Lord George Murray

Lord George Murray was the best soldier the Jacobites had in 1745 and spent the campaign being overruled. He was the fifth son of the Duke of Atholl, fought in the rising of 1715 and the small one of 1719, was attainted, lived in exile, and was pardoned in 1725 - so that when Charles Edward Stuart landed he was a middle-aged man with a great deal to lose and no illusions about the odds. He joined anyway and was made lieutenant-general. The campaign's successes were largely his: the march on Edinburgh, the flanking manoeuvre through the bog at Prestonpans that broke Cope's army in about ten minutes, the capture of Carlisle, and the advance to Derby, which he organised and which reached a point closer to London than any Jacobite force had managed. At Derby he argued for retreat, correctly - three armies were converging and the English rising the prince had promised had not appeared - and the prince never forgave him for being right. The withdrawal was conducted without losing the army, and he won the rearguard action at Clifton and the battle at Falkirk. At Culloden he objected to the ground, which was flat, open and made for artillery and cavalry, and was overruled by O'Sullivan; the night attack he proposed instead as an alternative failed for want of time. He led the right wing in the charge that followed and got off the field. His last letter to the prince resigned his commission and told him plainly whose advice had lost the war. He died at Medemblik in Holland in 1760, having never been allowed home.

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