Culloden

 So much has been written about Culloden already; a battle lasting 40 minutes on 16 April 1745 (by the old calendar), that changed Scotland for ever.

This post is about the experience of a guided tour and the excellent exhibition to be found in their newish Visitor Centre. Hugh Allison was its first director in 2007. But I am also thoughtful of what might have been happening to our own family. I am hampered by knowledge that only extends to a marriage in 1796 in the Bain family, and a birth in 1774 in the Matheson family. 

It is certain that both families were faced with choices relating to Jacobite activities. Men perhaps fighting at Culloden would have the generation of Alexander Bain’s and Murdo Matheson’s grandparents.

From a book called “No Quarter Given”, there were 15 Bain men on the side of the Jacobites. Three were from Corrimony, just west of Drumnadoit on Loch Ness where a flourishing tourist enterprise about Nessie exists, and we were there yesterday - Donald, Alexander and John (all family names). Another was from Ross-shire - Kenneth. Several men were from places on the west side of Ross-shire and onto Skye. The book also records their outcome. I did not check them all, yet I think Kenneth was transported. The book is in my local library.

We had a lovely young guide named Lucy. She told her brutal story with vigor, but admitted she did not enjoy doing so. But it comes with the job I suppose.

The combatants

Why are opponents either blue or red? So the British Government, or the Crown, were coloured red, and of course they wore red coats. Makes sense. The Jacobites mostly wore brown clothes, but some had blue coats and blue headwear. Both sides were composed of Englishmen and Scotsmen, Irishmen, continental mercenaries, French and Spaniards; both sides were composed of Protestants and Catholics. There were Highlanders on both sides, and Lowlanders on both sides. Many men had personal reasons and many were merely press-ganged by those with authority over them.

The Jacobites were defeated in about 40 minutes. The build up was long (like all the religious divide since the 1500s), and dynastic (in saving the Stewart monarchy, a Scottish dynasty on a British throne). They lost because:

1. Bonnie Prince Charlie was young, headstrong, untried and ready for battle to restore his father (the Old Pretender) to the British throne.

2. The Jacobites lost £15,000 pounds of French financial support, leaving them at the mercy of an uncertain populace in gaining provisions, rather than having the largesse to curry their favour.

3. The British Prince took a day off to celebrate his 25th birthday, thus depriving the Jacobites of their preferred place of battle, where they could charge down a hill screaming Gaelic curses - a method that had not yet failed.

4. Bonnie Prince Charlie chose to take his army 12 miles in the dark, through the rain, avoiding the road to maintain a surprise attack upon the British after their birthday revels. They could not get close, so had to walk back to their previous position, arriving barely in time to be surprised by the British army catching them up on the lovely, easy road they had been avoiding. It is very peaty bog land off the road. Nevertheless they had to fight despite exhaustion and having had very little to eat for days.

5. The Jacobites were not great with guns, firing a round every 5 minutes compared to the British every 40 seconds.

6. They failed to secure a wall off to the side of the battlefield, because Culloden was not where they were planning to fight. This wall allowed the British to come up on their side and shoot at them from behind cover. 

The Carnage

About 700 Jacobites died in the first few minutes, half of those who would die. They eventually charged in their usual manner, and were further cut down. Many lay wounded in boggy areas. 

The British commander decided to leave everyone to die slowly over 3 days, then he ordered the townsfolk of Inverness (9 miles away) to dig burial pits that were 4 metres deep. Mass graves where between 100-200 people were thrown haphazardly in. This included women who had accompanied the men, and even children who had come to watch the battle.

Perhaps 70-100 British soldiers were buried, in a much more orderly and respectful manner. Archeologists have found this number of bodies, although the formal death toll was just 50. They used a nearby stone cottage as a hospital. It looks just like the one that Alexander and Catherine and family lived in 3/4 of a mile away in 1861. Actually, archeologists return every October to work on another part of the battlefield.

Image to follow

The Exhibition

This is modern, stylish and tells the story of each side along each side of a series of corridors. It is very well done, easy to read and digest information and good graphics. In the Centre is a ‘Battle Immersion Theatre’, where re-enactments are projected onto four walls of a large room. You stand in the room, turning in every direction as a sounds change and people move. This was very moving. I had my hand in my mouth most of the time (4 minutes), and I never looked at anyone else in the room. The redcoats mostly stood still when not firing, and later looked embarrassed or bored or uncertain. They were not jubilant. 

The Jacobites were incredibly scary, old men, young men, some with awful teeth, some with long hair, and a few officers in military gear. Not quite Braveheart, but utterly convincing as desperate angry men. They charged, erratically, and just kept on dropping to the ground. When they reached the British they were still being killed. 

I walked out stunned, and as I say, I didn’t ask how anyone else was feeling. Then and when looking at a detailed depiction of the key components of the battle, I was very close to tears. I think mostly with the futility of it all. I was surrounded by at least three school groups chattering and avoiding their school excursion clipboards, so the somber moment was relieved.

Not in the battle theatre, but in reality, soon the Jacobites were vastly outnumbered, and were fleeing back towards Inverness. The orders were to ‘give no quarter’, everyone was to die. 

The Aftermath

1,500 people died on the side of the Jacobites that day, or soon after. Laws were made that tightened already tight restrictions on speaking Gaelic, having weapons, wearing tartan or gathering more than five males together, lest they form an army! Women were free to maintain Highland customs of language, dress and culture. Thank heaven they did.

Lands were given to men supporting the British crown, and of course, many Highland leaders were dead. The way of life of the Gael, the clan system, the relationships between peoples, were swept away. Land became a source of income, and the Highland workers, like their Lowland counterparts earlier in the 1700s, were evicted.

Families that had hedged their bets, with sons on both sides, sometimes came through unscathed. Workers like the Bains and the Mathesons, farmers, ploughmen, picked up with whoever survived. Perhaps marriage partners were in short supply as they would be after WWI. Perhaps the desperation of trying to survive led to poorer baptism and marriage records. We will never know. 

But life was changing, and people would adapt, as always.

There are many additional parts to the story of this battle. There are efforts of commemoration, archeology and the telling of the tale. Visit the site if you can, and if not, read widely.