Culloden 1746: A Failed Night March, Boggy Moor and the Thrust to the Right

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By April 1746, Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite army, back from Derby and based around Inverness, was cut off by a Royal Navy blockade, unpaid and starving. Adjutant General John O'Sullivan chose flat, boggy Drummossie Moor to cover the Inverness road, overruling Lord George Murray. On the night of April 15, the Duke of Cumberland's 25th birthday, when each government regiment was issued two gallons of brandy, Murray led a silent march to attack the camp at Nairn with blades alone. It broke down in darkness and bog, still two miles short at dawn.

Exhausted men scattered to sleep and forage, and many missed the battle on April 16. Modern analysis cuts the opening bombardment to between two and nine minutes. The charge then foundered: the MacDonalds on the left sank in bog, and the center swerved into the right wing, cramming five regiments against Barrell's and Dejean's. John Huske wheeled more regiments into a horseshoe and fired into the mass. Within an hour 1,500 to 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded against 50 government dead, and Charles later ordered his rallying army to disperse.

• The Jacobites were told to cut tent ropes and strike at the bulges of collapsed canvas.
• Government soldiers were drilled to thrust their bayonets to the right, past the targe and under the raised sword arm of the next Highlander.
• Smaller .69 caliber French musket balls found on the moor show the Jacobites fired far more than the sword-charge myth suggests.
• A 1752 German thaler found above a mass grave hints at a veteran returning to mourn, and an intact 17.5-pound mortar shell was unearthed in October 2025.
• Between 5,000 and 6,000 men gathered at Ruthven barracks ready to fight on before Charles told them to save themselves.