Culloden Page #4

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But it is too late.

At one minute past two

in the afternoon,

his cause in ruins,

Charles Edward Stuart

is led from the battlefield

by the man most responsible

for his defeat.

As Charles leaves, a senior

clan officer screams after him,

"Run, you cowardly Italian."

- Mr Fossett.

- Your Highness?

- You will order a general ceasefire.

- Your Highness.

Of the 9,000 men of the royal army

who advanced this morning from Naim

with Private Laing,

an estimated 50 are dead.

Bu! For every one corpse

in the royal army

there are 24 in the clan army.

Piled in layers, dead or dying,

are 1,200 men...

including the brother

of Private James Chisholm.

There was scarce a soldier or officer

of Barrell's Fourth of Foot

who did not kill one or two men each

with their bayonets or spontoons.

Not a bayonet but was bent

and stained with blood

to the muzzles of their muskets.

All witnesses agreed that, if

grapeshot were the king of battles,

the bayonet was now

the queen of weapons.

"It is mine and everybody': opinion,"

boasts a trooper,

"that no history can brag

of so singular a victory."

How do you feel?

Don't feel nothing, really.

I feel all right!

Well, now it's over.

Battalion, take care!

Halt!

2:
14pm. The battalions

of Cumberland

halt at the lines held by the rebels

one hour and eight minutes ago.

Battalion, shoulder your firelocks!

Three cheers for His Royal Highness!

- Hip, hip!

- Hurrah!

Thus has ended the last battle

to be fought in Britain

and the last armed attempt

to overthrow its king.

The Establishment has been saved,

peace restored,

Church, Crown,

trade and commerce safeguarded.

Thus the Duke of Cumberland

won his only victory

and Charles suffered his only defeat.

His advisers are shortly to urge

his instructions for reassembly.

"He is to reply, " Do as you wish.

Only, for God's sake, let us go.

Charles Edward Stuart,

his cause now in ruins,

has given one order too many.

Charles pitted these men against

the modem musket and bayonet,

against cavalry and cannon.

Thus, in one hour, eight minutes,

he has reduced

the ower of the Highland clans

to twitching, limbless corpses.

2:
30 pm and His Royal Highness,

the Duke of Cumberland,

orders rum and brandy, cheese

and biscuits for his brave boys.

For the wounded and dying clansmen

on the moor,

there is to be different treatment.

All over the battlefield, whilst the

Duke of Cumberland eats his lunch,

any clansmen seen to be still alive

is either slit in the throat,

pistolled through the head

or bayonetted and trampled on

until, in the words of an eyewitness,

"the moor was covered with blood"

"and our British soldiers

looked less like Christian men"

"than so many butchers."

What about some grub?

This rebel host has been

most deeply indebted to the public

for all the rapine,

murder and cruelty

and our men are heartily determined

to give them receipt in full.

Cut him!

Cut him, you bastard!

Take him to the shoulder!

I'm letting my regiments of horse

loose after the battle

in order they may have some sweets

with all their fatigue.

Thus nearly 100 people

are to be butchered or maimed

on the road to Inverness.

Butchered whether or not

they took any part in the battle.

They took my baby.

He's only two weeks old.

And one of them

whirled him around by his leg...

and threw him on to the ground.

This is Jean Clark, aged 28.

Cut about the face and body

by sabres,

she was left lying for dead

on the road to Inverness.

The soldiers came in and caught him,

and Daddy too

but I got away

through a hole in the wall.

- How old was your brother?

- Lachlan was nine.

I don't... I don't know

where he and Daddy are now.

Come on, you!

4 pm. Inverness.

James Rae:
trooper,

Kingston's Light Horse,

the first man of Cumberland': army

to enter the Highland capital,

the first man to show its inhabitants

what is to be expected

from an Englishman

protecting his liberty

and his Protestant religion.

There was these two men,

shouting and screaming.

And then he came out

and there was blood on his hands.

These troopers from the Duke

of Kingston's Light Horse Regiment

are later to be commended

by Cumberland

for their "zeal in the pursuit."

Each of them comes from Nottingham.

Each of them by trade is a butcher.

James Rae himself, who, like the other

troopers of Kingston's Light Horse,

played his pan in the battle

when it was over,

is later to return to Nottingham,

where his regimental colours

are to be laid to rest

with great pomp and ceremony.

"To the perpetual fame

and immortal memory

"of the Duke of Kingston's

Light Horse,

"where, amongst others,

on the 16th day of April 1746,

"they performed

many and glorious exploits

"in routing and entirely subduing

the perfidious rebels.".

"Long may

the county of Nottingham ourish."

"God save our ever august King."

April 16th. 10:
30 pm. Inverness.

For William Augustus,

Duke of Cumberland,

third son of King George ll,

an evening of immense

satisfaction and triumph.

At the age of 25,

he has saved his father's kingdom

and redeemed the reputation

of the British army.

At his table, older officers drink

his toast and declare him to be

one of the greatest English captains

since Marlborough.

His cousin Charles, until today the

heroic leader of an armed rebellion,

is now a fugitive in the heather.

If further proof were needed

of this young man's prowess,

it is here,

unheeded by him,

four and a half miles away.

This is Lachlan MacDonald

of Lochaber,

right leg severed

below the knee joint.

He's been lying on the moor

untended for 13 hours.

For most of the time,

it has been raining.

This is Mrs Anne Hossack

of Inverness.

Somewhere on the moor,

amidst 1,200 dead and dying,

is her husband.

I don't know...

where he is.

For Alexander Laing, private,

Barrell's Fourth Regiment of Foot,

this evening is also

one of immense satisfaction.

His regiment has acquitted itself

with honour on the field of battle.

He himself has despatched

three of the rebels

and, above all, he himself

has escaped death and maiming.

Lucky bastard!

Battalion will take care

while the casualty lists are read.

It's all right for you, my lord!

This is Mrs Anne Walker,

wife of Private Andrew Walker, who

was wounded in the ranks of Barrell's

and taken to the surgeons' lines.

This woman, also, has no idea

whether her husband is alive or dead.

It is given out this morning

of Thursday 17th April

that the following officers

and other ranks

of Major General William Barrell's

Regiment of Foot

were either killed

or have since died from wounds

resulting from the glorious victory

inflicted yesterday

over the rebel army.

Killed:
Captain Lord Robert Kerr.

Other ranks:
Sergeant Pullman,

Privates Baker, Barstow, Dyke,

Finch, Lowell,

Lawson, Meecham, Napper, Osbourne,

Smart, Williamson.

Wounded and since died

in the surgeons' lines:

Corporal Lockhart,

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