Eyewitness Account of the Battle

An eyewitness account of the battle was written down by David Wemyss, Lord Elcho (Wemyss Castle, Fife 12 August 1721–29 April 1787 Paris). At the start of the ’45 he raised and was appointed Colonel of Elcho’s Lifeguards. After the defeat of the Jacobite force at Culloden Elcho avoided capture and lived out the rest of his life abroad. His narrative of the Rising was published in 1907 under the title ‘A short Account of the affairs of Scotland’.

The section concerning the battle of Falkirk Muir is as follows:

"On the 17^th (January 1746) the Prince drew up his army upon the same filed he had done the day before, and sent of a body of horse to see if their was any motion in General Hawley’s camp at Falkirk, and upon report that their was none, he held a councill of war upon the field wherin it was determined to march forward and fight Hawley, and the march was so order’d that Lord John Drummond should go forward upon the straight road to Falkirk as far as Torwood with his own Regiment, the Irish Piquets, and all the horse, in order to cover Lord George Murrays march, who with the rest of the army went about the South side of Dunipace and was beginning to gain the top of the hill to the south of Falkirk, where the battle was fought, before General Hawley knew any thing of his march. The appearance Lord John Drummonds Corps made upon the hill at Torwood made General Hawley & his army believe the Princes whole army was marching that way, and the were only undeceived when they saw the Highlanders upon the Hill by Falkirk and Then Generall Hawley order’d his Dragoons to mount and endeavour to prevent Lord George from gaining the top of the Hill until his foot should come up. At the same time Lord John Drummond march’d & form’d the third line of the Princes army. The Clans made the first, & the Lowland foot the second, and the whole army Comsisted of 6,000 foot and 360 horse drawn up in the following manner as in the plan of the Battle: Generall Hawleys army consisted of twelve battalions of foot which made about 6,000 men, three regiments or six squadrens of Dragoons 900 men, 1500 Glasgow & paislery militia, and 1,000 Highlanders with Colonell Campbell, in all about 9,400 men commanded by Lt Generall Hawley, Major General Huske, and Brigadeer Generalls Cholmondely & Mordaunt. They had ten piece of brass cannon from six to one pound & some Coehorns. The Prince commanded the Corps de reserve of his army, Lord George Murray the right wing, & Lord John Drummond the left; and the Princes army had no canon. Lord George Murray notwithstanding of the Dragoons appearing marched up the hill with the front of the columns to the East: mean while General Hawleys foot was marching up on the other side the hill with their front to the West, & the top of the hill prevented the two armies from seeing one another. The Dragoons made several motions towards the front of Ld Georges Colum, and by coming up very near often Endevearour’d to draw of the highlanders fire but to no purpose, for they marched on untill they came to a bog, and then the whole army wheel’d to the left, which made them front the north; in the marching up, the second & third line march’d too fast which made them Cover only the right wing & not all the first line as was design’d. As the Princes army in order to gain the top of the hill march’d East and General Hawleys for the same reason West, when the two armies came to be form’d the Princes outflanked Gen: Hawleys on the right as much as his did the Princes left, so the Princes left was opposite to Hawleys centre. The Dragoons drew up in battle opposite to the Princes right wing, and having made several motions to intimidate the Highlanders, at last came down in a line at full trott & attacked them sword in hand. The highlanders march’d up to them very slowly, with their pieces presented, every man taking his aim, and when the dragoons came within nhalf a pistol shot of them, gave them full discharge, which kill’d a great many of them, & broke the rest, who in their flight run down all along the Princes first line and got the fire of the whole line, by which means their was about 400 of them kill’d. Major Mcdonald of Keppock’s having taken one of their horses & mounted him, the horse run away with his companions, and he was the only man of the Princes army taken prisoner. It was past four when the dragoons made their attack, & just as the attack began their came a most violent storm of wind & rain that blew directly in their faces which did them a great deal of mischief. Most part of the highlanders threw down their Guns and advanced very quick sword in hand; some of the right wing fell in upon the Glasgow militia and beat them, but most of the right wing finding no Enemy before them and it beginning to grow dark made a stop and went into great confusion. The left wing in advancing fell in with the centre & left wing of General Hawleys, attacked them sword in hand, & beat & putt them to flight, but as Hawleys right wing stood firm, and had given them several flank fires they were obliged to retire back again up the hill. Had the people upon the right been led down the hill at that juncture, it is not to be doubted but most of Hawleys foot in the Confusion they would have been cutt to pieces, especially as the Highlanders would have got betwixt them and Falkirk, buy the badness & darkness of the weather prevented the Princes right from seeing what had past on the left, and then all the Generals & their aid de Camps were on foot, whereas they ought to have been on horseback, for the Generals business in a battle is more to command Than to fight as common soldiers. Whoever it is certain the Highlanders must have Example show them and that was the reason for it. While Hawleys right had made the Princes left retire, The right remain’d upon the top of the hill, all the Corps mixed together in Great confusion and not knowing what was become of the left or Hawleys foot, who were all at that time marching to their camp in great confusion, for his right finding themselves abandoned by their left as soon as they had made the Princes left retire, for fear of the Princes right coming down upon them went very quickly & followed Their left. A little befor They went away, a squadron of of Cobhams dragoons that had rallied them, came in on the rear of the Princes army as was Supposed to seek for himself, but upon the piquets marching up to them, they went of and followed the rest of their army, who went first to their Camp which they sett fire to, & then in great Confusion went to Linlithgow; whoever a great many of them left their corps & hid themselves in the farm houses in ye neighbourhood, where they were taken prisoners by The horse next day."

