This retreat embittered Charles's feelings against Lord George, who may
have been mistaken--who, indeed, at Crieff, seems to have recognised his
error (February 5); but he had taken his part, and during the campaign,
henceforth, as at Culloden, distinguished himself by every virtue of a
soldier.
After the retreat Lord George moved on Aberdeen; Charles to Blair in
Atholl; thence to Moy, the house of Lady Mackintosh, where a blacksmith
and four or five men ingeniously scattered Loudoun and the Macleods,
advancing to take him by a night surprise. This was the famous Rout of
Moy.
Charles next (February 20) took Inverness Castle, and Loudoun was driven
into Sutherland, and cut off by Lord George's dispositions from any
chance of joining hands with Cumberland. The Duke had now 5000 Hessian
soldiers at his disposal: these he would not have commanded had the
Prince's army met him near Stirling.
Charles was now at or near Inverness: he lost, through illness, the
services of Murray, whose successor, Hay, was impotent as an officer of
Commissariat. A gallant movement of Lord George into Atholl, where he
surprised all Cumberland's posts, but was foiled by the resistance of his
brother's castle, was interrupted by a recall to the north, and, on April
2, he retreated to the line of the Spey. Forbes of Culloden and Macleod
had been driven to take refuge in Skye; but 1500 men of the Prince's best
had been sent into Sutherland, when Cumberland arrived at Nairn (April
14), and Charles concentrated his starving forces on Culloden Moor. The
Macphersons, the Frazers, the 1500 Macdonalds, and others in Sutherland
were absent on various duties when "the wicked day of destiny"
approached.
The men on Culloden Moor, a flat waste unsuited to the tactics of the
clans, had but one biscuit apiece on the eve of the battle. Lord George
"did not like the ground," and proposed to surprise by a night attack
Cumberland's force at Nairn. The Prince eagerly agreed, and, according
to him, Clanranald's advanced men were in touch with Cumberland's
outposts before Lord George convinced the Prince that retreat was
necessary. The advance was lagging; the way had been missed in the dark;
dawn was at hand. There are other versions: in any case the hungry men
were so outworn that many are said to have slept through next day's
battle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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