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The Irish Brigade's Stand
for 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'
Part 1 of 3: 'My King Has Landed'
By Ian Colquhoun
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By David Morier, painted in
1746
The Highland attack on the
Grenadier Company of Barrell's King's Own Royal Regiment. For a larger
view click here. |
The
infamous Battle of Culloden, fought April 16, 1746, is world-renowned
both for its tragic one-sidedness and because of the romantic image of
outnumbered, starving, exhausted, kilted Jacobite Highlanders, charging
with broadsword and shield against battle-hardened English 'Redcoats.'
That the English were armed to the teeth with muskets, artillery and
bayonets, and, most significantly, a new tactic for dealing with the
terrifying Highlander assault, adds to the pathos of the battle's
accounts.
Culloden is also seen, more simplistically, as the last
battle between England and Scotland. It is probably best remembered,
however, for the brutality displayed by the English 'Redcoats' and Scots
'Loyalists' who fought for England. A famous quote
from a combatant in the battle describes the Royal Redcoats as looking
like 'so many butchers' as they gleefully stabbed or beat to death
hundreds of wounded Jacobite soldiers and innocent civilians in the
battle's aftermath. The episode was so shameful that no British
regiment has the engagement on its battle honors.
. . . looking like 'so many butchers' as
they gleefully stabbed or beat to death hundreds of wounded Jacobite
soldiers and innocent civilians
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There were other soldiers wearing red jackets on the field, but these men were the
antithesis of those behind the English standard. They wore long-skirted
red coats, carried French weapons and fought for the Jacobite side.
These were Irishmen in the service of France, 'Wild Geese' maintaining
the tradition of Irish recruitment into Bourbon service harking back to
1691.
Positioned in the second line of the Jacobite
army, on its left, stood 150 men from three companies or picquets, of
France's Irish Brigade. These men all volunteered, and received
furloughs to come to Scotland to fight for the Jacobite cause, both to
help their brother Scots, and in the hope that a Stuart restoration
would see the end of the harsh anti-Catholic penal laws in their own
homeland.
Gaelic Ireland and Gaelic Scotland had shared a
common culture, ever since the first settlement by Fergus Mac Erc of
the Dal Riada. This, plus shared ancestry, often facilitated mutual
assistance, in the spirit of the 6th century Treaty of Drumceat.
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The Vinkhuijzen collection
of military uniforms, NYPL
An infantryman from Lally's
regiment. |
The Irishmen hailed from Tipperary, Louth, Limerick and Wexford and
were armed conventionally, with French muskets and bayonets and a full
cartridge box, unlike most of the Highlanders in their army who had, at
best, four rounds per man. The Irish lads and a similarly organized
regiment of Scots in French service, who stood next to them, were the
only Jacobite troops with ample ammunition, as between them these two
units were expected to provide disciplined firepower if and when the
English lines started to break.
"The Irish Brigade," so-named by the Jacobite
command despite its small numbers, had already tipped the scales in an
earlier battle, at Falkirk, when their intervention had driven the
English (or Hanoverians) from the field after some of the English
battalions had stood firm against the clans' 'Highland Charge.' The
Irish had also taken part in a brutal skirmish in Elgin a few days
before Culloden, using their murderous musketry to drive pro-government
Campbell clansmen out of the town.
'Thaing mo Righ air Tir am Muideart'
When Prince Charles Edward Stuart, commonly
embraced as "Bonnie Prince Charlie," had left France for Scotland in
1745, he had taken 800 men of the Irish Brigade with him, both to guard
his person and to provide much-needed firepower to what was to become
his Highland army. Alas, the ship transporting the troops got into a
fight with HMS Lion en route and was severely damaged, forcing it to
return to Brest with the 800 men and the Prince's essential war
supplies. The Prince carried on with his rising regardless, to recover
the throne for his father, James III, also known as the "Old
Pretender."
