5 Battle of Culloden myths debunked
#2. It was guerrilla warfare
There’s a common view that the Jacobite forces (which weren’t just Scottish, by the way) fought with a guerrilla warfare style. Many claim they were untrained and ill-equipped to face off against the British soldiers.
This wasn’t quite the case.
While they were slightly lower in numbers than the British, they weren’t poorly trained. In fact, they had regimented lines and had a mixture of British and French training at their disposal.
The main issue came to location and transportation problems. The Jacobites weren’t really in a position to fight back, but they needed to. The British wanted Inverness, a last major depot for the Jacobite cause. The Jacobites knew that if they lost Inverness it was all over. So they fought with everything they had at the time on a moor that was boggy and in a fight that was doomed from the start.
Had the Jacobites attempted guerrilla warfare, they would have broken up and lost much sooner than they did. They knew that, so they had to stick with the training they had.
On the Anniv. of the Culloden Battle, I thought this appropriate from Voyager... from Jamie #Outlander @OutlanderHQ @OutlanderHome @ncoutlanderfans @JAMMFWarriors @mymtbrain @Sheugs @OutlandishScot @LaughOutLander @SamHeughan pic.twitter.com/sDX8DMqfKq
— MacBrownie (Beth) (@brownie_mac) April 16, 2018
#3. It was Catholics vs. Protestants
Like the myth that it was just Stuart vs. Hanover, there is also the myth that the Jacobites were all Catholic and the Crown’s men were all Protestant. This was certainly not the case.
In fact, the majority of the Jacobite recruits were from the Scottish Episcopal Church. This was a rough Scottish version of the Church of England and didn’t view the Pope as the head of the church. What the Jacobites really wanted was to get rid of the Presbyterian church that was overseeing the country.
That being said, there were Catholics involved. After all, the Stuarts were Catholic monarchs and a number of Catholics did want to put them back on the throne. The British Protestant monarchs weren’t exactly the friendliest to the Catholics and there wasn’t the same level of acceptance of different faiths there is today.
Yet, the British also had some Catholic fighters, as well as Protestant ones. Then there were those that just stayed out of it and hoped for the best!