The Well of the Dead is situated close to where the fighting was heaviest. Here, among several other corpses, was found the body of Alexander Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, who led the Clan Chattan regiment in the Prince's army.
Clan Chatten, who numbered 350, lost, it is believed, more heavily than any other regiment. All the officers were killed, except three, and one of these was wounded. Dunmaglass, who died stretching out for water at a spring, now know as the Well of the Dead, was engaged to a young lady, Elizabeth Campbell of Clunas, who died broken-hearted two years after the battle.
The major of the Clan Chattan regiment, who was also a Macgillivray and known as Big John of the Markets, killed a dozen of the enemy with his sword before he was slain. Great slaughter was made too among the Camerons, Frasers and Stewarts of Appin by Cumberland's men. Lochiel was wounded by grape shot in both his ankles, but was carried safely off the field. Another chief, Maclachlan of Maclachlan, was killed as he was leading his own clan and the Macleans into action, while Maclean of Drumin, the second in command, and his two sons shared the same fate.
The Appin Stewarts fought with dogged courage around the banner of their clan. Seventeen men sacrificed themselves to protect the colours, until at length Donald Livingston, a member of the regiment, cut the flag from its staff and carried it away.
The Duke of Cumberland reckoned that the rebels lost 2,000 men on the field of battle and in the pursuit. Most historians, however, think that the actual number was from 1,000 to 1,200 - still a very large proportion of a small army. The casualties in the Royal army amounted to only 310 killed and wounded.
Shortly after the defeated Jacobite army withdrew from the battlefield on Drumossie Moor, the Duke of Cumberland rode into Inverness clutching a drawn sword to show he was the victor. It was a gesture full of menace for Highland people. The battle was over, but the killing was not.The roads into the town from the east were scattered with the bodies of men, women and children cut down at random by his advancing dragoons, while on the battlefield, parties of infantry, encouraged by their officers, covered themselves in blood as they ranged the ground stabbing or hacking to death any enemy wounded who caught their attention.
The day after the battle, patrols were sent back to the area and found and butchered 70 more injured Jacobites. And on the day after that, another 72 were discovered and executed, 32 of them being deliberately burnt alive as they sheltered in a barn at Leanach.
Cumberland lost no time in freeing those of his troops who had been captured earlier by the Jacobites and incarcerated in the tolbooth. The confined space they vacated would soon be crammed with rebel prisoners, and the High Church also would be pressed into service as a jail along with sundry other cellars and the holds of government ships lying off Inverness.
The treatment meted out to all those unfortunate enough to be detained was barbarous. Held in overcrowded, freezing and unsanitary conditions, the scantily-clad, sometimes naked, men were denied food for two days, then they were allowed a daily ration of just half a pound of oatmeal.
Medical assistance for wounded captives was not permitted, which was a particularly callous and inhumane action on the part of the victors. As was only to be expected in the circumstances, the death rate began to climb - and the jailers did not seem to mind at all. Every time a dozen corpses were collected, they were buried in a mass grave.
As well as taking a hard line with the Jacobites, the Duke was careful to track down members of his army who had decided to go over to the Prince. Thirty-six deserters found among the prisoners were subjected to a sketchy drum-head court martial, condemned and hanged.
How Prince Charles conducted himself in the wake of the disastrous blow to Jacobite arms at Culloden is the stuff that legend is made of. With a price of £30,000 on his head, he was hunted across the Highlands and Islands from April to September. He endured great hardships with considerable fortitude, and it is to the credit of the people of the North that no one gave him away to the scouring Hanoverian patrols during his long period as a fugitive.
Flora MacDonald has entered the history books as one of the outstanding Jacobite figures of the '45, though her association with Prince Charles lasted only a few days. It was the ingenuity and courage this young Highland lady displayed in helping the royal fugitive to escape from South Uist, where the Hanoverian net was closing in on him, that set her apart. The Prince eventually escaped to France, sailing on the French privateer L'Heureux on September 20, 1746.
You can read more about Flora MacDonald within the Sir William Wallace of Elerslie pages. You can also find out more about the Culldoden atrocities.
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