What Happened at the Battle of Killiecrankie?

The battle of Killiecrankie 1689 was a straight forward affair, both sides lined up and one of them charged.  The Williamites mustered around 5,000 men on the day and the Jacobites about half that.   

The Williamite army contained two newly raised battalions but most were experienced Scots soldiers fresh from the Dutch Service who were accompanied by a trained English Battalion. 

The Jacobites were overwhelmingly Highland clansmen save for 300 dismounted Irish dragoons.

The two armies faced each other for a some hours and when the action came it lasted for 30 minutes.  Despite its brevity there is much to be learned from the battle of Killiecrankie.

I had a poke about in various accounts of the battle and discovered many conflicting versions of what actually happened. We now have a new book on Killiecrankie by Jonathan Oates which I hope will clarify matters.  For the moment this is what I think happened.

The Ground

General Mackay drew up his battle line by ordering his column of march to make a quarter turn which brought them to face the Jacobites.  The river Garry was directly behind Mackay’s line and so, to gain space for his soldiers, Mackay ordered an advance up the sloping ground towards Creag Eallich. He halted there and formed his final line of battle. To the immediate rear of his centre stood Urrard House and in front of it he placed his cavalry as a reserve.

 

Dundee had drawn up his army in line of battle below the peak of Craig Eallich. They were divided into seven discrete commands. The Jacobites stood much higher up the sloping ground occupied by both armies. Mackay is recorded as saying the ground was good enough to receive the enemy on but not good enough to facilitate an attack upon the Jacobites.

 

The ground between them was good and without significant obstacle to either force.  The armies faced each other until the sun began to set.

Orders

General Mackay addressed his men offering them specific instruction on how they should conduct themselves.  He was, himself, a Highlander and knew what his men were about to face.  Various accounts of his words come down to us but in essence he advised his men that if they stood firm they had nothing to fear from the Highlanders.  However, if they allowed their line to be broken they would be lost.  It was sound advice and Mackay knew that disciplined close-range fire-power from a numerically superior force could stop a Highland Charge from succeeding.

Dundee allocated each of his commands a specific target in Mackay’s line.  His men were to advance at speed towards their target, give fire once at an effective distance and charge.  It was how they fought and what they did best.  Dundee would have known that each clan chief would strive to out do their compatriots to add lustre to the reputation of his clan.  By setting each of them a specific foe he ensured they would do exactly what he wished. 

The Jacobite Advance

 

The Jacobites advanced at speed and in formation.  The men in front covering those behind.  The Williamites, or at the very least many of them, opened up at long distance squandering their crucial and most effective first fire.  We can deduce this for two reasons:

It is recorded that a Highlander, Grant of Sheuglie, of Glenurqhuart was knocked off his feet when a ball from the Williamite Guns struck his targe.  He was immediately back on his feet unhurt and with a disparaging remark about Bodachs (Churls) continued his advance. His contemporaries must have found him witty and so the story entered tradition. The Williamite guns were very light pieces but even so to do so little damage the ball must have lost all velocity and have been fired way beyond the extremity of its effective range. 

The final Williamite volley was fired at a range of 75 yards and they had fired twice before that.  Logically the first, and most destructive volley must have been fired at over 100 yards range and the second volley must have swiftly followed.  

A look at the musket ball finds mapped by the Killiecrankie archaeological dig and metal detector survey seems to confirm that the first volley was fired at a greater distance than this. Essentially, the Williamites seem to have thrown away their major military advantage by shooting too early and wasting their fire-power.

Some accounts have the three volleys fired by Balfour’s Regiment inflicting 600 casualties on the Jacobites.  Balfour’s were opposed by the Glengarry MacDonalds who charged them and that is who they shot at.  Had those MacDonalds suffered that many casualties it would have been the end of them, it wasn’t and we can dismiss the story.  We can also note that John Mackay in his life of General Hugh Mackay says Balfour’s Regiment failed to fire at all “owing to some unexplained cause”. This is equally unlikely. In any event Balfour was killed and his regiment disintegrated.

The entire Jacobite line gave fire at 50 yards, threw down their pieces, gave a single great intimidating shout, and charged. 

The Charge

All of Dundee’s 7 commands charged home and set about the Williamites with sword and axe.  This is an important point for it means the fire-power of the Williamites failed at all points to blunt or deny the impact of the charging Jacobites. Had the Williamites have held their fire to close range it might have been a different story.

The short version of what happened next is easily told.  The Williamites broke and were cut down running for their lives.  The river Garry of course hindered them. 

 

Establishing the detail of how happened is more challenging.  Two things stand out. Hastings regiment was not engaged as it overlapped the Jacobite line and there was determined fighting between Balfour’s men and the Glengarry MacDonald’s.  In the latter Dundee, Mackay’s son and Balfour were all killed along with some leading gentlemen of Glengarry.  John Mackay says that Balfour was abandoned by his men but I’d suggest that they did not do so immediately.

The rest of the Williamites, so far as I can tell, broke formation and ran for it.  General Mackay said his army disintegrated in a few minutes.

Much attention has been focused on the difficulties caused to the Williamites by the plug bayonet, once fixed you couldn't fire your musket. 

In this period infantry without a bayonet or those who expected to fire their piece again normally fought with clubbed musket.  We might also recall all of the Williamites carried a sword and some of them were Pike men.

The Jacobite losses are variously stated and often referred to as ‘heavy’. I doubt they lost more than 600 men although of course Dundee was quite simply irreplaceable.

The Williamite losses ran into the thousands. Most, I think, killed in the pursuit.
  

General Mackay collected various groups of survivors and led them to safety while the Jacobites collected the 1000 plus pack horses of the Williamites and set about the baggage train.

That was the battle of Killiecrankie. I’ll be reviewing Oates’s book once I have thoroughly read it. Meantime we have enough to plan the game. 

The toys are from Essex, Dixon, Irregular, Minifigs, Roundway and Khurasan and the flags mainly courtesy of Ray at Don't throw a 1 who kindly provides them gratis.