Battle of Culloden (1746): The Last Pitched Battle in Britain

The Battle of Culloden was fought on 16 April 1746 on Drummossie Moor, east of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A British government army under the Duke of Cumberland destroyed the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart in less than an hour, ending the Jacobite rising of 1745. It is usually described as the last pitched battle fought on British soil, and its aftermath changed Highland society for ever.

Background: the end of the Forty-Five

In 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled King James VII and II, had landed in Scotland to win back the throne for the Stuarts. His Jacobite army took Edinburgh, won at Prestonpans and marched deep into England, but turned back at Derby in December 1745. After a last victory at Falkirk Muir in January 1746, it retreated into the Highlands.

By April the Jacobites held Inverness but were in trouble. They had little money, the loss of a French ship carrying gold had cut their funds, and food was so short that men were living on a biscuit a day. Many units were away on other operations. Meanwhile George II’s younger son, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, had spent the winter in Aberdeen training and supplying his army.

Cumberland was only 24 but had commanded the allied army in Flanders, including at Fontenoy in 1745, and had been wounded at the Battle of Dettingen. In early April he crossed the River Spey unopposed and camped at Nairn.

The failed night attack

On 15 April, Cumberland’s 25th birthday, his troops rested and celebrated. Lord George Murray, the leading Jacobite general, proposed a surprise night march to attack their camp at Nairn, about 12 miles (19 km) away. The plan failed. The hungry, exhausted men moved too slowly in the dark, and before dawn the attack was called off.

The Jacobites stumbled back to Culloden House, the base of the prince’s army, early on 16 April. Many fell asleep where they stopped, and some went in search of food. Within a few hours, the government army was approaching.

The armies

Charles’s adjutant-general, John William O’Sullivan, had chosen Drummossie Moor as the place to stand. Murray objected that the open, flat and partly boggy ground favoured disciplined infantry and artillery, which the government had and the Jacobites lacked. Charles, who believed in the Highland charge, overruled him.

The Jacobite army numbered roughly 5,000–5,500 men. Most belonged to Highland clan regiments such as the Camerons, Atholl men, Stewarts of Appin, Frasers and MacDonalds, but there were also Lowland units, the Irish Picquets and the Royal Écossais, a Scottish regiment in French service. Its artillery was a mixed collection of about a dozen guns with few trained gunners.

Cumberland had about 7,800–9,000 men, including about 15 regular infantry battalions, cavalry, Campbell militia from Argyll and well-served artillery: ten 3-pounder guns and six small mortars. Several of his regiments were Scottish. His infantry was rested, fed and drilled during the winter to meet the Highland charge with the bayonet.

The battle

The battle began a little after 1 p.m. in cold, wet weather, with sleet blowing towards the Jacobite lines. The government guns opened a bombardment that tore gaps in the Jacobite ranks, while the Jacobite artillery replied with little effect. For perhaps 20 to 30 minutes the clans stood under fire, waiting for an order to advance.

When the charge finally came, it was uneven. On the Jacobite right and centre, the Atholl Brigade, the Camerons and others crossed the moor under musket fire and grapeshot. Many fell, but some reached the government front line and broke into the regiments of Barrell and Monro in fierce hand-to-hand fighting. Government reserves moved up and fired into them from several sides, and the attack collapsed.

On the Jacobite left, the MacDonald regiments had further to go over boggy ground. They came close to the government line but could not close with it and fell back under heavy fire. Government cavalry and dragoons then swept round the flanks.

Within roughly an hour, the Jacobite army was in full retreat. The Irish Picquets and Royal Écossais covered part of the withdrawal, and many of the French regulars surrendered as prisoners of war, while Highland units fled across the moor and towards Inverness.

Casualties

Many of the Jacobite dead were killed after the fighting had ended. Government soldiers killed wounded men on the field and pursued fugitives, including some civilians, along the road to Inverness. These killings, described by witnesses on both sides, made Culloden notorious.

