The Battle of Culloden was described in  detail in the interactive exhibition in the Visitor’s Center at the Culloden Battlefield. The troops had assembled near this ground, chosen by Bonnie Prince Charles against the advice of the French ambassador, who literally begged the prince on bended knee not to fight here, but rather to retreat to The Highlands. On April 15, 1746, eager to get it over and claim the throne, the inexperienced Bonnie Prince Charles gave the orders to launch a secret attack the evening before the appointed battle. The Highlanders  marched through the night without even coming into contact with the Duke's men. Unsuccessful, exhausted and hungry, the following morning on the field of battle, the odds were already stacked against the Clansmen. The boggy, rain sodden ground of the moor was not suited to the Highland charge, they were vastly outnumbered, and they were exhausted after many days marching back from England where they had failed to muster the support they badly needed to ensure victory.  On April 16, 1746, the Battle of Culloden started with an exchange of artillery that quickly became a one sided affair, as the Jacobite gunners were vastly outnumbered and outclassed. Twenty minutes of constant bombardment decimated the Jacobite lines as they awaited the order to charge. Bonnie Prince Charlie took no part in the battle, and with no leader to sound orders their hesitations were to play a large part in their defeat. When they finally did charge - taking it under their own initiative - the slaughter continued. Those who did not die in a volley of bullets and grapeshot, were cut down when they reached the lines. The Government troops used a new way of meeting the Highland charge. Each government soldier stabbed at the man to the right of the man he faced directly, so his bayonet would pierce under the man's raised sword arm, sending the blade into his target’s heart. The Highlander's small shields, most often held in the left hand, did not fend off this surprise maneuver. There was no mercy for the wounded soldiers, many were slaughtered where they had fallen, and those who had managed to flee were hunted down and executed. Bonnie Prince Charlie managed to evade the Government forces, and after five months on the run throughout the Highlands, escaped to Italy via the Isle of Skye, disguised as a ladies’ maid, never to return.

PHOTO: Detail: The Battle of Culloden April 16, 1746 by Luke Sullivan, after A. Heckel, 1747. First printed by R. Whittington, John Bowles, and Carrington Bowles. Re-printed by Laurie and Whistle, 1797.