On arriving at the Braes of Mar, Cannon was joined by the Farquharsons, the Frasers, the Gordons of Strathdown and Glenlivet, and by 200 of the Macphersons. Keppoch and young Lochiel also met him.[611] At Aberdeen, Mackay received an express from the Master of Forbes, informing him that Cannon had taken up a very strong position upon his father’s lands, having the Highlands at his back and a wood to cover him in front; the position being so well chosen that he could keep up a free communication with his friends in the lower parts of the shires of Aberdeen and Banff. Judging that Cannon’s object in selecting such a position was to strengthen himself in horse from the adjoining low country, of which species of force he stood in most need, Mackay, with the view of obstructing his levies, ordered Sir Thomas Livingston to leave the command of the forces at Inverness with Sir James Leslie, and to repair immediately to Strathbogie with his regiment of dragoons, with instructions, should the enemy appear in that quarter, to march farther to the left across the low country, and to send him despatches from time to time, announcing the state of matters. At the same time he ordered Sir John Lanier to send Hayford’s regiment of dragoons to Aberdeen to strengthen him.
After remaining a day at Aberdeen, Mackay marched up Dee-side to beat up Cannon’s quarters, but learning on his march that the Highlanders had left Lord Forbes’s lands and had gone north in the direction of the Duke of Gordon’s territory, he drew off his men next morning at break of day towards Strathbogie, for the purpose of covering Livingston’s march. Mackay having nothing but cavalry, got the start of Cannon, and reached Strathbogie before Cannon arrived at the castle of Auchindoun, where he intended to fix his head quarters. At Auchindoun, Cannon was informed that Mackay was already at the castle of Strathbogie, a distance of about six miles. He, thereupon, called a council of war to discuss the expediency of giving battle to Mackay. A preliminary question was agitated by the Highland chiefs as to the right of the Lowland officers to sit in the council, the former contending that as none of these officers had any troops under their immediate command, and were wholly unacquainted with the discipline of the Highlanders and their mode of fighting, they had no right to deliberate on the subject, and were unable to form a correct judgment on the question they were called upon to discuss. The decision of this point lay with Cannon, who, by the advice of the Earl of Dunfermline, decided the question against the Highlanders. A judgment more unfortunate to the cause of King James could not have been pronounced, as it gave rise to jealousies and strifes among the officers, and when the question whether a battle should be hazarded was put to the vote, the clans who were for fighting Mackay immediately, found themselves in a minority. This was followed by a resolution to return to Athole. As matters stood, the chances of victory on either side may be considered to have been pretty fairly balanced, but subsequent events showed that Cannon in the present instance omitted the best opportunity he was ever destined to have of gaining a victory which might have decided the fate of Scotland.
Although Mackay’s men were almost worn out with extreme fatigue, being kept under arms every night for a considerable time, and only allowed an occasional repose by turns during the day-time, the general resolved to follow Cannon with all possible despatch.
The cause of Cannon’s movement was owing to the following circumstances. The privy council wishing to obtain possession of the castles of Blair and Finlarig, had sent a letter to Mackay at Strathbogie with instructions to proceed to these places before the rainy season should set in, for the purpose of reducing and putting garrisons into them. Mackay, in answer, stated his inability to undertake such a service in the face of the formidable force which lay so near him, and that he did not conceive there was any necessity for being in such a hurry, as, from the proximity of these castles to the low country, he could make himself master of them at any time if sufficiently strong. But he observed, that if the council was bent upon the undertaking, they might direct Sir John Lanier to order some foot and Barclay’s regiment to join him from Forfar, and with these and three battalions of the Dutch regiments, then at Perth, and which had not been at the battle of Killiecrankie, execute that piece of service. Upon receiving Mackay’s answer, the council ordered the Earl of Angus’s regiment, known by the name of the Cameronian regiment—a band of stern, fearless, religious enthusiasts from the west—to advance to Dunkeld, with the view, it is supposed, of supporting Lanier. Mackay was quite averse to the employment of these men, and disapproved of the plan of posting them so near the Highlands, the effect of which, he observed, would be, that they would be instantly attacked, “because the enemy had not such prejudice at any of the forces as at this regiment, whom they called the Cameronian regiment, whose oppression against all such as were not of their own sentiments, made them generally hated and feared in the northern counties.”[612] Accordingly, no sooner had they encamped at Dunkeld, than some of King James’s friends in Athole resolved to put them off, and a notice was sent to Cannon to return south with that view, in consequence of which, he raised his camp and proceeded suddenly towards the Dee, as already mentioned.
Mackay followed him, and on arriving at Aberdeen, warned Sir John Lanier of the advance of Cannon, and to prevent the Highlanders from making any inroads, he sent out small parties of his men to scour the neighbouring country. When Lanier was informed of Cannon’s approach, he left Forfar, where he was posted with his own and Barclay’s regiment, for Brechin, near to which town the enemy had advanced. Some skirmishing took place between the advanced posts, with loss on both sides. The Highlanders, thereupon, retired to the hills, and Lanier, who was ignorant of the object of Cannon’s march, returned to Forfar. Here he received orders from the privy council to march to the castles of Blair and Finlarig, in consequence of which he proceeded to Coupar-Angus the following day, where intelligence was brought him from Colonel Ramsay, that the Highlanders were marching upon Dunkeld. He was informed at the same time that the Cameronian regiment, which was disadvantageously posted, would assuredly be defeated, if not immediately supported. Instead of sending any instructions to Ramsay, who required his advice, Lanier delayed forwarding an answer till he should arrive at Perth the following day, “in which interim,” says Mackay, “if the providence of God had not blinded Cannon, and disheartened his Highlanders from continuing their attack, the regiment had certainly been lost, for they had two full days’ time to carry them, and all their defence was but low gardens, in most places not above four feet high.”[613]
On Sunday morning, the 18th of August, the Cameronians, in expectation of an attack, began to entrench themselves within some inclosures about the Marquis of Athole’s house at Dunkeld. The country people, in parties of ten and twenty, appeared during the morning on the neighbouring hills, and about four in the afternoon a body of about 300 men drew up on a hill to the north of Dunkeld, whence they despatched a messenger, who carried a halbert surmounted by a white cloth as a flag of truce, with a letter without any subscription, addressed to Lieutenant-colonel Cleland, the commanding officer, of the following tenor:—“We the gentlemen assembled being informed that ye intend to burn the town, desire to know whether ye come for peace or war, and do certify you, that if ye burn any one house, we will destroy you.” To which communication Lieutenant-colonel Cleland replied as follows:—“We are faithful subjects to King William and Queen Mary, and enemies to their enemies; and if you, who send these threats, shall make any hostile appearance, we will burn all that belongs to you, and otherwise chastise you as you deserve.”
