Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of The '45

[PeterSandy]

I took a particular interest in the treatment of Jacobites in my home area.
The following is most interesting:

Many houses were burned, too, leaving a family with no shelter. In August 1746, Caroline Frederick Scott refined the cruelty of this heartless policy. He stripped Ardsheal House bare, to the extent of having every piece of wood in it removed. Doors were taken off their hinges, panelling removed from the walls, the slates taken off the roof. Under Scott's orders it was all done very slowly and carefully, the nails straightened out so they too could be taken back to Fort William and sold. He even took the children's school books.

The lady of the house was then asked for her keys. Surrounded by her frightened children, pregnant with another, a confused Isobel handed them over. In a parody of gentlemanly behaviour, Caroline Scott offered her his hand, led her to the door and told her to go. She had no business here any more. Ardsheal House was no longer her home.

Isabel Haldane penned a furious letter of protest to Major-General John Campbell of Mamore, the father of Colonel Jack of the Argyle Militia. Although both father and son were robust in their treatment of the defeated Rebels, by the standards of their time they were also humane, and she was not the only person who appealed to them for help. Many skulking Jacobites let it be known they were prepared to surrender, but only 'to a Campbell', meaning either Lord Loudoun, Colonel Jack or his father.

Considering the bad press the Campbells have had throughout Scottish history, it's interesting that these defeated clansmen clearly believed they would get better treatment from a Scotsman and fellow Highlander than they would from an Englishman or a Scottish Lowlander.

[Lachlan09]

I would liked to have seen the expression on MacIain Abrach's face when he was told at Dalcomera in December 1691 that he would have to attest his loyalty to King William III in the heart of Campbell country, in Inveraray !

Now the MacDonalds of Glencoe were bare-arsed banditti, opportunistic pirates of the glens.

[wullie m]

And of course Lachie, MacIain was set up by that other Jacobite gentleman Macdonnell of Glengarry. He received word himself, but delayed sending a message to Glencoe, untill he knew that MacIain wouldn't reach Inveraray in time. Glenlyon was the other Patsy in this sorry affair, he was the mug who carried out the murder despite the Macdonald's being his relations. The interconnections amongst the Highland Gentry, one extended family, is the reason for the Stewarts preferring to surrender to a Campbell. The family portraits of these folks looking the same, is no coincidence, only the names are different!
The story of Ardsheil's wife's eviction has been lifted straight from Prebble's "Culloden", the officer was only doing his duty, Ardsheil, his lands & property were forfeit, the house was crown property and the soldiers carefull dismantling of the frames, glass & nails, reflected the value of this stuff. The Jacobites failed siege of Fort William left every pane of glass broken, Fort Augustus destroyed, Ruthven Barracks, ditto. The Rebellion, on which they risked everything on the throw of a dice, brought countless deaths, broken families and retribution by their chiefs, burned houses etc', on their own clansmen who would not rise. Lady Ardsheil's own home patch saw the villages burned between Sherrifmuir & Perth, leaving the folk at the mercy of the Winter in the '15 Rebellion. This, of course, was done by the Jacobites. "What goes round, comes around!" The ordinary people, as ever, paid the price for the failure of this doomed adventure.

[Lachlan09]

Well put !

Then in the '45, there was the "Gentle Lochiel" - Gentle as what ? A T-Rex with a headache ? He burnt out his own tenants who didn't join his jacobite force !


PS I smile when I think of the word "gentle" - it reminds me of a well-known American Civil War regiment "Wheat's Tigers" aka 1st Louisiana Special Battalion aka Louisiana Tiger Zouaves etc - a Confederate regiment.

Commanded by a giant of a man, the soldier-of-fortune Col. Robardeau Chatham Wheat, the regiment wore an outlandish piratical version of Zouave costume, including a red Garribaldi shirt (Wheat had been in Garribaldi's army) and blue and white striped baggy trousers. Raised from toughs and Irish hard-men from New Orleans' wharves, docks and taverns, they were a thorn in the side of their enemies and their own side too. At Bull Run, whilst battlefield relics have generally resulted in bit of muskets, lead balls, minie bullets etc etc, on the Tigers' part of the battlefield (where they defended then charged), they found, apart from the usual, all sorts of wicked looking knives and daggers, knuckledusters and blackjacks (lead filled leather coshes). A bit like outside the Barrowland Ballroom after closing time !

Their flag was light blue with a painting of a woolly lamb in the centre and above it the motto "Gentle As A"

My favourite Civil War regiment !!! Now - if only today's Louisiana Tigers re-enactors could look like that, instead of the clean-cut participants who dress as Tigers, it would wow the crowds. Mind you, they'd probably have to recruit re-enactors from state prisons