The Rebels being upon their march to Inverness both those who came the low way by Aberdeen and those who came by the Highland Road with the Young Pretender; the Earl of Loudon furnished the Castle of Inverness, which Major Grant commanded,[319] with a company of Red Coats, with stores of provisions, and added two independent Companies, the Grants and that commanded by the Master of Ross, and by the defences he made about the town he seemed disposed to maintain Inverness against the Rebels: but upon their approach and considering their numbers and that the place was not tenable, he made a well conducted retreat over the Ferry of Kissack towards Ross-shire. When the retreat was a-making the Rebels carried a field piece to the shore below Inverness and having planted it upon a rising ground within flood mark, they discharged it several times, at the Boats on their passage, without doing any execution, though the bullets lighted very near the Boats, particularly that in which was Lord Loudon which was the last that passed, and one of them among the men drawn up on the other side after their landing.
The Rebels immediately took possession of Inverness, and laid siege to the Castle, which was surrendered the third day; but as to the particulars of this sort of siege you are referred to the proceeding of the Court Martial which condemned and cashiered the Governor.
Before Lord Loudon left Inverness, and upon the approach of the Rebels, he called upon the Lord Sutherland, Lord Reay and the Master of Ross, to get up to Inverness all the men they could make. Whereupon my Lord Sutherland marched in person at the head of 400 men. The Master having called upon the Laird of Inverchasley and his other friends, four companies of Rosses were ready and upon their march to Inverness their advanced party met Loudon immediately as he landed in Ross. They were astonished to find the Master of Ross their leader had been pent up in the Castle of Inverness, however they waited Lord Loudon his orders: some of them he advised home, to others he gave arms and pay, and they were with him in Sutherland. My Lord Sutherland by Loudon’s orders retreated to his own country, his four hundred men last mentioned, continued under arms. The McCays, by reason of the distance of their country, would not come up with Lord Loudon, till they found him retreated to Sutherland where they joined him.
The day after Loudon’s retreat from Inverness, he marched down from East Ross where he continued for three or four days: and upon intelligence that a strong body of the Rebels under the Earl of Cromartie, Commander in chief benorth Beully had come to West Ross and were upon their way to attack him. He with the Lord President and several gentlemen who had taken flight from Murray to Ross, and all the men under his command (excepting the two McKenzie Companies who dispersed themselves immediately after the retreat from Inverness and not one of them having followed him) he retreated to Sutherland with a resolution to guard the Passes to that country against the Rebels. Several gentlemen of this country, particularly Inverchasley and ministers who had been so active in raising men to join Loudon, thought fit to repair at the same time to Sutherland. Lord Fortrose left his troup at Brahan and took flight to the Highlands of his own country,[320] where he remained with a body of his men about him till after the Battle of Culloden.
The Earl of Loudon when he got into Sutherland posted his men along the Firth of Tain which divides Sutherland from Ross: from Dornoch to Lairg the difference of ten miles.
The remains of Loudon’s Regiment being about 200 were posted at Dornoch: the McCays being 300 at the Muckle Ferry, three miles above Dornoch: the two McDonald Companies at Pulrossie, a mile above the Ferry: the Inverness Company at Spengadale, two miles above the McDonalds: the Munroes at Criech, two miles above Spengadale: McLeod of Guineas his Company at the Bonar, a mile above Criech: the Laird of McLeod with his 400 men at the Pass of Invershin, three miles above the Bonar; and the Sutherlands to the number of 600 at Lairg and thereabout.
Tayne, Feb. 13, 1747.
MEMOIRS OF THE REBELLION IN 1745 AND 1746, SO FAR AS IT CONCERNED THE COUNTIES OF ABERDEEN AND BANFF
Gordon of Glenbucket rises
The first man in these countys that rose in this rebellion, was John Gordon, Elder of Glenbucket. Immediately on the Young Pretender’s landing, he went to the Highlands to meet him and returned directly with a Commission as Major-General and some money to raise men, and he soon got together about 300 mostly from Strathdawn[321] and Glenlivet and some too from Strathboggy, all parts of the Duke of Gordon’s Estate.