Early on the morning of the 16th of April, the army advanced in three columns towards Inverness, and about eleven o’clock the rebel forces were discovered on Culloden moor, when the royal army formed for battle; the Thirteenth regiment having its post in Brigadier-General Mordaunt’s division, and bringing into the field twenty-two officers, twenty-three serjeants, nineteen drummers, and three hundred and ten rank and file. In the first instance, the regiment formed part of the reserve, but as the army advanced, a change in the character of the ground occasioned the Thirteenth foot to be ordered forward to take post on the right of the royals. The fire of cannon was succeeded by several charges, in which the King’s troops were victorious. A body of Highlanders, with broad swords and targets, advanced towards the Thirteenth foot, but they were intimidated by the gallant bearing of the regiment, and fled from the field before the soldiers could close upon them with bayonets. The rebel army was routed at every part of the field, and pursued for several miles with great slaughter, and the loss of all its artillery. Thus the events of one day transformed the young Pretender from an imaginary monarch to a destitute fugitive, and after enduring great hardship and suffering he escaped to France.
After the victory at Culloden, the regiment was encamped a short period at Inverness, and it was subsequently employed in escorting the prisoners taken on that occasion.
The rebellion in Scotland having been suppressed, the Thirteenth regiment was ordered to return to the Netherlands. It landed in Holland in the autumn and advanced up the country to Maestricht, where it arrived on the 9th of October. At this period, the French army under Marshal Saxe, and the allied army under Prince Charles of Lorraine, were manœuvring in the vicinity of the city of Liege, and an engagement being expected, the regiment received orders to advance with all possible expedition, and join the army. In obedience to these orders, the regiment quitted Maestricht, and, by a forced march, arrived in the vicinity of Liege on the morning of the 11th of October, at the moment when the French army was developing its attack on three villages, which were occupied by eight battalions of English, Dutch, and Hessians. The regiment was instantly ordered to take post near the village of Roucoux, under the command of Brigadier-General Houghton. The leading brigades of the enemy were repulsed, and a second line of combatants was defeated; but the enemy brought forward so many fresh troops, that the eight battalions were driven from the villages by superior numbers. A retreat was ordered, which was executed with great regularity, and the army inarched to the vicinity of Maestricht.
1747
The regiment was subsequently employed in the province of Limburg, and passed the winter in quarters near the Dutch frontiers.
In the spring of 1747, the regiment took the field, and formed part of the army under the command of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. After encamping for a short period near the banks of the Scheldt, it was employed in operations on the Great Nethe and on the Demer. On the 1st of July, the opposing armies confronted each other between Tongres and Maestricht, and the Thirteenth, twenty-fifth, and thirty-seventh regiments, with Freudeman’s Hanoverians, and a portion of artillery, took possession of the village of Val, situate about a league from Maestricht, and on the south of the road from that place to Tongres. The day was passed in cannonading and skirmishing, and the troops lay all the night on their arms.
Early on the morning of the 2nd of July, the French infantry descended the hills, and advanced in a grand column of upwards of sixty battalions against the village of Val, where the Thirteenth and three other regiments were formed to resist this immense array of French power, and the Duke of Cumberland galloped to that part of the field to encourage the soldiers to a determined resistance, and to be ready to support them as circumstances might require. About ten o’clock, the French artillery opened a heavy fire, and the second shot killed the Duke of Cumberland’s German aide-de-camp, Baron Ziggesaer: under the cover of this cannonade, the leading brigade of the French column attacked the village, and the British battalions withstood the tempest of war with astonishing firmness, repulsing the French regiments, and driving them back with severe loss. As the discomfited regiments retired, a second line of combatants advanced to storm the village, but they were met, overthrown, and driven back in disorder, and the Thirteenth and other regiments at that point remained triumphant at their post. Few moments elapsed before a fresh body of assailants came rushing forward, but the British battalions were again victorious; and a fourth attack on the village was also repulsed. The French commander appeared determined to carry this point, and his superior numbers enabling him to continue to send forward fresh troops, he eventually gained possession of the village; but the Thirteenth, and other corps which had occupied that post, were reinforced by four additional battalions, and they returned to the charge, and recovered the village in gallant style. The vicinity of Val was covered with killed and wounded men, and several French brigades had been nearly destroyed, yet the French commander continued to order forward fresh troops: the soldiers on both sides fought with great resolution, and the village was lost and won several times.
The superior numbers of his army gave Marshal Saxe a decided advantage, and after the display of British valour, which reflected great honor on the corps engaged, the army was ordered to retreat towards Maestricht.
In the narratives of this battle published at the time, the heroic conduct of the corps engaged is highly commended. The Thirteenth foot had Lieutenant Haddock and forty rank and file killed; Captain Stafford, Lieutenant Naylor, Ensign Holyday, five serjeants, two drummers, and seventy rank and file wounded; fifty-one non-commissioned officers and soldiers prisoners of war and missing.