The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby ending the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Charles landed in Scotland in July 1745, seeking to restore his father James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne. He quickly won control of large parts of Scotland, and an invasion of England reached as far south as Derby before being forced to turn back. However by April 1746 the Jacobites were short of supplies, facing a superior and better-equipped opponent.
The Jacobite commanders decided their only option was to stand and fight. When the two armies met at Culloden, the battle was brief, lasting less than an hour, with the Jacobites suffering an overwhelming and bloody defeat. This effectively ended both the 1745 rising and Jacobitism as a significant element in British politics.
Background
The Jacobite rising of 1745 began on 23 July when Charles Edward Stuart landed in the Western Isles and launched an attempt to reclaim the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. After their victory at Prestonpans in September, the Jacobites controlled much of Scotland, and Charles persuaded his colleagues to invade England. The Jacobite army reached Derby before successfully retreating across the border.
Despite its lack of tangible results, the invasion boosted recruitment, bringing Jacobite strength to more than 8,000. These troops, along with French-supplied artillery, were used to besiege Stirling Castle, the strategic key to the Scottish Highlands. On 17 January the Jacobites repulsed a government relief force under Henry Hawley at the Battle of Falkirk Muir, although the siege itself made little progress.
Soon after, Cumberland arrived in Edinburgh to take over command from Hawley. On 1 February, the Jacobite army abandoned the siege and withdrew to Inverness. Cumberland's army entered Aberdeen on 27 February and both sides halted operations until the weather improved. Although several French shipments were received during the winter, the Royal Navy blockade left the Jacobites short of money and food. When Cumberland resumed the campaign on 8 April, Charles and his advisers agreed their best option was to gamble on a set-piece battle.
Prelude
On 12 April, Cumberland's army forded the River Spey, which was guarded by 2,000 Jacobites under Lord John Drummond, who withdrew towards Nairn, an action for which he was later criticised. The Jacobites evacuated the town on 14 April, and Cumberland's troops camped just to the west. Although significant elements were absent elsewhere, the main Jacobite army of about 5,400 left Inverness on 15 April and assembled on the Culloden estate, five miles (eight kilometres) to the east.
The Jacobite command ultimately decided abandoning Inverness, which held most of their dwindling supplies, meant the army might disintegrate. Sir John O'Sullivan, the adjutant-general, identified a suitable site for a defensive action at Drummossie Moor, but Lord George Murray felt it favoured the government troops. He suggested an alternative, steeply sloping site near Daviot Castle, which was inspected by Brigadier Stapleton of the Irish Brigade and Colonel Ker on the morning of 15 April. They rejected Murray's suggestion, arguing the ground was "mossy and soft" and would fail to protect the road into Inverness. The Jacobites ultimately formed their line west of the site originally chosen by O'Sullivan.
Night attack at Nairn
On 15 April the government army celebrated Cumberland's 25th birthday by issuing two imperial gallons (nine litres) of brandy to each regiment. Hoping they would be less vigilant as a result, the Jacobite leaders decided to conduct a night attack on the government encampment. Murray's instructions were for his troops to use only swords, dirks and bayonets, to overturn tents and subsequently to locate "a swelling or bulge in the fallen tent, there to strike and push vigorously".
The plan drawn up by Murray called for simultaneous attacks on Cumberland's front and rear by his troops and a second force under the Duke of Perth, supported by Lord John Drummond and Prince Charles. The Jacobite force did not begin its march until well after dark, partly to avoid being spotted by ships of the Royal Navy then in the Moray Firth. Murray led it across country to avoid government outposts, but one participant, James Johnson, later wrote "this march...on a dark night [was] accompanied with confusion and disorder".
As a result, it was one hour before dawn when Murray's leading elements reached Culraick, still two miles (three kilometres) from the intended crossing point over the River Nairn. After a heated debate, Murray concluded the attack should be aborted, but this message was not communicated to the 1,200 men under Perth. While Murray led his detachment back to camp along the Inverness road, Perth continued, unaware of the change in plan. One account claims his troops made contact with government sentries before realising their colleagues had turned around. Although some historians suggest the night attack might have remained viable if he had continued, most argue their numbers were too small to have any effect.
Not long after the exhausted Jacobite forces had made it back to Culloden, an officer of Lochiel's regiment, who had been left behind after falling asleep in a wood, arrived with a report of advancing government troops. By then, many Jacobite soldiers had dispersed in search of food or returned to Inverness, and others were asleep in ditches and outbuildings. Several hundred of their army may have missed the battle.
Battle
After the abortive night attack, the Jacobites formed up in substantially the same battle order as the previous day, the Highland regiments forming the first line. They faced north-east over common grazing land, with the River Nairn about 1 km to their right. Their left wing, anchored on the Culloden Park walls, was nominally led by James Drummond, titular Duke of Perth, while his brother John commanded the centre. The right wing, flanked by the Culwhiniac enclosure walls, was led by Murray. Behind them, the conventionally trained Lowland regiments were drawn up in accordance with French practice. During the morning, heavy snow and rain saturated the already wet ground, although the weather cleared just before the battle started.