A second eyewitness account of the battle was written by Gaelic poet and Jacobite soldier Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair who was a Captain in Clanranalds Regiment. He wrote a an account of the '45 Rising in a book entitled 'Journall and Memoirs of P-C- Expedition 1745-6'.

''General Hawley (who had been joined by the Argyllshire Highlanders to the number of about twelve hundred under General Campbell) with the Government troops encamped a little northward from the town of Falkirk. The P., finding General Hawley did not move from his camp at Falkirk to attack him, held a council of war, January the 17th, about midday, wherein it was resolved to march and attack Hawley. Accordingly we set out in two columns, and under the cover of the Tor Wood passed the Water of Carron at Dunipace, moving on very quickly to gain the hill above and lying on the south west of Falkirk. Our two columns kept at ane equal distance of about two hundred paces till we came in sight of the enemy about a mile and a half distant from us.

Whilst we were making up towards the hill above Falkirk (as was said), the enemy at last perceived us and immediately their three regiments of dragoons were ordered up to gain the ground upon us and hinder our forming till their foot should form and their cannon be brought up the hill to support them. The P., seeing the intention of the enemy, ordered 1,500 or 2,000 of the Highlanders, led on by Lord George Murray and Lochiel, to advance and drive the dragoons from the eminence they had possessed, till the main body of our men should come up, and to form the right of our army. This attack upon the dragoons was very quick and regular; as we came within pistol-shot, the dragoons made up to us at a full trot, thinking to bear us down by their weight, and break us at once, and indeed being well mounted and accoutred, they made a glorious show, sufficient to have struck other hearts than ours with a pannick. We received them however with a very smart fire, upon which they reeld and broke into several divisions, some falling back upon their own foot on the left, others flying out of the field, whilst one body of them fled off to the right, betwixt the front lines of both armys, which by this time were formed.

Our first line was composed of the Highland, and the second mostly of the Low country regiments. Keppoch had by consent the right of all, as Clanranald had at the battle of Prestonpans. Next to Keppochs men towards the left stood Clanranalds, next in order the MacDonalds of Glengarie, the Frasers, the Camerons and the Stewarts of Appin. This right wing was commanded by Lord George Murray as Lieutenant General. The left, consisting mostly of Low country men, was commanded by the Duke of Perth. The P. with his own guards and Fitzjames Horse from France posted himself immediately behind the center of the foot, at about twenty yards distance, that he might have a necessary and commanding view of the whole, having Lord James Drummond with the Irish pickets on his left. 

As the enemy’s dragoons rode off to their right betwixt the lines, our men ran eagerly  in pursuit of them, but were much surprised to find themselves stopt by our generals and officers who with difficulty restrained them with their drawn swords and cocked pistols conjuring them to return to their ground or they would be undone. His R.  H., whose attention was turned to all quarters, observing that our left wing was outlined by the enemy,  sent Brigadier Stapleton with the pickets of the Irish Brigade and some other battalions from the second line, which extended our first line and recovered the disorder we were likely to be put into. Then our whole army marched down towards the enemy who were retreating on all sides in great disorder, but by reason of the unevenness of the ground and night coming on with a storm of wind and rain, they could not overtake them as they were positively ordered to keep their ranks. The enemy, finding they could neither possess nor save their camp, set fire to their tents and retreated with great precipitation towards Linlithgow and were just got to the east end of the town of Falkirk when Lord John Drummnd entered it on that side, Lord George Murray in the middle, and Lochiel in the west end of the town. We took most of their cannon, ammunition and baggage which they had not themselves destroyed.

We reckoned about seven hundred of the enemy taken prisoners and about six hundred men and between thirty or forty officers killed. We had not above forty men killed on our side, among whom were two or three captains and some subaltern officers. His R. H. first concern early next morning was to cause bury the dead, as well those of the enemy as our own people. Had not night come on and been very stormy and our men engaged in pillaging the enemy’s camp, our army might have got between them and Linlithgow and would have entirely destroyed them. Both our officers and men behaved with the greatest bravery, and our order in marching and attacking were allowed to be far beyond expectation in the judgement of officers who had been in the wars abroad. General Hawley’s army consisted of twelve regiments of foot, three of dragoons, twelve companies of Argyllshire Highlanders under Colonel Campbell and a thousand volunteers and eight hundred Glasgow militia, in all about ten thousand men.     

An unlucky accident happened amongst us next day; Colonell Eneas MacDonald, second son to Glengarie, and who commanded the Glengarie men, a brave and good natured youth, was unhappily shot by the accident of a Highlandman’s cleaning his piece. This poor gentleman, satisfyed of the unhappy fellow’s innocence, begged with his dying breath that he might not suffer; but nothing could restrain the grief and fury of his people, and good luck it was that he was a MacDonald (tho’ not of his own tribe but of Keppochs), and after all they began to desert daily upon this accident, which had a bad effect on others also and lessened our numbers considerably''.