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Extracts Regarding Prestonpans 1745

An extract from "'Scotland' A New History', Micheal Lynch.
Local support?

If marginality was the keynote of support for the Prince in August and September 1745, the same was also the case for the government. Cope had found panic and equivocation but little commitment on his travels. In the capital, a city of some 40,000 inhabitants, 400 men of the Edinburgh Defence Volunteers had mustered on the morning of the 15th September; by midday, when they were due to march out of the city to confront the Prince's army, they had shrunk to forty-two.

Lord Drummore's account of the Jacobite advance at Prestonpans.
Lord Drummore was stationed on the "Royal Left", on horseback, at 150 yards to the left of Hamilton's squadrons.He saw the highlanders advancing in "Two columns, clews or clumps.......and upon the right of those columns a long line which far outflank'd our line." From his description it is clear that although, like the Camerons and Stewarts on the Highland left wing, some of the MacDonalds broke up into separate bodies, those on the extreme right managed to preserve their line formation. In fact, so orderly was it, that while they were advancing Drummore "could see thro' from front to rear, yet to my astonishment, every front man cover'd his followers, there was no man to be seen in the open.......in short, tho' their motion was very quick, it was uniform and orderly, and I confess I was surprized at it."

"I can now tell you for certain there can never be 500 men assembled of Mr Copp's armie again, perhaps scarce half. Our loss may be about 36 kill'd and 50 wounded; their's, 600 killed, as many wounded, and we have actually from 16 to 18 hundred prisoners, of which above 80 officers..."
-Lord George in a letter to his brother after Prestonpans.
"A thousand men went, about one in the morning, which I commanded the whole way and I was much satisfied to find the men could march in such order; and upon any emergency were perfectly obedient, though when no enemy was near, they were not so regular."
-Lord George in a letter to his wife on leaving Perth

 

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