BattlefieldsMoy Hall night approach skirmish January 1746
Jacobite Risings

Moy Hall night approach skirmish January 1746

1746
Scotland
Era
Jacobite Risings
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
Scotland
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Government
Forces
Jacobite: five men (the blacksmith Donald Fraser and companions)
VS
Victor
Jacobite
Forces
Government: Lord Loudon with c.1,500 men
Outcome
Government night approach to Moy Hall stopped by five Jacobites; 1500 government troops flee in confusion
The Battle

History & Significance

Lord Loudon's night approach march from Inverness to Moy Hall to capture Prince Charles on 16 January 1746 involved more than the famous confrontation at the Moy blacksmith's ambush. The government column of 1,500 men moved through the dark country roads south of Inverness in great secrecy. Jacobite sympathisers in Inverness had warned Prince Charles through a young girl named Kate Fergusson who ran the fifteen miles to Moy in darkness to raise the alarm. When the advance of Loudon's column was then stopped by the five-man bluff at the bridge, the column's sudden halt, panic and headlong retreat back to Inverness caused chaos. One government soldier — the celebrated piper Donald Ban MacCrimmon — was killed in the confusion, having famously composed his own lament before the march.

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