Culloden, 16 April 1746

The battle, stage by stage

1. 16 April 1746, about 11 AM to 12:30 PM

   Drawn up on Drummossie Moor

   After a failed night march to surprise the government camp at Nairn, the hungry and exhausted Jacobite army — perhaps 5,000 foot and a few hundred horse — forms on the open moor southeast of Culloden House. Its front line of clan regiments stretches between two stone-walled enclosures: the Culwhiniac park on the right and the Culloden Parks on the left. Lord George Murray commands the right (Atholl Brigade, Camerons, Stewarts of Appin), the Duke of Perth the left, where the MacDonald regiments stand, by most accounts resentful at losing the right of the line. Behind them, in columns, are Lowland regiments and the French-service Royal Écossais and Irish Picquets. About 700 m to the east, the Duke of Cumberland's army — about 7,000 foot and 800 horse in HES's figures, often rounded to 8,000–9,000 men — deploys in two lines with a reserve. Seeing the Jacobites might overlap his right, Cumberland brings Pulteney's and Battereau's up from the reserve. Placements follow the National Trust for Scotland flag lines and the HES Inventory; the exact line traces are interpretive.

2. About 1 PM

   The cannonade

   The Jacobite guns open first; the government's ten 3-pounders, served by trained gunners in pairs between the battalions, reply far more effectively. Accounts of how long the clansmen stood under fire vary from two or three minutes to half an hour; James Wolfe, then a major on Hawley's staff, reckoned about 15 minutes. Gaps open as Murray shifts the Atholl Brigade; John Roy Stuart's men are brought up near the Stewarts of Appin and Perth's and Glenbucket's to the extreme left. On the government left, the Argyll Militia breach the east wall of the Culwhiniac enclosure, and Hawley's dragoons — Kerr's and Cobham's — begin to pass inside it.

3. About 1:10 PM

   The Highland charge

   The order to charge reaches the center first. Clan Chattan sets off and, by most accounts, veers to its right, away from boggy ground and perhaps following the line of the road, crowding the Frasers, Appin men, Camerons and Athollmen toward the walls on the right; HES notes that survey evidence shows the right charged through the Leanach enclosure rather than around it. The MacDonalds on the left, with the farthest to go, advance slowly. Canister and grapeshot replace roundshot as the clans close. Wolfe's Regiment moves up on the far left beside the enclosure wall, and the Campbells line the inside of the Culwhiniac north wall, firing into the flank of the charge. (HES questions accounts that place Wolfe's at an angle from the start; here it moves up during the charge.)

4. About 1:15 PM

   Barrell's and Munro's

   The weight of the charge falls on Barrell's and Munro's on the government left. After a close-range volley, the clansmen break into Barrell's, which is pushed back with heavy loss — 17 killed and 108 wounded in Reid's tally — while Munro's loses 14 killed and 68 wounded. Highlanders who push through are caught between the first line and the second, where Sempill's, Bligh's and Ligonier's come forward, while Wolfe's pours fire into their flank. To the north the MacDonalds, halted under artillery and musket fire, never close with Pulteney's and the Royals. Behind the Jacobite right, Hawley's dragoons break out of the Culwhiniac enclosure near Culchunaig, where Lord Lewis Gordon's and Lord Ogilvy's battalions and FitzJames's Horse line the crest of a re-entrant to face them.

5. About 1:25 PM

   The line gives way

   Unable to break the second line, the survivors of the Jacobite right and center fall back across ground covered with their dead — the area of today's memorial cairn and the Graves of the Clans. The MacDonalds give way in turn. Kingston's Horse and two troops of Cobham's Dragoons ride out on the government right; the Irish Picquets come forward to cover the MacDonalds' retreat, reportedly losing about half their number. Behind the Jacobite right the dragoons and the crest-line battalions face each other, keeping a line of retreat open.

6. About 2 PM

   Retreat and pursuit

   The battle is over in under an hour. The Jacobite left streams toward Inverness, much of the right south-west toward the River Nairn and Ruthven in Badenoch; FitzJames's Horse, the Royal Écossais and the Irish Picquets cover parts of the retreat, and the French-service troops later surrender as prisoners of war. Cumberland's line advances across the field and the cavalry pursue, killing many of the fleeing and wounded — the start of the reprisals that earned him the name 'Butcher'. HES gives the government loss as 50 killed and 259 wounded; Jacobite dead are estimated at 1,200–1,500. Prince Charles leaves the field and, after five months in hiding, escapes to France.