As Mar’s right wing had been concealed from the view of Argyle, the latter conceived that the numerous body he was driving before him formed the entire insurgent army. He, therefore, resolved to continue the pursuit till dark, and to support him, he ordered General Wightman, who commanded his foot upon the right, to follow him with his battalions as quickly as possible. Wightman accordingly proceeded to follow the duke with a force of rather more than three regiments; but he had not marched far, when he heard a firing on his left, to ascertain the cause of which, he sent his aide-de-camp in the direction whence the firing proceeded. This officer returned in a short time, and reported that the half of Argyle’s foot, and the squadrons on the left, had all been cut off by the right of the insurgents, which was superior in point of numbers to Argyle’s left. Wightman thereupon slackened his pace, and despatched a messenger to inform the duke of the fate of his left wing. Afraid of being attacked in his rear by Mar’s right wing, he kept his men in perfect order, but no demonstration was made to follow him. When informed of the defeat of his left wing, Argyle gave over the pursuit, and joining Wightman with five squadrons of dragoons, put his men in order of battle and marched boldly to the bottom of the hill, on the top of which the enemy, amounting to 4,000 men, were advantageously posted. Argyle had now scarcely 1,000 men under him, and as these were already greatly exhausted, he judged it expedient to act on the defensive; but the insurgents showed no disposition to engage, and both parties, as if by mutual consent, retired from their positions in different directions. The duke filed off his men to the right, in marching order, towards Dunblane; but as he still dreaded an attack, he formed his men several times on the march, wherever he found the ground convenient, and waited the approach of the enemy. Mar drew off his men toward Ardoch, where he passed the night, and Argyle’s troops lay under arms during the night in the neighbourhood of Dunblane.
BATTLE-FIELD OF SHERIFFMUIR
A. Fullarton & Co. London & Edinburgh.
As might have been expected, on an occasion of such dubious success on either side, both parties claimed a victory, but impartiality will confer the palm on neither.[728] Argyle, it is true, visited the field of battle the following morning, which Mar might also have done had he been inclined, and this circumstance, therefore, can afford no argument in support of his pretensions. Neither can the capture of standards and colours by Argyle be considered as a proof of success, for although he took fourteen colours and standards, including the royal standard called “the Restoration,” besides six pieces of cannon and other trophies, Mar, according to the official Jacobite account, captured four stands of colours, several drums, and about 1,400 or 1,500 stands of arms. Accounts the most contradictory have been given by both parties of the losses sustained by them. According to the rolls of Argyle’s muster-master general, his loss amounted to 290 men killed, 187 wounded, and 133 prisoners, making a grand total of 610, while the Jacobite account makes the loss in killed and wounded on the side of Argyle amount to between 700 and 800. On the other hand, the Jacobites state their loss in killed at only 60, and that very few of their men were wounded, while the royalists say that they lost, in killed and wounded, about 800 men.[730] Supposing the royalist statement correct, the comparative loss of the insurgents scarcely exceeded one-third of that sustained by the government forces.
Several officers were killed on the royalist side. Among the wounded was the Earl of Forfar, a brave officer who commanded Morison’s regiment. He received a shot in the knee, and sixteen other wounds, of which he died at Stirling about three weeks after the battle. Several persons of distinction were killed on the side of the insurgents, among whom were the Earl of Strathmore, and the Captain of Clanranald. A considerable number of gentlemen were taken prisoners by Argyle, but many of them escaped, and he was able to carry only 82 of them to Stirling. Of this number were Lord Strathallan, Thomas Drummond his brother, Walkinshaw of Barrowfield, Drummond of Logie-Drummond, and Murray of Auchtertyre.
On whichsoever side success lay, the battle, in its consequences, was most important in many respects to the government, as it was immediately followed by the desertion of a considerable number of the clans. With the exception of the Macdonalds, who particularly distinguished themselves on the right, and the Perthshire and Angus horse who withstood the repeated shocks of Argyle’s cavalry, the remainder of the insurgent army made little resistance. The Macphersons and the Macgregors, (the latter commanded by Rob Roy,[731] the chief’s uncle), did not join in the contest at all, but looked on as if unconcerned about the result. Some of the clans, disgusted at the pusillanimity or indifference exhibited by their associates, and others dispirited by the firmness displayed by the government forces, returned to their homes, thus verifying the observation made by a Jacobite in reference to the clans, that whether victorious or beaten, they would run away and go home. The defection of these clans was a severe blow to Mar, and made him abandon the idea of crossing the Forth. He, therefore, returned to Perth with the remains of his army, and to encourage the friends of the Jacobite interest, circulated the most favourable accounts of his alleged success at Sheriffmuir, and of the state of the Chevalier’s affairs, although he himself began to consider them desperate.[732] The Duke of Argyle, on the other hand, retired to his head-quarters at Stirling, intending to resume offensive operations as soon as some expected reinforcements should arrive.
The attempt of Mar to disguise the real state of matters was too gross to deceive his adherents, and there were not a few who already began to entertain thoughts of making their own terms with the government: but the Highland chiefs and the principal officers remained firm, and urged Mar to risk another battle even with his reduced forces. The earl, however, though personally brave, was not the man to comply with an advice so opposed to the rule he had laid down for himself, never to engage without a very superior force on his side. But had he been of a different opinion, the receipt of the news of the re-capture of Inverness would probably have precluded him from moving a second time upon Stirling.
It has been remarked as a singular circumstance in this history of Mar’s insurrection, that the three important events which decided its fate should have occurred in regular daily succession. Inverness was captured on the 13th of November,[733] and on the same day Mackintosh’s forces, cooped up in Preston, had to maintain a precarious struggle against the attacks of Wells’s army. Next day witnessed the battle of Sheriffmuir, and at the very time the insurgents in Preston were offering terms of surrender, the right wings of Argyle’s and Mar’s armies were pursuing, with all the confidence of victory, the wings to which they were respectively opposed. And lastly, while on the 14th the insurgents in England were capitulating at Preston, the two rival armies in the north were retiring to their head-quarters, each of them claiming a victory.
The arrival of the Chevalier had been long anxiously looked for by his friends in Scotland. He was now about to gratify their desire of beholding his person; but James had already missed the golden opportunity, which presented itself at an early stage of the insurrection, of recovering his father’s crown. Had he, on arriving at St. Malo, whither he proceeded from Lorraine at the breaking out of the insurrection, instantly taken shipping, he would not only have complied with the declared wishes of his adherents, but would have evinced at once a determination to maintain his claim. Instead of embarking, however, immediately, as he should have done, he spent so much time in the shipment of supplies, which he was desirous should precede his departure, that he was at last altogether prevented from sailing by some men-of-war, which appeared off the harbour of St. Malo, and which had been sent by the British government to intercept him. That he might not disappoint the expectations of his partisans, he resolved to go to Dunkirk in quest of shipping, and having traversed the country in disguise, he embarked at that port, about the middle of December, on board a small French vessel of eight guns, which had formerly been a privateer. He was attended by five persons only, who, to prevent suspicion, were disguised as French officers. Among these were the Marquis of Tynemouth, son of the Duke of Berwick, and Lieutenant Allan Cameron, a son of Lochiel.