The ’19 has been called ‘the
little Rising’ in contrast to the better known events of 1715
and 1745. It was short and a complete failure, but has a place in
Munro history as the setting for the last battle in which the clan
took part as a separate body. In 1745, there was a unit appearing at
Falkirk and Culloden as Munros’ but this was, in fact a
regiment of the regular British Army (later the 33rd Regiment) named,
as was then the custom, after its commanding officer – Sir
Robert Munro of Foulis. Sir Robert was killed at Falkirk three months
before Culloden, but many of the contemporary plans and accounts of
the battle of Culloden still use his name for the regiment which
included few, if any, other Munros. The regiment later became known
as Dejean’s when Lt-Col. Louis Dejean was promoted, and then as
the Hampshire Regiment. Clansmen had followed a number of Munro
officers into one of the Independent Companies linked to the British
Army. Glenshiel looking northwest with the old military road crossing
the River Shiel. Contemporary sources place the Government forces in
the foreground, with the Munros to the left of the picture, facing up
the glen. Glenshiel looking southeast. The Jacobite forces advanced
up the glen and engaged the Government army at the narrowest part of
the valley in the centre of the picture. The Jacobites fled up the
sloes to the left. T The ’15 had ended with James (the Old
Pretender) and his supporters returning into exile, but not in a very
decisive defeat for their cause. So there were soon plans for a
renewed invasion. Clearly the Jacobites needed backing from a major
European power with money, munitions and troops, and so had to find a
country ready for war with Britain and willing to back an invasion as
a diversion. After diplomatic comings and goings with France, the
traditional enemy, and Sweden through rivalry with Hanover, it was
finally Spain which fell out with Britain in 1717. A plan was made by
which a Spanish force under the Duke of Ormond would invade the west
of England, while the Jacobites would land in the west Highlands. n
March 1719, the two fleets sailed, but the Spaniards were beaten back
by a gale while the Jacobites under Earl Marischal, with two frigates
carrying more than 300 regular Spanish officers and men, reached the
isle of Lewis in early April. In Stronoway, they were joined by a
party from Paris, much smaller than expected, which included the Earl
of Seaforth and the Marquis of Tullibardin. This gave rise to
difficulties in the chain of command, with the result that some
leaders wanted to wait for news of Ormond’s expedition while
still in comparative safety on Lewis. But the opposite decision was
taken and the Jacobite force set out for the mainland, with Marischal
retaining control of the ships while Tullibardin took command of the
land forces, reaching Loch Alsh in Kintail by mid-April. Here the
Jacobites made their headquarters in Seaforth’s castle of
Eilean Donan where, with a garrison of 45 Spaniards, they stored
their ammunition. The rest of the Jacobite army camped on the nearby
shore of the loch, and were joined by some local support from
Seaforth’s Mackenzies and clansmen under Macdonald of
Clanranald and Cameron of Lochiel. nce again the leaders differed in
their views – some were already anxious to withdraw, but
against much advice, the frigates were sent away, leaving the army
with no means of retreat. Plans to march and attack Inverness were
abandoned and They still waited for news and more local support,
neither of which arrived. What did arrive, on the 10th May, were five
ships of the British navy which fired on the castle before landing a
force to storm it. The Spanish garrison was taken prisoner and the
ammunition and stores blown up. The Jacobites were now cut off from
the sea. Moving east to the head of Loch Duich, they again waited for
recruits and more support, but little of either arrived.
