Culloden Moor, Battlefield
Who Fought
Jacobite army of approximately 5,400 under Charles Edward Stuart; British government force under the Duke of Cumberland
History & Significance
The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby ending the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Charles landed in Scotland in July 1745, seeking to restore his father James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne. He quickly won control of large parts of Scotland, and an invasion of England reached as far south as Derby before being forced to turn back. However by April 1746 the Jacobites were short of supplies, facing a superior and better-equipped opponent.
The Jacobite commanders decided their only option was to stand and fight. When the two armies met at Culloden, the battle was brief, lasting less than an hour, with the Jacobites suffering an overwhelming and bloody defeat. This effectively ended both the 1745 rising and Jacobitism as a significant element in British politics.
The Jacobite rising of 1745 began on 23 July when Charles Edward Stuart landed in the Western Isles and launched an attempt to reclaim the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. After their victory at Prestonpans in September, the Jacobites controlled much of Scotland, and Charles persuaded his colleagues to invade England. The Jacobite army reached Derby before successfully retreating across the border.
Despite its lack of tangible results, the invasion boosted recruitment, bringing Jacobite strength to more than 8,000. These troops, along with French-supplied artillery, were used to besiege Stirling Castle, the strategic key to the Scottish Highlands. On 17 January the Jacobites repulsed a government relief force under Henry Hawley at the Battle of Falkirk Muir, although the siege itself made little progress.
Soon after, Cumberland arrived in Edinburgh to take over command from Hawley. On 1 February, the Jacobite army abandoned the siege and withdrew to Inverness. Cumberland's army entered Aberdeen on 27 February and both sides halted operations until the weather improved. Although several French shipments were received during the winter, the Royal Navy blockade left the Jacobites short of money and food. When Cumberland resumed the campaign on 8 April, Charles and his advisers agreed their best option was to gamble on a set-piece battle.
On 12 April, Cumberland's army forded the River Spey, which was guarded by 2,000 Jacobites under Lord John Drummond, who withdrew towards Nairn, an action for which he was later criticised. The Jacobites evacuated the town on 14 April, and Cumberland's troops camped just to the west. Although significant elements were absent elsewhere, the main Jacobite army of about 5,400 left Inverness on 15 April and assembled on the Culloden estate, five miles (eight kilometres) to the east.
The ground they fought on
The site of Culloden Moor, Battlefield lies on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
The Jacobite night march before the battle offers a striking glimpse of the army's desperate state: Murray led his men across country in darkness to avoid government outposts, but one participant, James Johnson, wrote that the march on a dark night was accompanied with confusion and disorder. Murray ultimately aborted the attack when his leading elements were still two miles short of the crossing, yet the Duke of Perth's separate column of 1,200 men pressed on, unaware of the change in plan, with one account claiming his troops made contact with government sentries before realising their colleagues had turned back.
- Not specified in sources
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