Key people

• Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788): the Jacobite prince who chose to fight on Drummossie Moor and fled after the defeat.
• Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765): the government commander, celebrated in London and called “Butcher” by his enemies.
• Lord George Murray (1694–1760): the experienced Jacobite general who opposed the choice of battlefield.
• John William O’Sullivan (1700–c. 1760): Irish officer in Charles’s service who selected the ground.

Reprisals and the end of the clan system

After Culloden, Cumberland’s army set out to crush any further resistance. Through the spring and summer of 1746, troops burned houses, drove off tens of thousands of cattle and arrested suspected rebels across the western Highlands. Prisoners were held in harsh conditions on ships and in jails. Around 120 Jacobites were later executed and hundreds were transported to the American colonies.

Charles himself escaped after a five-month flight through the Highlands and Islands, aided by supporters including Flora MacDonald, and reached France in September 1746. He never returned to Scotland.

Parliament also passed laws aimed at the roots of Jacobitism. The Disarming Act of 1746 extended earlier bans on weapons and outlawed Highland dress, including the kilt and tartan, for men other than soldiers; the ban lasted until 1782. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act of 1746 abolished the private courts and legal powers that clan chiefs and other landowners had held. The estates of leading Jacobites were forfeited and run by the state.

Together with wider economic change, these measures broke the military power of the clans. Chiefs increasingly became commercial landlords, and many Highlanders later joined the British Army in new Highland regiments. Within a few generations, the Highland Clearances, as landlords replaced tenants with large sheep farms, would drive many families from the land, and emigration to North America and elsewhere grew rapidly. Historians debate how far Culloden itself caused these changes, which were also driven by economic forces affecting all of Scotland, but the battle is often seen as the moment the old order ended.

Myths and facts

“It was Scotland against England.” It was not. Culloden was part of a dynastic civil war within Britain. Scottish regiments and Campbell militia fought for the government, and many Scots, especially in the Lowlands, opposed the Jacobites.

“The Highlanders had only swords.” Most Jacobite soldiers carried muskets as well as broadswords, and they had artillery, though poorly served. Their defeat was due to the ground, hunger, exhaustion and enemy firepower rather than primitive weapons.

“The MacDonalds refused to charge because they were placed on the left.” A long tradition says the MacDonalds were insulted not to be given the place of honour on the right and held back. Modern historians stress the distance and boggy ground they had to cross; they did advance, but could not reach the government line.

“Cumberland ordered that no quarter be given.” Written orders said to call for no quarter have been disputed, and the evidence is contested. What is well documented is that wounded and fleeing Jacobites were killed in large numbers after the battle.

Timeline

• 1746, 17 January: Jacobite victory at Falkirk Muir.
• 1746, February: The Jacobite army takes Inverness.
• 1746, 8–12 April: Cumberland marches from Aberdeen and crosses the Spey.
• 1746, 15 April: The Jacobite night march on Nairn begins and fails.
• 1746, 16 April: Battle of Culloden; the Jacobite army is destroyed.
• 1746, April–summer: Government reprisals across the Highlands.
• 1746, August: The Disarming Act and Dress ban become law.
• 1746, September: Charles Edward Stuart escapes to France.
• 1881: The memorial cairn and clan grave stones are erected on the battlefield.

Legacy

Culloden became a powerful symbol in Scottish memory, associated with loss, romance and the destruction of the old Highland way of life. Songs, novels such as those of Walter Scott, and later films and television have kept the story alive. In London at the time, Handel’s chorus “See, the conqu’ring hero comes” was associated with Cumberland’s victory.

Today the battlefield is cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, which runs a visitor centre opened in 2008. Flags mark the positions of the two front lines, and stones bearing clan names stand over the mass graves. It is one of the most visited historic sites in the Highlands.

Why it matters

Culloden ended the last attempt to restore the Stuart dynasty by force and secured the Hanoverian monarchy and the union created by the Acts of Union of 1707. The repression and laws that followed broke the military power of the clans and began the transformation of the Highlands, making Culloden one of the most important turning points in modern Scottish history.