28mm Jacobite Lowlanders

Just in from Paul B. are a couple of pictures of some Jacobite Lowlanders that he has reted using the 28mm PLastic Warlord Games ECW Infantry kit as a basis.

Below various shots of the lowlanders, the musketeer group includes an officer, standard nearer and an NCO with a Lochinbar Axe.

Seven figures all with a good tartan finish and nice blue bonnets,
the Officer has been given a tricorne from the bits box

The Warlords Games kit is really useful for 16th & 17th Century troops - Mike W has also been using these to build his Marian Wars collection - something not lost on Paul!

Another group of finished figures

And a closer up view

Battle of Prestonpans - 1745

Recently discovered are a series of photos and documents from old club games on an old CD. I am publishing them here for posterity.

The photos on the CD is dated 04/05/2002, so guessing that this game was about or before this date.

Figures are from John & Mike W's collection.

Diary of Alan Breck Stewart

These notes are part of the re-discovered campaign dairies of the Jacobite sympathiser -Alan Breck Stewart, (Not to be confused with Robert Louis Stevenson's hero of the same neame!) who worked to promote the Jacobite rebels in the club's campaign that ran around 2002/3. Hope they are of interest and view these in conjunction with the diaries of William Smythers Esq - also published here. The two accounts are contemporary...

3rd July 1745
With a glad heart and a bold spirit the adventure began setting sail from the Brittany ports. Prince Charles and his advisers, the Duke of Athol and Col. O’Sullivan aboard the privateer ‘Le Dolpine’. Accompanying the Prince was a squadron of three French Frigates – ‘Lyons’, ‘Monpellier’ and ‘Dunkirque’. Aboard the frigates are detachments from all of the Irish regiments in French service, under the command of the good colonel O’Sullivan and to be known as the ‘Irish Piquets’ additionally there is a detachment of the ‘Regiment Maupas’.

Weather in the English Channel was good, visibility was excellent and it was with great fortune that a sailor of the ‘Monpellier’ did spy the sails of  an English vessel just over the horizon, the fleet tacked east and out ran what was most likely a Royal Navy squadron.

4th July 1745
The fleet passed without event into the Irish Sea, many of the common men in the hold were feeling decidedly sea-sick and by the end of the day the smell from below decks was enough to make even the strongest man cry.

5th July 1745
The weather gets worse as we move north towards home. There is constant concern about being discovered by the Hanoverians and the lookouts spend many long hours in the masts spying the horizon for the enemy. The stench from the holds is worse – if that is at all possible, the men are now being allowed onto the deck for an hour at a time to keep up their spirits.

6th July 1745
The fleet passes into the Atlantic Ocean and the seas get rougher, we skirt around the coast of Ireland without detection. The strain of this journey is starting to effect all on board for at any moment we may be discovered and attacked by the Hanoverian fleet. The Prince, however, is in good spirits as he talks at length of his plans for the future of his new kingdom.

7th July 1745
The weather eases as we sail into the shelter of the Western Isles, at a ‘Council of War’ the Prince elects that we should land at the Island of Mull, O’Sullivan had suggested the mainland Port of Oban but with the Duke of Athol supporting the Prince’s view the decision is made.

8th July 1745
The die is cast, mid morning the fleet finds safe harbour at Mull, the Prince and his officers disembark and immediately head to the house of the local clan leader, Sir Hector MacLaren. The chieftain welcomes the Prince cordially and by manner of his enthusiasm and his good spirit the Prince did gain word from MacLaren of his support for the Princes cause.

By way of good will the chieftain is promised a role in the future affairs of the government of Scotland and the Prince pays MacLaren a bounty of gold to help in the recruiting of men to his cause.

The meeting is brought to a swift close when work is brought to the Prince and his officers of a lone Royal Naval frigate standing off the island. The command group hastily moved back to the port accompanied by Sir Hector. After a period of about one hour the Hanoverian vessel now spied as ‘HMS Nepture’ hove-to and sailed north around the headland.

A council of war was called and it was determined that overnight there should be put into place a daring and cunning plan. Sir Hector organised the local fishing vessels to transport the members of the French troops from Mull to the port of Oban – a clan homeland for the Stewarts – where the prince expected a warm welcome and where I, this  humble diarist, would meet my kinsmen for the first time in 3 years. The Artillery and the arms supplied by the King of France would be transported to Oban by ‘Le Dolphine’ along with the Prince and his officers.

The Duke of Athol  then did make his cunning plan, the French frigates would sail on the morning first to Coll and then onwards north to navigate around the north of Scotland to return to the Brittany ports. On these vessels the captain of the ‘Lyons’ shall carry two letters. The first, a rouse, should be surrendered in a secretive manner to the Hanoverians if the vessels should be captured or destroyed, it details false plans of invasion in East Anglia and Ireland. The second, true letter, requests additional troops from the French King and announces our daring landing.

