhabitants who desired to be spectators of the
field, but in multitudes of instances, became included in the casualties of
the retreat. He narrates:
"But how shall I depict the anxiety of those whose domestic or other duties
confined them to their houses or the town, to ascertain the state of the
conflict, or the probable results of the day? The death-knells of relatives,
of clansmen, or, at least, of countrymen were continually reaching them from
the reports of musketry, and the heavier peal of artillery, reverberated by
the amphitheatre of adjacent mountains. Many a female heart fluttered,
on that eventful day, to learn how it |
fared with children,
husbands, brothers or lovers; and oftentimes I heard my mother speak of the
anxiety she felt — how she strained her eyes from the door of the bothy
where I now dwell (on the Green of Muirtown), and which then commanded a
view of the road. Exhausted with fatigue, as clansmen passed the bothy, they
exclaimed to my mother, 'A bhean, a bhean, thoir dhuinn deoch' — 'woman,
woman, give us a drink' My mother busily employed herself in handing basins
of water to the men from the bothy. Her anxiety to catch some information
respecting the battle may be more easily imagined than described, when it is
stated that her own two brothers were both fighting on the Prince's side. At
length she had the joy of seeing them arrive, of supplying them also with
water, and viewing their safety on their way to the Aird, where they eluded
detection."
Old John further, in connection with the 16th of April, 1746, and the state
of the old stone bridge, which has been replaced by the suspension bridge,
and of Bridge Street, leading to it, narrates that the bridge had then a
stone gateway at each end, the principal one being the eastern, having on
one side the town arms, since removed to the gable of the Townhall, and
massive gates, bristled on the top with spikes, and with a small wicket in
the gate. Bridge Street was then very narrow, especially near the bridge.
The gateway occupied the whole space between the houses on either side.
These, the town residences of Forbes of Culloden and Robertson of Inshes,
projected much beyond the present lines of the street, as does still the
front of the house in which Queen Mary is said to have had her abode during
a sojourn in the Highland capital. All of these, as most other houses, were
provided with a projecting semi-cylindrical excrescence, in which were
turnpike stairs of stone or wood, forming the access, which was to the
first, not the ground, floor; consequently the passage along the street was
very confined — a mere lane. Of these turnpike stairs there were, in the
recollection of the author, some in High Street and Church Street. Now, the
only remaining specimen is one in what is known as Abertarff's Close, off
Church Street, below the Commercial Bank. At the bridge-gateway there was an
archway on one hand, by which there was a narrow egress up the river side.
Nonagenarian asserts — though in this he is surely under some mistake, for
we are not aware of the circumstance being elsewhere recorded — that a party
of the Argyleshire militia, disguised in the garb of the Prince's followers,
anticipating the result of the battle, had marched into the town, then
generally deserted by the inhabitants, and, mustering with drawn swords
around the eastern bridge gateway, had locked the gates, thus obstructing
the line of retreat for the Highland army. That such an operation had been
devised and achieved by the enemy, by anticipation, does not seem at all
likely; nor does there appear a probability of any portion of their foot
having been able, after the issue of the conflict had declared itself, to
outrun the fugitives and intercept them at this very important point. But
the gates may have been closed by mischance, — an occurrence quite
intelligible in the confusion; and the circumstance of their having been
closed is a matter of fact as to which there could not well be any mistake.
He narrates that the fugitives, finding the bridge-gates closed, turned
aside through the side archway, and forded the river immediately above the
bridge; and in this way he accounts for silver buckles and coins having been
found in the bed of the stream opposite Ness House. The narrow street soon
became choked up by the main body of the retreating troops.
"A Dr. Fraser," he proceeds, "of the family of Relig, who had fought on the
Prince's side, on reaching the spot, and beholding the cause and
consequences of the obstruction, exclaimed, 'My God, men, will you stand
here and be butchered? Do you not hear the bugles of the king's troopers at
the other end of the town?' and, rushing on, claymore in hand, the
Argyleshire men were cut down, trampled over, the gates of the bridge
forced, and a retreat secured to the mountainous district of Craig Phadric,
Dunain, and Strathglass."
The sons of some of the neighbouring gentry, who had ventured, out of boyish
curiosity, rather near the scene of action, narrowly escaped from the
dragoons who were scouring the Moor. Colonel Alexander MacIntosh of Parr
used to tell that his father went with the late Hon. Archibald Fraser of
Lovat, the late Arthur Robertson of Inshes, and two other boys, all at the
school of Petty, towards the battle-field, early on the 16th of April, and
saw the wearied troops of Prince Charles march past them, amongst whom was
his father, Angus MacIntosh of Parr, captain in Dunmaglass's regiment, who
fell on the field that day. He did not speak to his father: but though only
a boy in his fourteenth year, and he lived to be ninety, never did he forget
the careworn and dejected expression of his father's face.
