Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of The '45

[PeterSandy]

Maggie Craig is the author of the rather rudely above-titled book. She is the author of the groundbreaking and acclaimed Damn' Rebel Bitc#es: The Women of the '45 and several historical novels set in Glasgow and Edinburgh. She is a native of Glasgow.

Note what she says in chapter 24 entitled Not Without Orders: Fergusson, Lockhart & Scott:

It's an unpalatable truth that the three Redcoat officers who earned themselves an enduring reputation for terrible cruelty after Culloden were all Scotsmen: Captain John Fergusson, Major James Lockhart and Captain Caroline Scott. In the summer and autumn of 1746, there were plenty of Englishmen running amuck through the Highlands raping, burning and destroying - Captain Cornwallis is one who earned his place in the hall of infamy - but it's these three [Lowland] Scotsmen who are most bitterly remembered.

Read Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of the '45 by Maggie Craig (Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh and London, 2009)

[Lianachan]

I nearly bought that book a week or so ago, as it happens. I will get it eventually.

Yes, the horrors committed by the British army in the Highlands in the late 1740's were indeed carried out with particular enthusiasm by some deasachs.

[Duthill]

I read ''Damn' Rebel Bit(t)ches'' some years ago . A fine tribute to some previously unsung heroines .
I look forward to this new book coming to a library near me .

I don't consider the use of the word banditti to be rude . Its' no different from scotti in definition , and that was good enough to become the name of a people and a nation .
In fact I reckon its' a bloody clever title.

[wullie m]

When the Redcoats reached Raasay there was nothing left, the Skye Militia had sacked the place from end to end. This was also the case in Badenoch where the Mackays burned the Macpherson country. The Gaels were no slouches where loot was concerned. The '45 was the end of a century long civil war and the same attrocities and murders were perpetrated by the "Highland Host", in another king's name, on the Covenanters of the south west, eighty years earlier. No doubt Scott & Co' well remembered the tales of these days.
That said, I have the book, very good it is too. wullie m

[ScotSites]

I've read both books and they are both well worth checking out!

[PeterSandy]

Originally Posted by Lianachan

I nearly bought that book a week or so ago, as it happens. I will get it eventually.

Yes, the horrors committed by the British army in the Highlands in the late 1740's were indeed carried out with particular enthusiasm by some deasachs.

Yes. It is a book well worth buying.
She tells us in the Preface: "In the hope of producing a flowing and readable narrative, I have chosen to use neither footnotes nor endnotes, a decision I also made when I wrote Damn Rebel Bitc#es."

I like your use of the word 'deasachs' (southern countrymen).

[Lianachan]

Originally Posted by PeterSandy

Yes. It is a book well worth buying.
She tells us in the Preface: "In the hope of producing a flowing and readable narrative, I have chosen to use neither footnotes nor endnotes, a decision I also made when I wrote Damn Rebel Bitc#es."

I like your use of the word 'deasachs' (southern countrymen).

The events in question are considerably later than my main areas of expertise, but it while it misses on period, it definitely ticks the location box for me. I fully intend to eventually buy both books.

And thanks - deasachs is a fine word, and one I often use.