Siege of Fort William
Who Fought
400
Jacobites: Estimated 1,000
History & Significance
The siege of Fort William took place in the Scottish Highlands during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, from 20 March to 3 April 1746.
On 1 February 1746, the Jacobites abandoned the siege of Stirling Castle and withdrew to Inverness to wait for spring. This period was used to reduce government strongpoints in the Highlands, including Blair Castle and Fort Augustus; after its surrender on 1 March, they moved onto Fort William.
Advance elements of the Jacobite force arrived outside the fort on 8 March; operations began on 20 March but made little progress. When the Duke of Cumberland and his army left Aberdeen in early April, the besiegers were recalled to Inverness and the siege abandoned.
After the Jacobite rising of 1715, a line of forts was built along what is now the Caledonian Canal, the most important being Fort George, Inverness, Fort Augustus and Fort William. The garrisons were reinforced when the 1745 Rising began but the defences had been neglected and were in a poor state. It was not until the Jacobites retreated from Stirling Castle in February 1746 that a serious effort was made to capture them.
The capture of Fort Augustus on 1 March left Fort William as the last government-controlled position in the Great Glen. On 5 March, an engineer named Russell arrived to inspect the defences and after making some improvements, he reported it should easily be held. The current governor Alexander Campbell was a "careful and good man", but there were doubts about his competence; on 15 March 1746, he was replaced by Captain Caroline Frederick Scott of Guise's Regiment.
The garrison totalled around 400 men; two companies from Guise's, two from Johnson's and one from the Campbell of Argyll Militia. A well-built, modern position, its triangular shape was designed to use the head of Loch Linnhe as cover; it had six 12-pounder cannon, eight 6-pounders, seven smaller pieces, two 13-inch mortars and eight coehorns, with plenty of ammunition. Additional firepower was provided by the sloop of war Baltimore and the Serpent, a bomb vessel; this made it a formidable target, its only weakness being lack of a permanent water supply.
On 25 February 1746, the garrison began demolishing buildings in the nearby village of Maryburgh to provide a clear field of fire, although they could not prevent the besiegers occupying the surrounding heights. The Jacobite force from Fort Augustus consisted of 150 French regulars under Colonel Stapleton, plus clansmen led by Lochiel and MacDonald of Keppoch.
The Jacobites blockaded Loch Linnhe at the Corran Narrows, capturing one of Baltimore's boats and threatening to cut connection between the garrison and the outside world. Alexander Campbell quickly responded and early on 4 March, sent three boats with 71 men to the Narrows from Fort William. They surprised the Jacobite sentries, reportedly killing two men and wounding many others, burning houses and boats.
The ground they fought on
The site of Siege of Fort William lies on Grampian Group, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is psammite and semipelite.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Siege of Fort William · Wikidata
- Siege_of_Fort_William · Wikipedia