Bonnie Scotland and what we owe her

by William Elliot Griffis

One dreadful surprise awaited the clansmen. Cumberland, trusting in the bayonet, had carefully drilled each of his men to have the nerve to neglect the man striking at him with his broadsword, but to stab at the fellow who, in expectation of dashing aside the bayonet of the soldier in front of him, would expose his body to the oblique thrust of his comrade on the right, duly fore-warned.

The day was one of chilly weather, with fitful winds and flurries of snow. Early in the afternoon, the battle was opened by discharges of cannon from the side of the rebels. But with this kind of work, the men from the glens never were satisfied. Indeed, all firearms and long-range weapons were unpopular with these brave fellows, who, like Indians and semi-barbarians, enjoyed most that action which was, as far as possible, independent and personal.

In several of their victories over the royal troops, as at Prestonpans, for example, they had felt little or no annoyance from the royal cannon, and had almost lost their fear of artillery.

Cumberland had nine thousand men and eighteen well-served guns. Here, for the first time, the Highlanders were under heavy fire of grape and round shot, to which they could not proportionately reply. It is thought that if Charles at Culloden had let his swordsmen rush at once upon the enemy the issue might have been different.

For half an hour the Duke’s cannon played effectively upon the clansmen, who saw scores of their kinsmen stretched upon the heath. After a few moments’ cannonade from their own side, and still under the withering fire of the enemy’s heavy guns, the Highlanders ranged themselves in masses, and according to their clans, made ready for the terrific onset, which they supposed would decide the battle. This it did, but not in the way they had hoped. It was the Mackintoshes, who, unable any longer to brook the unavenged slaughter of their comrades, broke from the centre of the line and rushed forward through the smoke and snow to mingle with the enemy. Yet the order to advance, though never delivered, had already been given by Charles, the bearer being killed by a cannon shot.

Cumberland’s troops, seeing the dark masses moving up the slope, as in a great wave, stood in steady line. As the Highlanders came to shock, the oblique thrust of the bayonets was a dreadful surprise, for it prevented hundreds of clansmen from wielding their favorite weapon, as most of them were thrust through before they could swing their broadswords, or make the terrible double-handed sweep with their claymores, on which they had counted. Soon the moor of Drummossie had proved itself to be the valley of decision for the hopes of the House of Stuart.

Within two minutes the charge was general along the whole line. Yet it was as if advancing into semi-darkness of whirling snow and powder smoke. One survivor of the battle, a Highlander, said that after rushing forward the first glimpse he received of the Duke’s troops was, when the cloud of smoke and snow lifted, he saw the white gaiters of the soldiers. The Duke’s cannon, now loaded with grapeshot, and the musketry of his solid columns swept the field as with a hailstorm. The three ranks in the front line of English Hessians delivered simultaneous volleys, while the regiments of Wolfe—of whom we Americans have heard in his later career at Quebec—poured in a flank fire. Nevertheless, the right wing and centre of the Highlanders fought with even more than usual gallantry and resolution.

Notwithstanding the fact that they were outflanked, enfiladed, and met by a heavy musketry fire in front of them, the right wing of the Highlanders broke Barrel’s regimental front and passed the guns; but their attack was checked by the bayonets of the second line.

Of the Highlanders who first rushed forward the majority were hardly able to see their enemy for the smoke, until involved inextricably among their weapons. Tn their onset, nearly all in the front ranks fell before either bullets or the piercing weapons used obliquely, as directed by the Duke, almost every bayonet being bent or bloody with the strife. Nevertheless, the Highlanders, despite their impending annihilation, kept on, line after line pushing forward, even though only a few of those charging last reached the front files of the royal troops. In parts of the plain, the dead lay three and four deep.

During all this time the Macdonalds, who, because their ancestors at Bannockburn had fought on the right wing, had ever afterwards, except on this occasion, occupied this position, would not fight. They made no onset, and even received the fire of the English regiments without flinching. They were dissatisfied because they had been put on the left wing. At last, when the moment of decision and defeat had come, there being no hope, they also fled with the other clans.