Culloden (1746) order of battle

The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746 at Culloden, Highland, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Duke of Cumberland, ending the Jacobite rising of 1745.

Composition


The Jacobite Army is often assumed to have been largely composed of Gaelic-speaking Catholic Highlanders. In reality, nearly half of the rank and file were from the more urbanised areas of the Scottish Lowlands. While predominantly Scottish, it also contained some English recruits, the majority deserters from the government army. During the latter stages of the campaign, these were reinforced by detachments of Irish and Scots professionals in French service, mainly from the Royal Ecossais and Irish Brigade. Around 500 fought at Culloden, including 100 reputedly recruited from government troops captured at Fort Augustus in March.

The Jacobites initially relied heavily on the traditional right of Highland chiefs to recruit their tenants for military service. However, this obligation had largely fallen into disuse, and many had to be compelled to serve with threats of eviction. As a result, desertion was an ongoing issue, while the colonels of some Highland regiments considered their men to be uncontrollable.

A typical Highland regiment was officered by tacksmen, with their subtenants providing the rank and file. Tacksmen served in the front rank, and thus incurred a disproportionate number of casualties, accounting for over 25% of those incurred by the Appin regiment. Although often pictured equipped with a broadsword, shield, and pistol, most of the Highland troops used muskets as their main weapon.

Many Jacobite regiments, notably those recruited from Lowland areas, were organised along conventional European lines, but as with the Highland levies, these were inexperienced and poorly equipped. As the campaign progressed, supplies from France improved their equipment considerably and by April 1746 many were equipped with 0.69 in calibre French and Spanish firelocks.

By the time of Culloden, most of the Jacobite cavalry had been disbanded due to a shortage of horses, with only minor elements taking part. Their heavy artillery was also largely absent, with all but one of the cannon present being light 3-pounders.

Jacobite Order of Battle
Commander-in-Chief Charles Edward Stuart

Chief of staff Colonel John William Sullivan

Composition
Cumberland's army at Culloden comprised 16 infantry battalions, including four Scottish units and one Irish. The bulk of the infantry units had already seen action at Falkirk, but had been further drilled, rested and resupplied since then.

Many of the infantry were experienced veterans of Continental service, but on the outbreak of the Jacobite rising, extra incentives were given to recruits to fill the ranks of depleted units. On 6 September 1745, every recruit who joined the Guards before 24 September was given £6, and those who joined in the last days of the month were given £4. In theory, a standard single-battalion British infantry regiment was 815 strong, including officers, but was often smaller in practice and at Culloden, the regiments were not much larger than about 400 men.

The government cavalry arrived in Scotland in January 1746. Many were not combat experienced, having spent the preceding years on anti-smuggling duties. A standard cavalryman had a Land Service pistol and a carbine, but the main weapon used by the British cavalry was a sword with a 35-inch blade.

The Royal Artillery vastly outperformed their Jacobite counterparts during the Battle of Culloden. However, until this point in the campaign, the government artillery had performed dismally. The main weapon of the artillery was the 3-pounder. This weapon had a range of 500 yd and fired two kinds of shot: round iron and canister. The other weapon used was the Coehorn mortar. These had a calibre of $4 2/5$ inches (11 cm).

Government Order of Battle
Captain-General: Duke of Cumberland

Commander-in-Chief North Britain: Lieutenant-General Henry Hawley

See the following reference for source of tables

British Army casualties
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