Cumberland's army left their encampment by 5 am, leaving the main Inverness road and marching across country. By 10 am the Jacobites finally saw them approaching at a distance of around 4 km. At 3 km from the Jacobite position, Cumberland gave the order to form line, and the army marched forward in full battle order. John Daniel, an Englishman serving with Charles's army, recorded that on seeing the government troops, the Jacobites began calling out insults, but without response. Once within 500 metres, Cumberland moved his artillery up through the ranks.
As his troops formed up, it became clear that Cumberland's right flank was exposed, and so he moved additional units up to reinforce it. Meanwhile, Sullivan ordered two battalions of Lord Lewis Gordon's regiment to cover the walls at Culwhiniac against a possible flank attack, while Murray shifted the right wing slightly forward. Since these alterations had the unintended result of skewing the Jacobite line and opening gaps, Sullivan transferred the Edinburgh Regiment, along with those of Perth and Glenbucket, from the second line into the first. This meant the Jacobite front rank now substantially outnumbered that of Cumberland, but depleted their reserve and increased their reliance on a successful initial attack.
Artillery exchange
At 1:30 pm, Finlayson's Jacobite batteries opened fire; possibly in response to Cumberland sending forward Lord Bury to within 100 m of the Jacobite lines to "ascertain the strength of their battery". The government artillery returned fire shortly afterwards. Some later Jacobite memoirs suggest that their troops were then subjected to artillery bombardment for 30 minutes or more while Charles delayed an advance, but government accounts suggest a much shorter exchange before the Jacobites attacked. Campbell of Airds, in the rear, timed it at 9 minutes, but Cumberland's aide-de-camp Yorke suggested only 2 or 3 minutes.
The duration implies that the government artillery is unlikely to have fired more than thirty rounds at extreme range: statistical analysis concludes that would have caused only 20–30 Jacobite casualties at that stage, rather than the hundreds suggested by some contemporary accounts.
Jacobite advance
Shortly after 1 pm, Charles issued an order to advance, which Colonel Harry Kerr of Graden first took to Perth's regiment, on the extreme left. He then rode down the Jacobite line, giving orders to each regiment in turn. Sir John MacDonald and Brigadier Stapleton were also sent forward to repeat the order. As the Jacobites left their lines, the government gunners switched to canister shot, which was augmented by fire from the Coehorn mortars situated behind the government front line. As there was no need for careful aiming when canister was used, the rate of fire increased dramatically, and the Jacobites found themselves advancing into heavy fire.
On the Jacobite right, the Atholl Brigade, Lochiel's and the Appin Regiment left their start positions and charged towards Barrell's and Munro's regiments. Within a few hundred yards, however, the centre regiments, Lady Mackintosh's and Lovat's, had begun to swerve rightwards to try to avoid canister fire or to follow the firmer ground along the road running diagonally across Drummossie Moor. The five regiments became entangled as a single mass, converging on the government left. The confusion was worsened when the three largest regiments lost their commanding officers, all at the front of the advance: MacGillivray and MacBean of Lady Mackintosh's both went down; Inverallochie of Lovat's fell, and Lochiel had his ankles broken by canister within a few yards of the government lines. In 2024, in a 60 m² area near what is believed to have been the government front line, archaeologists recovered large numbers of musket balls and grapeshot, indicating extremely intense close-range combat.
The Jacobite left, by contrast, advanced much more slowly, hampered by boggy ground and by having several hundred yards further to cover. According to the account of Andrew Henderson, Lord John Drummond walked across the front of the Jacobite lines to try to tempt the government infantry into firing early, but they maintained their discipline. The three MacDonald regiments (Keppoch's, Clanranald's and Glengarry's) stalled before resorting to ineffectual long-range musket fire. They also lost senior officers, as Clanranald was wounded and Keppoch killed. The smaller units on their right (Maclachlan's Regiment and Chisholm's and Monaltrie's battalions) advanced into an area swept by artillery fire and suffered heavy losses before falling back.
Engagement of government left wing
As it charged, the Jacobite right was hit hard by a volley at nearly point-blank range, but many of its men still reached the government lines. The brunt of the Jacobite impact, led by Lochiel's regiment, was taken by only two government regiments: Barrell's 4th Foot and Dejean's 37th Foot. Barrell's lost 17 killed and suffered 108 wounded, out of a total of 373 officers and men. Dejean's lost 14 killed and had 68 wounded, with the unit's left wing taking a disproportionately higher number of casualties. Barrell's regiment temporarily lost one of its two colours.
John Huske, commanding the government second line, quickly organised a counterattack by Lord Sempill's Fourth Brigade, comprising 1,078 men from the 25th, 59th, and 8th Regiment of Foot. He also instructed the 20th Foot to take up position between the 25th and 37th, leaving the Jacobite right surrounded on three sides by five battalions.
With the Jacobite left stalled, Cumberland ordered two troops of Cobham's 10th Dragoons to ride them down. The boggy ground, however, impeded the cavalry, and they turned to engage the Irish Picquets whom Sullivan and Lord John Drummond had brought up in an attempt to stabilise the deteriorating Jacobite left flank.