"Highlanders" Topic

I've been thinking about these lads and the Highland Charge for a little while.

Some thoughts on that and a little discussion and more pics over at my blog. Do drop by if you're interested. Here's the link.

withob.blogspot.co.uk

One point you have missed out regarding the Highland Charge in that it was often delivered downhill and on occasion through 'dead ground' which minimised casualties until they were close enough for a shocking impact.

True Jim they did maximise the advantage of ground wherever possible. I might update the blog to reflect it.

There was an evolution of the "Highland Charge" over time, too. The charge of the mid-1600s was a different creature than the charge of 1745-46. As firearms came to play a more dominant role in battle, and as commanders sought to make clan units more disciplined and able to stand their ground like regulars, swordplay and hell-for-leather charges became rarer and maneuver took a higher profile.

The moment to launch a charge had to be carefully considered, as well as the suitability of the ground and the ability to support a charge via a general advance or flank protection. And when an army included both clan and non-clan units, the Highlanders might be kept together as a sort of battering ram element, ready to be sent forward at a chosen moment, or operate on flanks as skirmishers.

There also seems to have been a sustained effort during the last Jacobite rebellion to train Highlanders in the use of the bayonet as per the standard French and British drill, so the charges at Culloden may have involved a higher proportion of clansmen going in with cold steel rather than the broadsword. Stuart Reid has done some sterling research and writing on these subjects in his various Jacobite books.

You know Piper I think most of that is wrong.

Firstly no one ever thought it was a good idea for Highlanders to stand their ground. That only happened when they had lost the initiative. Highlanders of course could be trained as regulars but no clan ever attempted it. Some Highlanders began to use firearms in the Irish NYW and no doubt they became increasingly common as time went on but the sword was king up to, and in the colonies beyond, Culloden.

I don't think the Highlanders ever shone as skirmishers, indeed some of them would have had to throw stones to do so because they lacked distance weapons.

I cannot recall the sustained effort to train Highlanders in the use of the bayonet as per the standard French and British drill which is odd because I've just re read Duffy.

The charge at Culloden went in in the usual Highland formation, though they got bunched up because of the ground,so any Highlander with a musket and bayonet was not really doing what a regular would expect to do.

Both Duffy and Reid have their own (Lochaber?) axes to grind, so the truth will probably lay somewhere in between.

Reid has written some interesting stuff and I do have a couple of his books but he cannot really be compared to Duffy in terms of scholarship.

Never liked Duffy, no matter his scholarship! Whilst I may not agree with Stuart Reid, I at least like his style.

Is it not true that the broad sword, being an expensive, prestige piece of hardware, was not commonly to be foud in the hands of your average clan levy?

No, its not true. All sorts of blade could be hilted with a basket and even quite old sword blades were re used. Some swords were more expensive than others and the higher you were up the social order the better sword you could own. That said most clans men would own a sword of some type.

Clans were corporate units and it was in every ones interest that sufficient armaments were in circulation.

Highlanders operating in the Mohawk Valley a generation after the '45 all seem to have owned swords.

Bear in mind that almost all of those Highlanders in the Mohawk Valley would be former British soldiers, who would have been issued a sword during their period of service. However, I think you are right in general about the rank-and-file clan levy being at least armed with the basics as stocks of arms would be held by the Laird at the clan HQ.

Suspect not all of them were SM or even most of them. They seem to have been settled there on the initiative of William Johnson who was an interesting lad indeed. Had they been former British regulars we might have expected more, or even some, emphasis on firepower from them.