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.

The Jacobite Papers - 14th August 1745

Current Situation
The Earl of Cromerty was defeated by Cope at Elgin on the 10th August, he retires to Grantown overnight and pulls back further to Ballater on the 11th. There he is joined on the 14th August by a force lead by the Duke of Athol and Lord Strathalan. This force has orders issued directly by the Prince to pursue and destroy Cope before he can burn the highlands to the ground. It is anticipated that Athol will take command of this whole force.

In the north the McDonalds under Sir Alexander McDonald, have finally been able to move onto the mainland, helped by poor weather in the Isles, he is now at Gairlock with McLeods and McKinnons.

In Edinburgh the Prince continues to rally his forces and to recruit locally.

Recruiting & Spies etc
You have no firm intelligence on Cope’s current location other than he moved north from Inverness, he is likely to try and sack other clan homelands. Reports from Fort Augustus indicate that it will not be possible to recruit any men from the Chisholm clan from that area for several months due to the ravages laid upon the area.

The noises coming from the French are promising, there is word that they will make more regulars available to you in the next few weeks, these are likely to be Irish and Scots regiments in French service, foot and horse, some 1000 men.

Colonel Loudon has now been paroled and he has given his word not to raise his sword against the Prince or his forces in Britain

Hanoverian Government Papers - 1st September 1745

Current Situation

Over the past days a large number of survivors of the defeat at Rannoch have straggled into various lowland towns and cities. To a man all are badly traumatized and not capable of fighting.

Gardiner’s Dragoons managed to retire to Perth, arriving on the 26th August and joining there with detachments of Foot. Together the small force determines to hold out until relived or until their position becomes untenable.

Of Cope and his army little is known, it is believed that they will be offered parole but no offers for exchange have yet been received.

Large numbers of reinforcements  have landed – not before time, in Newcastle General Huske has landed with 6 battalions, 3 English  and 3 Dutch-Swiss. In London the King has landed with the rest of the Dutch Brigade – another 3150 foot.

Additionally a second ‘lift’ of reinforcements is assembling in the Netherlands, these will be available for shipping to Great Britain by the 8th September, but 6 transports are needed.

It is now clear that the Jacobites are laying siege to Carlisle, word has not been heard from thus city since late August, a transport ship from Campbeltown carrying artillery to stiffen the city’s defenses has taken the precaution not to land it’s cargo lest it falls into rebel hands, the vessel lies off Whitehaven where rebel troops are clearly visible.

Wade has initiated a policy of striking at the rebel homelands, he has led a small force of Lee’s 55th Foot to Mull to raise the lands of Sir Hector MacLean the first to join the rebel standard when the Prince landed.

The weather in Scotland takes a turn for the cooler, it is raining most days.


Intelligence

The French continue assembling a fleet at Boulogne, a number of warships and additional transports are assembling there, however it appears that there are no troops massing here. Militia is being raised in Calais.

Tobias Woodstock a gentleman from Dublin has presented himself to you at Newcastle. He states that he has traveled by way of Carlisle to offer his services to the King. He maintains that he is well versed in the ways of Spies and Agents and would do your bidding as you please – by way of proving his noble intent he informs you that the Price and his army is currently at Carlisle where they number some 1500 Horse and 3000 Foot but no artillery that he could see.

Agents of the King continue to report from across the country, there are a number of concerns to the government.

In Sussex and Kent groups calling themselves the ‘Southern Rebels’ have been spoken of. In all likelihood these rebels are one and the same as the robber and smuggling bands that frequent the Weald area. These gangs have smuggling connections with businessmen in the French ports.

Other new concerns are heard from Ireland where there is some interest in the present troubles. Agents speak of disaffection amongst the Irish regiments and calls from radicals to volunteer for service with the prince.

The Jacobite Papers - 1st September 1745

Current Situation

Winning the Battle of Rannoch has caused some serious problems in your army, a number of highlanders appear to have taken leave of absence whilst some 300 former government troops have joined the ranks of your forces, overall it evens out.

What to do with the captured men was the next problem, in the end it is determined to move the captives to Blair Athol under the protection of the Robertson Regiment, this is their home territory and they will be able to raise a second battalion whilst guarding the prisoners.

Wagons were rounded up to transport arms and artillery and other booty from the battlefield - 100 horses were recovered and volunteers were obtained who enabled the re-fitting of Pitslgo’s horse to their original numbers.

The McDonald Division under young Donald McDonald, a mere boy of 23 years, marches south to join the Prince in Carlise, with him is taken the captured artillery train which slows his progress mightily, not reaching the English city until 1st September.

Cromarty then leads the rest of his army back to Edinburgh, with a view to secure the Scottish capital. On reaching the city they surprise the garrison that in the absence of the Prince’s forces had sallied forth and done great injury to the prince’s supporters. In the race for the Castle gate the Farquharson regiment were literally within a dozen strides of the gate before it was closed.

