From: "Dave Coull" <d.y.coull-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 14:32:19 GMT
Subject: Redcoats


In a message a couple of weeks ago 

Andy wrote :

>> In an earlier life I was a redcoat

and I replied

>Oh well we might have been on the same side then.
>Joining the papist supporters of a prince who was
>raised and educated in Rome doesn't sound like 
>me at all.

Now, I don't  _really_  think I would have been a "redcoat"
   -   despite my deep suspicion of anything connected
with the Roman Catholic church, I reckon if I'd been around 
at the time, my impulse would have been to say "a plague 
on both your houses"   -   but I've been thinking about this, 
and I've decided that a history lesson is needed. Anybody 
who doesn't like history lessons can just stop reading now. 

Lots of people have been known to wear red coats.
The staff at Butlins holiday camps, for instance. 
British troops in various north-american conflicts.
And both sides at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
(Since it was a civil war, and both sides claimed
to be the true "British" army, and both sides were 
wearing virtually identical uniforms, and flying 
the same flags, in order to try to distinguish friend 
from foe and avoid killing "friends", William of Orange 
ordered his troops to wear a sprig of  _GREEN_  
in their hats.) 

But from the context of Andy's remark, it seems clear 
that he was using "redcoat" in a very narrow sense,
namely those troops who defeated the Jacobites
at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It is also clear from
Andy's remark that he was making the very common 
mistake of thinking that those troops were English,
and that the battle was an "English" victory over "Scots".

A lot of historians have written about this from various 
different perspectives, but I think it's safe to say 
that all serious historians would agree that :

(1) the Battle of Culloden was a battle in a "British"
civil war which took place in the context of a wider
European conflict with France

(2) A major element in people deciding which
side to support in that conflict was religion. 
Although most of the Jacobites were in fact 
Episcopalian, they were  _perceived_  by 
their enemies as being dominated by Catholics.
The majority of Scots were Presbyterian
and opposed to the Jacobites.

(3) There were English troops on both sides 
in the battle

(4) There were Scottish troops  on both sides 
in the battle

(5) There were Gaelic-speaking highlanders 
on both sides in the battle

(6) The majority of troops on the Jacobite side
did not come from Gaelic-speaking areas
of Scotland, but from areas of the North-East
where Episcopalianism was strong.

(7) Although it was a "British" civil war, it was
also a "Scottish" civil war. The great majority 
of the troops  _on both sides_  were Scottish 
(that is, most of the "victors", as well as
most of the "vanquished", were Scottish)

(8) The reason that the battle is remembered 
as a terrible defeat for Gaelic culture 
is because of what happened _afterwards_ , 
over a period of years, with Butcher Cumberland's 
bloody suppression. Despite the fact that 
many highlanders had fought on the Hanoverian 
side, this suppression was aimed quite 
indiscriminately at a whole culture. Ironically, 
the chief instruments of suppression were 
themselves Gaelic speaking highlanders
   -   the units which became the Highland 
regiments of the British Army which still exist.


Dave