Battle of Prestonpans

Background

The Forty-Five began after the French victory at Fontenoy. Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the exiled James II and VII, landed on Eriskay on 23 July 1745 and raised his father's standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August. Sir John Cope, commanding the government's small field army in Scotland, left his cavalry and artillery at Stirling under Brigadier Thomas Fowke and marched into the Highlands to stop the rising at source. Finding the Corrieyairack Pass held by Highlanders, he turned aside to Inverness on 26 August, leaving the road south open.

The Jacobites marched on Edinburgh. On 16 September Gardiner's and Hamilton's dragoons fled at their approach in the 'Canter of Coltbridge', and on 17 September Charles entered the city, though the Castle held out for the government. Cope had meanwhile shipped his infantry from Aberdeen and began landing at Dunbar the same day, where he joined the dragoons. On 19 September he camped at Haddington, then turned north onto the coastal plain to keep clear of the enclosures and coal pits around Tranent, and on the afternoon of 20 September took up a position between Preston and the sea.

Charles, who had resolved at Duddingston to fight, brought his army east onto the ridge at Tranent on the 20th. The two armies faced each other across a marsh. A Cameron detachment posted in Tranent churchyard was shelled out of it, and neither side could reach the other across the wet ground without a long detour.

The armies

Cope's army was about 2,200 rank and file: Murray's, Lascelles' (eight companies, with two of Guise's), five companies of Lee's, some Highland companies, and Gardiner's and Hamilton's dragoons. Much of it was raw. Lascelles' had been building a military road near Loch Lomond until May, and both dragoon regiments had already bolted once at Coltbridge. The artillery, six 1½-pounders and six mortars, was a scratch force of seamen and invalids under one elderly gunner, with Lieutenant-Colonel Whitefoord in charge. Cope was short of men on the day: at least 200 dragoons and 300 foot were out on picket, three companies guarded the baggage at Cockenzie, and a company of Loudoun's Highlanders had deserted.

The Jacobite army was a little larger, about 2,400, almost all foot in clan regiments: the Camerons of Lochiel, the Stewarts of Appin, Clanranald's, Glengarry's and Keppoch's MacDonalds and the Duke of Perth's regiment, with only 36 horse. They had no artillery to speak of. Their weapon was the Highland charge, a fast rush to close quarters against troops who might not stand. Lord George Murray and the Duke of Perth led the two wings; Charles agreed to command from the second line.

The battle

The position (20 September). Cope faced south. In front of him was a marsh running east to west below the Tranent ridge; the park walls of Preston and Bankton protected his right; the embankment of the Tranent-to-Cockenzie waggonway, built in 1722 to carry coal to Cockenzie harbour, crossed the field, with his guns behind it. The court-martial later judged the ground well chosen. Charles wanted to attack straight across the marsh; Murray argued that it would stall the charge under fire and won the council over to a move round Cope's open eastern flank.

The night march. Robert Anderson of Whitburgh, a local man who hunted in the marsh, knew a firm trackway through it. Sources differ on the hour: the Heritage Trust has the army moving from about midnight, Wikipedia (after Tomasson and Buist) has the whole force on the move at 4 a.m. Three abreast, the column passed through the defile at Riggonhead, south of Seton, and came down onto the open ground east of Cope's camp in the dark. Cope's pickets heard it before it could attack, and Cope wheeled his whole line to face east and moved his guns.

Deployment (about 5 a.m.). The Jacobites appeared in three columns west of Seton and formed two lines. In the government line, from left (north) to right, stood Hamilton's dragoons, Murray's, the Lascelles' and Guise's battalion and Lee's five companies. An advance guard of 136 men was to rejoin the right at the last minute. The guns, with a guard of 100, stood on the right, with a squadron of Gardiner's beside them and another behind. Facing them, the Duke of Perth led the Jacobite right with the three MacDonald regiments, about 850 men, and Murray the left with Perth's, Appin's and Lochiel's, about 900. Charles's second line of 500-600 followed. The Jacobite front drifted north as it formed, opening a gap, and each army overlapped the other's left.

The charge. Murray's wing struck first, at the guns. The seamen gunners ran, and officers, Whitefoord among them, fired the pieces themselves. The squadron by the guns was driven off, Gardiner's second squadron broke, and Hamilton's dragoons on the far flank fled too. The infantry stood a few minutes longer and fired at least one volley before Murray's men rolled up the open right flank and the clansmen were among them.

The rout. The fight was over within ten or fifteen minutes of the first shot. The fleeing foot were caught against the walls of Preston and Bankton; only small parties under officers such as Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Halkett held together. Most of the infantry were killed, wounded or taken. Gardiner, abandoned by his regiment, fought on foot with a handful of infantry until he was cut down, by tradition near a thorn tree on the field, and died of his wounds. Whitefoord was spared by Stewart of Invernahyle. The baggage guard at Cockenzie surrendered later in the morning. Cope, Fowke and Lascelles got away with the dragoons by the lane past Bankton, now Johnnie Cope's Road. Archaeology places the main clash in farmland west of Seton, several hundred metres east of where older histories put it.

Aftermath

Government losses are uncertain: perhaps 300 killed, several hundred wounded and something like 800-950 taken, all from an army of about 2,200. The Jacobites lost about 100 killed and wounded. Cope reached Berwick the next day with about 450 men; Lord Mark Kerr is said to have greeted him as the first general to bring news of his own defeat. Most of the prisoners were later released, as the Jacobites could not feed them.

The victory gave Charles Scotland, apart from its castles, and with it recruits, a French envoy bearing money and arms, and the confidence to invade England in November. In London the government recalled Cumberland and some 12,000 troops from Flanders. A board of inquiry cleared Cope, Fowke and Lascelles in 1746, blaming 'the shameful conduct of the private soldiers'; Cope never held senior command again. The government army drew a lesson about the Highland charge that it would need again at Falkirk and Culloden.

Cope is remembered through Adam Skirving's mocking song 'Hey, Johnnie Cope, Are Ye Waking Yet?'. Gardiner became a pious hero in Philip Doddridge's 1747 life of him and in Scott's Waverley; an obelisk stands at Bankton. The battlefield, much changed by coal working, roads and the railway, is on the Inventory of Historic Battlefields, and a cairn marks the dead of both sides.

Wargaming it

Prestonpans is a small, very short battle: two armies of about 2,000-2,500 each, decided in a quarter of an hour. That makes it ideal for a single evening at battalion level, one unit per clan regiment, battalion or dragoon squadron, with turns of a minute or two, or for skirmish rules with a few hundred figures a side.

The interest lies in the night before. A good scenario starts on 20 September with the armies facing each other across the marsh and the Jacobite player choosing between a frontal assault, which the marsh should punish badly, and the hidden march through Riggonhead. Hidden movement, a chance of the column being spotted early by Cope's pickets, and a time limit before dawn turn this into a real decision for both players.

Once battle is joined, it hinges on morale. Rules need nervous government cavalry and gunners who may run at the first sight of a charge, green infantry who get one volley before they are tested, and a Highland charge that is devastating if it closes. The Jacobite deployment should drift, leaving a gap, and the field should be bounded by the Preston and Bankton walls, which trap fugitives.

The 'what ifs' are many: Cope spotting the column in the defile; his pickets and baggage companies in the line; seasoned gunners; or Charles accepting a frontal attack across the bog.

Maps and pictures