9th July 1745
Over night the French troops are transported from Mull across the waters to Oban, helped by the good weather the task goes well. By daylight ‘Le Dolphine’ has landed her cargo of Artillery and Arms at the port, the French troops are nearly all landed and the Prince makes a stirring speech on the dockside.

At dawn the French squadron sets sail from Mull heading as planned to Coll, the journey passes uneventfully and they anchor off the coast of Coll to await ‘Le Dolphine’ for the journey north. A shore party lands to tell the local population the news of the arrival of the Prince in Scotland and there is much joy.

Mid afternoon ‘Le Dolphine’ sets sail from Oban to rendez-vous with the rest of the fleet, by three o’clock the vessel is approaching Coll and as it does so it notices three other vessels rapidly approaching from the south west. It is the ‘Neptune’ and two of her sister ships ‘HMS Apollo’ and ‘HMS Venus’ and a mighty battle did commence.

Hanoverian Government Papers - 14th August 1745

Campaign Events

Word reaches Argyle that the Prince has raised his standard in Edinburgh on the 3rd August 1745, Argyle is in Glasgow on his way to Dumfries, he postpones his trip to Dumfries as he prefers to remain in Glasgow commanding the Royal Scots based there. However after prompting from his superiors he continues with his task and has collected the troops stationed at Dumfries and moved to Campbelltown to await the arrival of General Wade, who is at sea in the Irish sea region and expected to arrive at Campbell town in the next few days.

It is not until the 6th August that word reaches Cope in Ft Augustus of the calamitous events further south. Cope grasps the bull by the horns and led out his command to visit punitive justice against the rebels, torching the village of Ft. Augustus and rousting the town of Inverness before clashing with an ad hoc force put together by the Earl of Cromerty at Elgin.

Cope quickly earns the name ‘Butcher’ Cope – summarily hanging a number of clansmen in both Ft Augustus and Inverness, after the Battle of Elgin his Dragoons run amok amongst the fleeing Grants and Lovatts killing dozens as they try to surrender.

To the south of Cope, in Fort William, the garrison came under sustained fire form several hundred clansmen on the night of the 9th Aug. Casualties were light but the garrison was disconcerted without the presence of a recognised leader when attacked.

George II is awaiting a transport that which dispatched from Liverpool to collect him, the Dutch leader Nassau and 1200 Dutch troops, he will be displeased if he has to wait much longer.

After the Battle of Elgin Cope and his force do not pursue Cromerty, rather they move west passing back through Inverness, picking up Forbes and a detachment of the 57th Foot  before heading north to Straith Farrar, clanlands of the MacKenzies, here he rounds up all men between the ages of 15 and 65 years and puts them in the goal, burning the houses of all who resist.

French Support 

Currently the level of French Support for the Jacobites is 4 (Four) out of 5 (Five), it remains unchanged from previous levels. (News of the victory at Elgin has not yet reached France).

Intelligence

The following information has been compiled over the past few days activity and is summarised as below.

It is estimated that the Earl of Cromerty has about 1000 men with him after the Battle of Elgin.

It is known that there are several hundred rebels travelling down the east coast road through Dundee and Perth heading for Edinburgh. Their numbers are too large for the garrison there to interdict effectively.

In the Western Isle it is estimated that there are about 2000 rebels massing, mostly McDonalds.

It is believed that the Prince has approximately 5000 men in Edinburgh, including French, Spanish and Irish Regulars.

Cope learns that the Prince was staying in Straith Farrar between the 16th & 23rd July with a force of some 300 French Regulars.

French action in Flanders does not appear to have been affected by the rebel action in Scotland. There is a possibility of releasing troops from Flanders to be shipped to Britain in the coming weeks, to do this there will be a need to replace British troops with German mercenaries at a heavy cost to the King’s purse.

Battle of Hexham, 1745

Olie as Prince Charlie

The Government Lines

A 'what if' battle from the '45 Jacobite Rebellion. We re-fought this battle in October '12 and although we didn't have time to finish the whole game, it was clear that the Jacobite charge was spent and the remainder of the game turns would be the Government Army mopping up the remnants....

.... We used John's government forces and Mikey W's Jacobite figures for this bash and the scenario was moderated by Dave, who used the new 18th Century Principles of War rules.

We all enjoyed the game and decided to repeat it on 9/11/12 with a number of scenario changes :-

More Government Troops

Government Cavalry Brigade

Instead of running the game length ways down the table we'll run it width ways across the table - giving each side more room to manoeuvre.

Government Forces to be given Victory Points the encourage them to seize the Road Bridge near the Jacobite lines - preventing the Government forces just sitting and waiting for a Jacobite attack!

The Jacobite Cavalry Corps

The Lowland Brigade advances through Cow Pens 

Change the rules mechanism to allow for simultaneous movement and firing, in our opinion a fairer system.