The Prince has surrounded Carlisle and laid siege to the city which as yet has not capitulated, with the arrival of additional guns from Rannoch then the garrison could not be expected to last long. There are reports of government transports laying off the shore at Whitehaven, not putting into port, their cargo is unknown.

Recruiting & Spies etc
Agents tell you that Wade has moved a force by ship to the Western Isles with a view to sack the McDonald homelands. Spies on the continent report large numbers of English and Dutch troops being prepared for sailings to Britain.

It is thought that the Hanoverian King may even return to England to rally his defeated armies.

Whig militias are being raised in Glasgow, Paisley and Lanark however they have very few weapons at hand. The Campbells are beginning to stir, it is likely that they would be able to field a number of militia battalions.

Dudley Bradshaw a gentleman from Dublin by way of London has presented himself to you in Carlisle. He states that he is prepared to offer his services to the Prince. He maintains that he is versed in the ways of Spies and Agents and would do your bidding as you please. He brings news that Huske has landed at Newcastle with 3,000 men

In France the latest news is mixed, there is disappointment in the loss at Elgin but this will be countered by the Rannoch triumph as soon as this is heard about. They have provided a battalion of marines plus siege guns in Flanders and the services of the excellent Colonel Grant an expert in siege warfare and engineering.

First game of 2013 - ECW

 First game of the new year was an English Civil War encounter put on by Mikey N.

The name of the battle escapes me now, will update when I check it out, but was an interesting scenario with  a predominantly mounted Royalist force attacking a Parliamantary force that was about 2/3 mounted, 1/3 foot.

The game lasted just one week, with the Royalists focusing their initial attack down their left flank, where they checked and then eliminated a weaker Parliamentary force, before rolling up on their right flank, aided by forces moving form their left to right flanks in support of this secondary attack.

Squabbling Barons: Background History

Part 1

The myth of Gluttony

“Squabbling Barons” is a wargames competition based on a collection of tales taken from a set of manuscripts written in the 14^th century by the “Aimless Wandering Monks of Pound Hill”.  These manuscripts tell the story of war torn Sussex through the eyes of a group of Barons living on their estates in Handcross, Pease Pottage, Crawley and Horsham who would, from time to time, go to war against each other for something to do.  During the competition players take on the guise of one of the Barons and try to fight their way up the greasy social ladder of greed, the winner being the person who reaches the top first and crowns himself “King”.

As for the tales written by the “Wandering Monks”, there has been much speculation as to their authenticity because the Monks have been accused of playing down the numerous fibs, lies and pretence that followed in the wake of the Barons tumultuous lives.  For example, today many people wrongly believe that the Barons were great warriors akin to those of legend but the “Sceptic Society of Baronial Deniers” believes that they were no more than a bunch of useless layabouts.  This argument stems from the Monks fable “Blood, Beef and Trenchers” in which it tells that after battling on the field of glory these warriors would often go to the gym to tone themselves up for the next days encounter.  However, the sceptics believe that the Barons would gorge themselves on midnight snacks, washing them down with copious amounts of ale.  They also believe that this orgy of glutinous debauchery would leave them so bloated that they would often than not be left on a couch to ferment overnight.  The next day they would be incapable of doing anything apart from pass large amounts of acrid smelling gas, especially those who ate peanuts.

However, the descendants of these great warriors grew fed up with the retorts from the sceptics and scathing articles written about them in the press.  In an attempt to scotch them they set up their own society called “The descendants of the wrongly accused” commonly known as the “Family”.  Bringing in the worlds most renowned Archaeologists they opened the Barons crypts amid much media frenzy.  Upon their opening they found that the crypts were packed full of grave goods including broadswords, shields, great helms and lances.  After removing them, which took over an hour because of their sheer magnitude, the warriors were each found to be clasping a scroll that were thought by the Archaeologists to be of great religious significance.  It took a good many attempts to prize the scrolls from the dead warrior’s bony hands and it was as if these great Barons would not renounce some long forgotten pledge to protect the scrolls even in death.

After removing them the Archaeologists discovered that they were written in some long forgotten language.  At first they were stumped by the nature of the scrolls but on reviewing the inventory of grave goods they found that the most abundant items were small metal boxes the lids of which were engraved in such a manner that they corresponded with the writings on the scrolls.  Putting two and two together the archaeologists came to the conclusion that the boxes had in fact been repositories for Holy Scriptures.  For example, a number 14 was thought to relate to Luke 14 “Jesus at the Pharisee’s House” and a number 10 was thought to be Matthew 10 “Jesus sends out the twelve”.  It was obvious to the Archaeologists and the “Family” alike that their long dead ancestors were obviously part of some highly respected religious order and proved beyond doubt that the Barons were anything but useless layabouts.  The crypts were re-sealed and that, so they thought, was that.  However, after loaning the scrolls to the British museum and having them exhibited in a glass case in a shameless display of self-assurance, they eventually fell foul of their own egotistical arrogance.