Tullibardin’s hopes to raise the clans to the cause came to
almost nothing, and only a token force came to aid the Jacobites. By
this stage, it was known that Ormond’s invasion of England had
been called off. Eilean Donan – the Mackenzie Seaforth’s
costal stronghold which became the Jacobites’ headquarters. The
government in Scotland had meanwhile been alerted. The garrison at
Inverness had been reinforced, and General Wightman marched west with
his force of about 850 infantry, 120 dragoons and about 130
Highlanders which included the Munros. The chief at this time, the
blind Sir Robert, was unfit for service and, with his eldest son
absent in London, a party had been recruited by his second son,
George Munro of Culcairn, to act as guides for the regular troops
through the wild and unfamiliar country between Loch Ness and
Kintail. In a memorial, George later wrote: “When Generall
Whightman having determined to march from Inverness, the beginning of
June 1719, against the Spaniards and the attainted noblemen and
gentlemen who joined yhem, did upon the 28th of May desire the
Memorialist to joyn him with one hundred men of the Clan Munro, when
accordingly the Memorialist the 30th May marched to Inverness with
one hundred private men, six officers, four serjeants, and one pyper,
with who he went to Glenshall.” The Jacobites waited for their
enemy in Glenshiel, some 15 miles east of their former base at Eilean
Donan, at a point where the glen narrows and the river crossing is
overlooked by steep hills on both sides. The battle began at about
five o’clock in the evening of the 10th June, when, after
shelling by the mortars, the government left wing, consisting of the
Munros and four platoons of Colonel Clayton’s regiment,
attacked the Jacobites. I O At first they were repulsed, but with
reinforcements they attacked again and drove the Jacobites back
across the river and took a small hill which commanded the pass. The
right wing of the Jacobites and meanwhile been dislodged and the men
driven up the steep hillside. The Spaniards and the rest of the
Jacobites held their ground in the centre for a time, but were also
eventually forced to retreat up the hill. Action ceased after some
three hours of fighting when darkness fell and the government forces
were left in possession of the pass. The Jacobites had nowhere to go
and agreed among themselves that the 247 Spaniards, who would be
treated as prisoners of war, should surrender while “everyone
else took the road he liked best” and quietly dispersed. Crown
Copyright/MOD Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the
National Library of Scotland, this contemporary map by John Henry
Bastide of the battle showing the formation and position of the
Government army straddling the river to the right and the different
positions of the forces as the battle moved up the valley. The
Monro’s Highlanders are shown as being on the Government’s
left flank with The Sutherlands Highlds on the right flank. here were
comparatively few casualties – probably not more than 100
killed or wounded among the Jacobites, though this was difficult to
estimate with the general scatter, and 21 killed and 121 wounded on
the government side. The latter included three officers killed and a
number wounded – one of whom was George Munro of Culcairn who
was reported severely wounded on the thigh “but the bone safe”.
Of the other Munros, George would record: “the Eldest Captain
[was shot] thro the cheek and shoulder, and… three private men
killed in the action, and thirteen wounded, of whom two dyed in the
hospital at Inverness, and nine men remain still there [February
1720] at the Memorialist’s expence, five being utterly
disabled.” General Wightman set up camp in Kintail “to
put Dread upon those concerned in this late rebellion” but was
back in Inverness by the end of the month. Apart from Wightman’s
visit to Kintail, there was little government reaction to the
Jacobite disaster of 1719. The only light on the horizon for the
Jacobites was the marriage of James in that year and the birth in
1720 of Charles Edward – whom history would come to know as
Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender. A modern historian has
written “The battle of Glen Shiel had been well fought on both
sides – the Spanish and British regulars did their job in a
professional fashion and the Jacobite Highlanders who stood the
mortar bombs, grenades and musketry of the Hanoverian forces for
three hours showed extraordinary staunchness.” The real
difference lay in the Jacobite leadership, whose disagreements had
long ago landed their followers in an impossible situation. * * * * *
Battle site visiting It is not difficult to find the Glenshiel battle
site. The A87 trunk road passes along the length of Glenshiel as it
links Invergarry with the Kyle of Lochalsh, and the location is
marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of the area. There is little
evidence on the ground to suggest anything of a battleground, but the
action spread over a sizeable part of the glen – a little
imagination is all that is required to appreciate the difficulty in
doing battle in such terrain. The scenery is some of the finest is
the western Highlands and includes the Five Sisters of Kintail and
convenient road-side parking where the old military road crosses the
river makes an ideal stopping point. T
© The Clan Munro Association of Canada