The late Mr. John Rose, tacksman of Kirkton, who was born at Balvraid, and
had the farm of Leanach on an improving lease, used to mention that a party
of the Prince's followers devoutly engaged before the battle in solemnly and
appropriately singing the 20th Psalm—
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"Jehovah hear thee in
the day
When trouble He cloth send," |
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A straw or a feather serves
to indicate how the wind sets. There was a very old man in the village of
Evanton, in Ross-shire, alive about 1840, who used to tell that he had been
sent by a neighbouring laird, on the morning of the battle, with a letter
for a correspondent near the Moor. The bearer ventured as near as he dared
to the scene, and so distracted was he by the sight, and din, and danger,
that he returned home without fulfilling his mission. A female servant in
Mr. Rose's family related that her grandfather had told her that he was at
the time a boy herding on the Moor; and having been attracted by the digging
of the trenches, had drawn near to look on, when one of the persons so
engaged lifted a man's dissevered arm and struck him on the cheek, bidding
him to go away.
CASUALTIES.
The number of the Prince's followers who fell on this occasion has never
been precisely ascertained, but is generally supposed, including the
wounded, who, as will appear, were murdered on the battlefield in cold
blood, on the immediately succeeding days, to have been from 1000 to 1200.
The returns of killed and wounded of the Duke's army exhibit a total of 310,
of which number the casualties in Barrel's regiment amount to 125, and in
Munro's to 82; while in Thigh's they were 21, and 14 in Sempill's — the
supporting regiments.
Lord Robert Kerr, son of the Marquis of Lothian, a young man of much
promise, was the only person of rank who fell; Colonel Rich, of Barrel's
regiment, the officer of highest rank wounded. The former had driven his
spontoon into his opponent's body, but not observing that the survivors
about him were saving their lives by flying within the protection of the
regiments behind, he was instantly cut to pieces. He is said to have been
cleft from the crown of the head to the collar-bone. The effects of the
sword- blows in Highland warfare were often terrific. This was particularly
exemplified in Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel's time, when a large party from
the garrison of Inverlochy were destroyed by an ambuscade in the wood of
Achdhalieu, on Lochiel side. On this occasion a limb was found lopped off,
or other equally remark able wound inflicted on every corpse.
There fell into the hands of the victors 30 pieces of ordnance and
swivel-guns, 2320 firelocks, and 190 broadswords, besides a quantity of
ammunition and various small stores, and also 14 stands of colours. "These
last were, on the 4th of June, carried, by a procession of chimney-sweeps,
from the Castle to the Cross of Edinburgh, and there burnt by the hands of
the common hangman, with many suitable marks of contempt."
The French and Irish regiments under General Stapleton were, on his
solicitation, assured of fair quarter, and several hundred others were also
made, or voluntarily surrendered themselves, prisoners. Several ladies who
had been active in the Prince's service, Lady MacIntosh among the number,
were also put into durance. Of these last the Mercury, 6th May, says:—
"Some of the rebel ladies, who are now prisoners, having behaved like men,
with a true military spirit, it is presumed that, although no cartel can be
admitted with regard to the rebel gentlemen, there will be no impropriety in
exchanging those ladies against such of our officers as on former occasions
behaved like women, and are still in the power of the Pretender's friends,
either in France or Scotland."
CONTEMPORARY NOTICE.
The following contemporary notice of the battle appeared in the National
Journal, London, June 7, copied into the Mercury of the 12th June:—
" By all accounts of t Battle of Culloden, from those of both sides who
seem to be impartial, it is allowed tt t young Pretender behaved with great
courage and sedateness, tt just before t battle began he rode along t line &
through t ranks of his army, encouraging t men both by his voice & action;
tt in t engagement he had his horse shot under him, & his groom killed while
he was mounting another; tt several about him were killed; tt he endeavoured
to rally his troops & some of t clans, & retired in such order tt t three
squadrons of our horse sent to pursue them could make no impression.
"Then, with regard to t troops under his command, if we consider t
circumstances they were in, we cannot reckon them such banditti or such
poltroons as they have been represented by t nonsensical correspondents of
our more nonsensical newspapers. They had been for several weeks without
pay, & without any provisions but a scrimp allowance of oatmeal, wh. was t
reason of their being so few in number, being little above 5000, and many of
these not completely armed. They had t night before t action marched 12
miles, with an intent to surprise t Duke; and when they found or thought
themselves disappointed in that, they had marched so far back again, and,
being closely followed by t Duke's army, were obliged to engage in battle
before they had their sleep or refreshment, wh. was enough to dispirit any
troops in t world. Yet, notwithstanding all this, their front line,
especially their right, attacked with a fury next to madness; but being
flanked in their advance to t attack by a battery of six pieces of canon
upon t Duke's left and received with great firmness and intrepidity by our
troops, who kept up their fire till the enemy came up to t very muzzles of
their muskets, and being opposed by fresh battalions from the rear, after
they had broken through some of these tt were in t front line, they were
thrown into confusion, and at last entirely defeated, with a slaughter among
their Low Country foot and t lookers on, wh. we cannot at present give a
true account of; for, as to t Highlanders, most of them retreated in such
order as to prevent them suffering much in the pursuit. These are t most
important accounts of this most important battle and t most likely to be
true tt we have been hitherto able to collect; and these surely will redound
much more to t Duke's Honour, and to t Honour of t troops under his command,
than any of these false and ridiculous accounts of t rebels and their leader
tt have been published by our brethren of t quill."
As at Holyrood and Falkirk, the Duke took up his quarters in Inverness where
the Prince had lodged, and even occupied the same bed. Lady Drummuir's
comment on these guests was, "I've had twa kings' bairns living with me in
my time, and, to tell you the truth, I wish I may never hae another!"
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