Clan Munro At Culloden? by Don Munro

Many people believe that the Clan Munro was at the Battle of Culloden and when I last visited the Culloden battlefield, in the midst of the government army, there was a sign saying Munro’s 37^th Foot. So it would seem that we have proof positive that the Munros were at Culloden – but were they? Let us look at the facts and find out what really happened.

Let us clear up one thing for a start. Many people believe that Culloden was a battle between the Scots and the English – it was not. It was a battle between the government forces and the rebel forces under the command of Charles Edward Stuart.  Scotland and England were united in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I of Scotland and England under what is known as the Union of the Crowns. A hundred years later, in 1707, we had the Union of the Parliaments. In other words we had one country.

Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Young Pretender, came to Scotland to claim the crown of Great Britain for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. In this he was supported, somewhat reluctantly, by some but by no means all of the Highland clans. The Munros along with the Clans Campbell, Mackay, Grant, etc, supported the government against the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie and in fact, at least as many, if not more, Scots opposed him than supported him.

So, let us get back to the Munros at Culloden. In 1745 Sir Robert Munro was the commanding officer of the Black Watch in Europe fighting for the British government against the French and there were many Munro officers and men serving in that regiment. Sir Robert made his name at the battle of Fontenoy. Although this was a defeat for the British forces the retreat was left to Sir Robert and the Black Watch and so well did they perform that Sir Robert was promoted and sent back to the UK as Commander of the 37^th Regiment of Foot (a Hampshire regiment) to fight against Charlie. The custom of the time was to call the regiment by the name of its commanding officer, thus   we had Munro’s 37^th Regiment of Foot.

The Munros first engagement was at the battle of Falkirk where Sir Robert’s soldiers turned tail and ran in the face of the charge of the Highlanders leaving him and other officers to face the highland hoard. They of course had no chance and Sir Robert and his brother, a doctor who ran on to the battlefield to help him, were killed by the highlanders (in fact by Camerons). It is said that Sir Robert was attacked by six Jacobites of from Cameron of Lochiel’s regiment. Although wounded, he managed to kill two of them with his half pike before a seventh Jacobite walked up, shot him with his pistol and then finished Sir Robert off with two sword blows to the head. The regiment then marched to Culloden.

I emailed the historian of the 37^th Regiment of Foot to find out who their new Commanding Officer was and received this reply:- ‘’1746 on the 17^th April, the 37^th Regiment commanded by Colonel Dejean, with a total strength of 23 officers, and 468 men, took part in the battle of Culloden, which resulted in the utter collapse of the pretender Charles Edward. In this action the 37^th had 14 men killed, 5 officers and 68 men wounded,”

From that you can see that the Munro regiment shown on the Culloden battlefield was in fact an English regiment, the name of which had not been changed although the commanding officer had changed. The regiment at that time should really have been called Dejean’s 37^th Regiment of Foot and if it had been changed, there would have been no confusion about the Munros being at Culloden.

Although it is clear that the Munros did not fight at Culloden as a clan, that is not to say that there were no Munros there for, in a list of Jacobite prisoners taken after the battle, I found a William Munro, private, of Inverness-shire. Also in correspondence with a lady, she told me that a group of Munros from the West coast had been forced to join the Jacobite Clans on their march to the battle but I could find no proof of that.

The Black Watch, which had many Munros as officers and soldiers, was brought back from the continent but did not go to Culloden. It was based in the south of England to counter a French invasion (which did not happen) and also to ensure that the highlanders did not join Charlie’s force as some of them would have had relatives fighting on the opposing side.

We find so much on the internet that is wrong but you would expect something like Ripley’s “Believe it or not” to be accurate but no, it is no better than some of the others. The Ripleys are descended from William Munro from Stirling, Scotland, whose son, also William, emigrated to America. The website, by Theresa M. Ripley has a number of Munro stories, one of which tells how William’s grandfather was in the Black Watch with Sir Robert Munro. She says that the grandfather told young William many times how he had been at Culloden with the Black Watch and had taken part in the defeat of the Jacobites. I emailed Ms Ripley to tell her how wrong that story was and received a reply to the effect that she would correct it when she had time – I don’t know if that has been done.