The End Of An Era
Scottish clans were divided and fought on both sides of the battle, but all ultimately paid the price
WITHIN and between clans, the reasons why the people of Scotland chose to fight for or against Charles Stuart and the Jacobite cause were complex.
Clan obligations, political philosophies, religion, personal loyalties, pro- and anti-union sentiment, family dynamics and many more factors were all at play here, making Jacobitism an intensely personal allegiance.
Many, however, would simply have followed their chieftains, who were well aware that the clan system was steadily fading and hoped that backing Charles Stuart’s cause would prolong it.
The total fighting strength of the Highland clans in 1745 is estimated at 30,000 men. Yet, only 6000 stood alongside Charles at Culloden, demonstrating that clan support for the Jacobites in 1745-46 was far from universal.
As ever, clan Campbell was foremost among those fighting for the government side. John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, organised recruitment and saw Culloden as a chance to settle old scores against the Macleans, Camerons, and Stewarts. Other clans in the government army included clans Grant, Gunn, Mackay, Munro, Ross, and Sutherland.
These Highland regiments wore the kilt and plaid and fought with dirk, musket, and broadsword just like their Jacobite counterparts. To distinguish themselves from Jacobites, they wore badges of myrtle and a red or yellow saltire on their bonnets, in contrast with Jacobites’ distinctive white cockades.
The vast majority of clansmen formed the Jacobite’s front line, where the heaviest losses were taken. While this account is not exhaustive, on the right were the Atholl men, including clans Robertson, Menzies, Rattray, and
Clan support for the Jacobites in 1745-46 universal” was far from
Mercer. To their left stood the Camerons of Lochiel, Stewarts of Appin, Clans Maclaren and Murray, and Lord Lovat’s Frasers.
Branches of the Clan Chattan confederation formed the centre, including Farquharsons, Macgillivrays, Macleans, Macleods, and Maclachlans. Then came men of Edinburgh and Strathspey, and to their left were clan Chisholm, the Macdonalds of Clanranald, Keppoch, and Glengarry, a few Mackenzies of Seaforth, and Grants of Glen Urquhart and Glenmoriston.
But the second line barely participated.
The Atholl men and Clan Chattan were first to charge, while the Macdonalds reeled and refused to advance into near-certain death. Almost none of the Highlanders that broke through the government front line survived to tell of their bravery.
Several chieftains fell, such as Alexander Macdonald of Keppoch who spurred the Macdonalds into action but was shot twice before reaching the enemy lines, and Lochiel, who had his ankles broken by canister within a few yards of the government lines.
It wasn’t the battle itself that ended the clan system, but the systemic changes that followed it. The Disarming Act of 1746 forbade Highlanders from carrying weapons and ended the right of chiefs to demand military service.
Chieftains could no longer execute the law within their own domain, something that had always defined their authority. The estates of 40 Jacobite leaders were confiscated by the Crown, reducing chiefs to mere landlords. Individual leaders were pursued long after the battle.
The patriarchal, kin-based relationship between chief and clan was utterly severed, replaced by a centralised power in London.
Such forces, more than any bullet fired across Culloden Moor, ended the age of the clan.