Thread: Culloden
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Old 4th February 2010, 09:56
wullie m wullie m is offline
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Culloden.

I think Guys, accurate figures for who lined up on the Jacobite side that day are somewhat problematic! the fiasco of the night march to Nairn, leading to exhausted & starving men, falling out/asleep or setting off in search of food. Some slept through the battle and were awakened by the bayonet. The Muster Rolls are suspect. The British Army had Scots in regiments other than those regarded as Scottish, then & now, and Scotland punched above its weight as regards personnel, the Navy even more so(Trafalgar for example was practically a Scottish victory). I have read differently as regards numbers Scots on each side, and the Irish/French on the Rebel side tend to even this. Culloden was just the tail end of a century long, intermittent Civil War, started by Charles I's imposition of Anglican forms on the Kirk. The Stuart's, once they inherited the English throne, brought nothing but trouble to their native land. They were told they had Divine Rights and made head of the Church of England, this went "Tae their Heids" and ordinary people in the three Kingdoms paid the price of their stupidity. The French Kings used the Stuarts as it suited and got shot of them the same way,(Bonnie Prince Charlie was trussed up like a chicken and bundled out of France, when his presence became an embarassment-they did use silk cords). We have been mired in Jacobite Romance ever since. Had a Feudal system wherebye some Chief ordered his clansmen to take up arms (or forced them in many instances) against the King, when the country was at war, any place in the mid 18th century. Of course not, as the people found to their cost and ruination. DD, I don't think the Duke of Argyll was at the battle.
wullie m.
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