The pursuit after the Battle of Prestonpans on 21 September 1745 extended several miles east of the battlefield as Jacobite cavalry and clansmen chased the remnants of Cope's shattered army. Government dragoons — who had panicked and galloped from the battlefield without fighting — were pursued across East Lothian as far as the outskirts of Dunbar. Many government soldiers threw away their muskets and equipment to run faster. Jacobite horsemen rounded up stragglers sheltering in farm buildings, behind dykes and in the coastal marshes. The pursuit was not as bloody as it might have been — Prince Charles reportedly rode among his men urging restraint toward the wounded. The plunder from the battlefield and the pursuit was substantial.
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