Three years later a coach party of primary school children from the “Handcross prep school for girls” was visiting the museum.  These were no ordinary girls.  Where most kids of their age were still reading the Beano these super intelligent pan dimensional beings had progressed onto such works as “The Lego book of Quantum mechanics” and “The Barbie guide to weapons grade plutonium”.

Amongst them was one Julie Anne Michaels, or “Jam” as her friends knew her because she was just so lucky.  Dressed in the schools straw boater, smart green blazer, starched white blouse, green tie emblazoned with the schools crest, and grey knee length skirt, she looked like she should have been at the Henley regatta.  For an 8 year old “Jam” had excelled in all of her subjects and it was by sheer coincidence that she’d brought with her the Penguin book of Philology as a light read on the coach.  On reaching the medieval section of the museum she stopped at the glass display case containing the scrolls and after some scrutiny she declared to her teacher that they had been incorrectly deciphered.  She said she could demonstrate this by using a simple cryptographic equation based on those used in the rather rudimentary and unsophisticated colossus computer of World War II.  At first her teacher dismissed the girls superiority but on reading her notes she was shocked at the revelation she saw before her.  In her panic to phone a learned colleague she floundered like a trout in a keep net.  Fumbling her mobile Miss Appleby dropped it out of an open window and in a freak accident that can only happen in a story like this she fell headlong out of the window and joined it by smashing herself into hundreds of broken pieces three stories below.

With her teacher plummeting toward certain death “Jam” perched herself on a bench in the museum and with her legs dangling over the edge she admired her shiny new shoes before working on her notes.  She could hear Miss Appleby’s high-pitched scream as she plunged towards the waiting road.  A car horn sounded, screeching tyres came to an untimely halt and with a sickening thud “Jam” knew it was all over.  Without even looking up from her notes she called for an ambulance, calmly opened a packet of dolly mixtures, finished deciphering the scrolls and texted her findings to the Royal Academy.  Putting her I-Phone and notes into her satchel and dutifully throwing her dolly mixture wrapper into a bin, she skipped over to the open window without a care in the world and looked out on to the carnage below innocently waving to Miss Appleby as she lay sprawled under a car.

After the Royal Academy publisher “Jams” findings the sceptics demanded that a spectrographic analyses be carried out on the metal boxes because new evidence had come to light.  Much to the annoyance of the “Family” the crypt was reopened and the analysis carried out.  Upon its conclusion the sceptics proudly announced that they knew exactly what the boxes were for and it wasn’t religious artefacts’.

It was now thought that a number 14 on the scrolls actually corresponded to a box that had once contained “Egg fried rice” and a number 10 was a box for “Chicken in Garlic”.  ”Sweet and Sour Pork” was a number 23 and extra chilli sauce a number 7.  Each scroll was dedicated to a yet undiscovered saint called “Wing” and had over two hundred such dishes written on them.  The sceptics now believed that the dishes formed an integral part of the warrior’s midnight feasts the like of which can only be compared to “the last supper”.  However, instead of inviting 12 other guests the Baron in question would devour all 200 meals by himself subsequently dying of a heart attack several hours later.  This proved to the sceptics that the Barons were no more than overweight loafers who daren’t lie on a beach for too long lest they should be attacked by Eskimos and boiled down for their blubber.

Not to be out done the Baron’s “Family” exhumed the skeletons upon which they modelled a computer graphic of the Barons stature.  To the astonishment of the sceptics and media alike instead of seeing the festering mound of bloated flesh they’d all expected, they saw before them fine examples of manly prowess.  Powerfully built these Barons were perfect specimens of Knights straight out of King Arthur.  With a disproportionately muscular right arm that had been honed from years of combat with sword, axe and lance it was clear that the Barons were not the same bloated oafs described by the sceptics but dexterous killing machines capable of terrible carnage.  In a statement to the press the “Family” stated that the Sceptics had misunderstood the culture in which the Barons had lived and the consumption of so much food was necessary to maintain their bodies at their optimum fighting potential.  The sceptics were denounced as frauds and the barrage of media coverage was brought to an end.  Never again would the character of the Barons be put under the spot light, their place in history was assured.

However, deep in the bowels of the earth in a dimly lit dank corridor a CCTV unit silently monitors a vault that protects a terrible secret that the “Family” have striven to hide for many years.  For amongst the grave goods were also found suites of matching Spandex Armour, and an unconceivable number of the monthly illuminated manuscript “Play Maiden”.  If these artefacts should ever come to light then there would be an outcry, the authenticity of the computer model would be condemned and the disproportionately muscular right arm would be put at odds with the extensive inventory of rather seedy periodicals.  The reputation of the “Family” would be in tatters and their subsequent humiliation assured.  Never again would they be able to order sweet and sour soup without remembering St. “Wing” and the vinegary bitterness that was dished out by the press and sceptics alike.