Eyewitness accounts
Many people wrote accounts of the battle afterwards. We have included
extracts from four accounts– two from each side. They are fairly
lengthy, and it is expected that teachers will select extracts from the
accounts according to the interests and abilities of their pupils. It
may be useful to look at and discuss these in conjunction with some of
the battle maps, so that pupils have an idea of where on the battlefield
the writer was standing.
General points to be brought out from each account are:
- Facts about the writer
- Facts about the battle
- Information which is likely to be the writer’s opinion, rather than a fact
- Which parts may be biased or exaggerated and why
- Pupils could use different coloured highlighter pens to highlight these features in the text.
Specific points to bring out from each account are noted below.
Donald Mackay (Jacobite)
Key points to bring out from this account are:
- When he joined the Prince
- His description of the Prince
- Descriptions of the weather
- The cannonade, charge and hand to hand fighting
- His escape
- What we can judge to be facts and what opinions
- How reliable his account is likely to be, having been written many years later
‘Chevalier’ James Johnstone (Jacobite)
Key points to bring out from this account are:
- His exhaustion after the night march and suprise that they are fighting that day
- Description of the battle field
- Description of breaking down the walls of the Culwhiniac enclosure
- The effects of the marshy ground on the charge, and his difficulty in moving over wet ground
- His horror at the retreat
- What we can judge to be facts and what opinions
- How reliable his account is likely to be, having been written many years later
Edward Linn (Government soldier)
Key points to bring out from this account are:
- His report of the Jacobite night march
- Description of the government march from Nairn
- Description of the cannonade and charge
- His account of the numbers of fatalities on either side
- Descriptions o the prisoners
- The weather and its effects on the battle
- Description of the Duke
- What we can judge to be facts and what opinions
- How reliable his account is likely to be, written to his wife, a few days after the battle
Donald Campbell of Airds, (Highland officer
on the Government side)
Key points to bring out from this account are:
- He was a Gael fighting on the Government side
- Description of the march from Nairn
- Description and timing of cannonade, charge and hand to hand fighting, and his pleasure at the sight of - the retreating Jacobites
- Description of incidents at Culwhiniac enclosure (the ‘stone park dykes’ he mentions are at Culwhiniac)
- How few regiments were actually involved in the fighting >
- Taking of prisoners and weapons
- Report of the Night march
- Report of the disappearance of Prince Charles and plans for afterwards
- What we can judge to be facts and what opinions
- How reliable his account is likely to be, written just a few days after the battle