Charlie had landed only with seven companions,
known to history as the "Seven Men of Moidart." Four of these were
Irish -- Sir Thomas Sheridan, George Kelly, Sir John Macdonald, and
Colonel John William O'Sullivan. Even so, many of the clans rallied to
the Prince's standard at Glenfinnan at the head of Loch Shiel on August
19th, thus beginning "The '45." A martial tune for bagpipes, known in
Gaelic as a pibroch, was composed by John MacIntyre of Ulgary,
Glenmoidart, titled "Thaing mo Righ air Tir am Muideart," or "My King Has
Landed in Moidart."
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Scottish National Portrait
Gallery
"Bonnie"
Prince Charlie,
the last hope of the Jacobites.
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Charlie's early successes persuaded King Louis XV to send regular
troops to his aid. Some 2,000 battle-hardened Irish and Scots exiles
were sent to Scotland, but most of them were intercepted at sea by the
ever-vigilant Royal Navy. In total, around 800 such troops made it
ashore and joined the Jacobite army in time for the Battle of Falkirk.
There had been nearly 500 men of the French 'Royal
Scots' regiment, and there were initially 300 men from the three Irish
companies of Dillon's, Ruth's and Lally's regiments, all volunteers. There was
also to have been a whole regiment of red-coated Irish cavalry,
Fitz-James' Horse, named after The Duke of Berwick, but all but 70 of
the troopers were intercepted at sea, along with the regiment's horses.
Irish regiments in Bourbon service wore long-skirted red coats, just as
their grandfathers had done, showing their allegiance to the Stuarts,
and to Ireland. The added message of their red coats was that they were
of the legitimate army of the legitimate king -- the Royal Stuart.
By the time of Culloden, three months after
Falkirk, there were only 150 men of the Irish Brigade fit for duty. The
clansmen in the Jacobite army, though fearsome warriors, showed no
interest in other duties such as siege work or patrolling, so those
duties fell to the Irish professional soldiers. These duties had taken
their toll, and with disease, had reduced the unit's fighting strength
by half by the time of Culloden.
The Irish Brigade was commanded by a Major Surman,
but he was so sickly that he rarely took the field. In his stead was
Brigadier Walter Stapleton, a fearsome man, who also commanded the
Franco-Scots regular contingent.
Despite landing without any arms or men, Prince
Charles had convinced enough clans to rally to him, and by September
1745 they had bloodlessly captured Edinburgh, and utterly destroyed the
British army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans. The Jacobites
then marched on London in a campaign so daring that it was virtually an
18th century analog to a 1940 Blitzkrieg. They reached Derby, 120 miles
from London, sending the capital into panic.
Part Two, "The Irish Brigade's Heroic Stand for 'Bonnie Prince Charlie'," coming
soon.
Further Reading:
- Colquhoun, Ian: Drummossie
Moor - Jack Cameron, The Irish Brigade and the Battle of Culloden
- Pollard, Tony : Culloden:
The History and Archaeology of the Last Clan Battle
- Barthorp, Michael: The
Jacobite Rebellions 1689-1745 (Osprey Men-at-Arms)
- Kenneally, Ian: "Courage
& Conflict: Forgotten Stories of the Irish at War," (2009),
Collins Press.
- Murphy, David: "The
Irish Brigades, 1685-2006; A Gazetteer of Irish Military Service, Past
and Present," (2007), Four Courts Press.
- Bartlett, Thomas and Jeffery, Keith, Eds.: " A Military History of
Ireland," Cambridge University Press, 1996
- Bredin, A.E.C.: "A
History of the Irish Soldier
 ," Century Books, 1987
- Hayes, Richard: "Biographical Dictionary of
Irishmen in France," M.H. Gill and Son, Ltd. 1949
- Hennessy, Maurice: "The Wild Geese: The Irish Soldier in Exile
 ," The Devilin-Adair Co., 1973
- The Irish Sword: Journal of the Military
History Society of Ireland
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Ian Colquhoun is an Edinburgh-based writer and actor. He has authored
several books, including "Drummossie
Moor," a historical novel set against the Battle of Culloden. For
more information about Colquhoun, visit http://iancolquhoun.org.uk/. |
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