On the first alarm of the Highlanders’ approach to Dunkeld, Colonel Ramsay sent up some troops of horse and dragoons under Lord Cardross to assist the Cameronians in case of attack. This party arrived at Dunkeld on Tuesday morning, but the Highlanders not being yet sufficiently numerous, showed no disposition to attack the Cameronians that day. At night, Cleland received intelligence that the fiery cross had been sent round, and that a considerable gathering had taken place, and next morning the Highlanders began to appear in large parties among the hills, between whom and some detached parties of horse and foot which Cleland sent out to scour the country, some brisk skirmishing took place during the day. The Highlanders having retired, Cleland’s forces returned to Dunkeld in the evening, where Lord Cardross received an order from Colonel Ramsay to return instantly to Perth, from an absurd apprehension that the cavalry could be of little use in defending the position occupied by the Cameronian regiment. When Cleland, who appears to have been a determined, sensible, clear-headed enthusiast of about 30 years of age, was informed of this extraordinary mandate, he remonstrated with Cardross in the strongest manner against complying with it, as the safety of his regiment might be involved in the result; but his lordship pleaded his instructions, which gave him no discretionary power, and he departed for Perth the same evening, leaving the Cameronians to the tender mercies of their bitterest enemies, the Highlanders. Cleland’s obvious course was to have followed the cavalry, but though the danger was imminent, he disdained to abandon the post which had been assigned him, and easily prevailed upon the Cameronians to remain and meet the enemy at all hazards. Burton[614] truly says that it is difficult to imagine a position more dangerous for a Lowland force than the little village of Dunkeld, being deep sunk among hills commanding it, and cutting off retreat, while a rapid river forms the diameter of their semicircle.
The parties which had appeared during the day consisted entirely of Athole-men, whose numbers probably did not exceed 500 or 600; but in the evening they were joined by the whole of Cannon’s force, amounting to nearly 4,000. To the great surprise and dismay of the Cameronians, this formidable body appeared at six o’clock next morning, Wednesday the 21st of August, on the hills about Dunkeld formed in order of battle. The situation of the Cameronians was now critical in the extreme. They had no alternative but to fight or surrender, for retreat was not in their power. A capitulation would have been the obvious course, but the great abhorrence in which the Cameronians were held by the Highlanders, gave faint hopes of obtaining the usual terms of civilized warfare from the inveterate host which hung over them on the surrounding heights. They, therefore, adopted the desperate resolution of defending themselves to the last extremity, and they hoped, that by posting themselves advantageously behind the walls and enclosures adjoining the village and Dunkeld-house, they would be able to keep the Highlanders in check till some relief might arrive.
The Cameronian commander accordingly made the necessary preparations for defence. He first posted parties of his men in the cathedral and steeple, and in Dunkeld-house. The remainder of his men he disposed behind the walls of the adjoining gardens and parks, and along some ditches which he caused to be thrown up to extend his line of defence. All these arrangements were completed before 7 o’clock in the morning, about which time the Highlanders appeared moving down the hills towards Dunkeld. Desirous to gain possession of the town, to dislodge the Cameronians, or to draw off their attention from the points where he meant to direct his main attack, Cannon despatched a small train of artillery down a little hill near the town, accompanied by 100 men clad in armour, who were followed by a party of Highlanders on foot. To prevent the Cameronians from escaping by the ford across the Tay, he sent two troops of horse round the town, who took up a position betwixt the ford and the church, while two other troops were placed at the opposite end of the town. When the party arrived at the bottom of the hill, they were opposed by a small body of men whom Cleland had posted behind a stone wall, but after some smart firing, this body was obliged to give way and to retire to Dunkeld-house. Another party of the Cameronians, which had been posted at the other end of the town, was obliged also to retire. Having forced the outposts, the whole body of the Highlanders rushed furiously into the town, which they entered at four different points at once. The Cameronians, however, firmly maintained their ground within the enclosures, from which they kept up a galling and destructive fire upon the Highlanders, who in vain attempted to dislodge them. Finding their broad-swords of little avail against the pikes and halberts of an enemy protected by stone walls, the Highlanders retired to the houses, and some to the heights near the town, from which they kept up a sharp though ineffectual fire upon the Cameronians, who returned it with much better effect. The Cameronians, however, soon sustained a heavy loss in the death of Cleland, their brave commander, who, in the act of exhorting his men to stand firm to their posts, was, within an hour after the engagement commenced, mortally wounded by two bullets, one of which pierced his liver, the other entering his head at the same instant Aware of his fate, he attempted to gain Dunkeld-house, lest his men, seeing him expire, might become dispirited; but he was unable to reach the threshold, and expired in their presence.