The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Culloden’s cruelty still resonates 275 years on
It was a pitched battle which was done and dusted in less time than half a football match. By the climax, thousands of men lay dead or wounded, while others were scattered to the wind, pursued by vengeful forces who hunted down their enemies and either slaughtered them or transported them to the West Indies.
Even now, 275 years later, Culloden is a word which provokes strong emotions among the descendants of those who perished on a brooding, boggy moor, east of Inverness in the Highlands.
Charles Edward Stuart, whose forces were vanquished, is still painted as a romantic figure in some quarters, whose pursuit of the Jacobite cause brought him into direct conflict with the British government.
Whereas his chief opponent, Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, is now almost universally associated with the word “Butcher”, following his soldiers’ merciless treatment of anybody who stood against him, during and after the bloody events on April 16 1746.
It was the last battle fought on British soil – yet many of the reverberations and divisions which sparked the hostilities remain relevant today.
Bonnie Prince Charlie had assembled an impressive fighting force since arriving in Scotland and had access to many men of immense experience.
However, history has not been kind to his preparations for the clash at Culloden, where he was tactically outmanoeuvred and out-flanked by the government forces, who held the advantage in every department, from numerical supremacy to superior quality of weaponry.
The Jacobites mustered only 5,000 men at Culloden; as many as 2,000 were on operations elsewhere and this was from a total clan fighting force estimated at around 30,000 men.
Nor did it help that most of the troops were exhausted by April 1746.
In comparison, the Duke of Cumberland’s 9,000-strong force constituted a well-balanced force of horse and foot, which was amply supported by cannon and mortars.
Given these disparities, it
was scarcely surprising that Culloden swiftly developed into a catastrophe for the Jacobite ranks.
Professor James Hunter, of the University of the Highlands and Islands, has investigated the build-up to the battle and highlighted the increasing divisions and difficulties which bedevilled the Jacobites.
Prof Hunter has little doubt that the seeds of defeat were sown from the very moment the prince decided that Culloden was the right place to fight.
Charles found himself at loggerheads with the best of his commanders, Lord George Murray, who argued against a setting such as a moor, but whose warnings were ignored.
The outcome was the destruction of a whole way of life.
One of the Jacobite survivors, Donald Mackay, summed up the horror of the situation in which he and his comrades found themselves when he later wrote: “The battle began and the pellets came at us like hailstones.
“The big guns were thundering and causing frightful break up among us, but we ran forward and – oh dear! oh dear! – what cutting and slicing there was...”
Even as his troops were left in disarray under heavy fire, Charles fled the field and escaped while his loyal soldiers struggled on.
He was able to spend the rest of his life in affluence before dying in Rome 42 years later at the age of 67.
Those who fought for him were not so fortunate and the old clan culture was destroyed.