The Highland charge was a battlefield shock tactic

Shock tactics

Shock tactics, shock tactic or Shock attack is the name of an offensive maneuver which attempts to place the enemy under psychological pressure by a rapid and fully committed advance with the aim of causing their soldiers to retreat...

 used by the clans of the Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 which incorporated the use of firearms.

Historical Development

Greek and Roman commentators who wrote of the Celts described a society that is sometimes called 'heroic', meaning a society of contending tribes each dominated by an aristocracy which valued fearlessness and daring above all things; held wealth as cattle; used ostentatious ornamentation; and spent much time in drinking feasts where bards told of the great deeds performed by warriors. Aspects of this way of life survived into the 18th century in the Scottish clans but most of those who lived on clan territory were peasants tending flocks which were all that the land - the poorest in Europe - could usually support. Only a minority could be described as warriors, these were known as tacksmen

Tacksman

A tacksman was a land-holder of intermediate legal and social status in Scottish Highland society.-Tenant and landlord:...

 or daoine-uasile - gentry, in effect, who were often blood relatives of the chief. These were the ones who wore full Highland dress and carried targe

Targe

Targe was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, target, came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century....

, broadsword

Broadsword

Broadsword may refer to:*Broadsword , a military sword used by heavy cavalry during the 17th to early 19th centuriesIn more modern times, it has also been used to refer to:...

, dirk

Dirk

A dirk is a short thrusting dagger, sometimes a cut-down sword blade mounted on a dagger hilt rather than a knife blade. It was historically used as a personal weapon for officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat during the Age of Sail.-Etymology:...

, and pistols. In time of war the tacksmen mustered the lower ranking landholder, acted as officers, and spearheaded the charge The majority of the Highlanders who followed behind the warriors might have no weapon other than an improvised Lochaber axe

Lochaber axe

The Lochaber axe was a halberd that came into use in Scotland around 1300. The name of the weapon derives from Lochaber, an area in the western Scottish Highlands, as the weapon was employed principally by the Scottish highlanders, who required armament against cavalry.The axe itself is similar to...

. Prior to the 17th. Century, Highlanders had fought in tight formations, led by a heavily armoured warrior elite, that carried heavy battle-axes or two-handed broadsword

Broadsword

Broadsword may refer to:*Broadsword , a military sword used by heavy cavalry during the 17th to early 19th centuriesIn more modern times, it has also been used to refer to:...

s known as claidheamh mor or "claymore

Claymore

The term claymore refers to the Scottish variant of the late medieval longsword, two-handed swords with a cross hilt, of which the guards were in use during the 15th and 16th centuries.-Terminology:...

s" – meaning "great sword" in Scottish Gaelic. However, with the widespread use of muskets and cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

, such formations became vulnerable. As a result, in the 17th century, Highlander warriors developed a lighter, one-handed claymore

Claymore

The term claymore refers to the Scottish variant of the late medieval longsword, two-handed swords with a cross hilt, of which the guards were in use during the 15th and 16th centuries.-Terminology:...

 with a basket hilt that protected the hand. This was generally used with a shield

Shield

A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....

 or "targe

Targe

Targe was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, target, came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century....

" strapped to the body and a "dirk

Dirk

A dirk is a short thrusting dagger, sometimes a cut-down sword blade mounted on a dagger hilt rather than a knife blade. It was historically used as a personal weapon for officers engaged in naval hand-to-hand combat during the Age of Sail.-Etymology:...

" or biotag (long knife) held in the other hand. Scottish-Irish warrior Alasdair MacColla

Alasdair MacColla

Alasdair Mac Colla was a Scottish soldier. His full name in Scottish Gaelic was Alasdair Mac Colla Chiotaich Mac Domhnuill . He is sometimes mistakenly referred to in English as "Collkitto", a nickname that properly belongs to his father. He fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, most notably...

 is sometimes credited with inventing the Highland charge during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...

 to meet a particular set of battlefield challenges. The use of the charge greatly mimicked the Celtic fighting styles of battle, where one side would rush at the other in an attempt to break the line of battle.

The charge

The charge required a high degree of commitment as the men were rushing into musket range and would suffer casualties from at least one volley. Speed was essential to the charge, so the Highlanders preferred to employ the charge downhill and over firm ground; they removed clothing from their lower body for the same reason. They ran forward in clusters of a dozen (often blood relatives) which formed a larger wedge shaped formation. Once in effective musket range (60 yards) those with firearms would shoot; gun-smoke from this mass discharge having obscuring the enemies' aim the Highlanders obtained further protection from the expected return volley from the opposing force by crouching low to the ground immediately after firing; firearms were dropped and edged weapons drawn whereupon the men made the final rush on the enemy line uttering Gaelic yells. On reaching striking distance the Highlander would attempt to take the opponent's sword or bayonet point on his targe

Targe

Targe was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, target, came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century....

 while lunging in low to deliver an upward thrust to his enemy's torso.

Bayonet technology and the charge

Before the adoption of ring attachments for bayonets the attachment consisted of a plug inserted into the barrel which meant a musket could not be fired or reloaded with a fixed bayonet. During their charge Highlanders made a relatively instant transition from firearms to swords as they swiftly closed with the opposing force. Those enemy soldiers with plug attachments (some carried a pike

Pike

-Transit:*Pike or toll road, a course in which fees are collected. Sometimes a historical name of what once was a toll road.-Fish:*Esox, genus of pikes**Northern pike, common north hemisphere pike*Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct freshwater fish...

) had only moments to fix bayonets while under psychological pressure from the onrushing Highlanders brandishing swords and roaring their war cries. At the Battle of Killiecrankie

Battle of Killiecrankie

-References:*Reid, Stuart, The Battle of Kiellliecrankkie -External links:* *...

 Lowland Scots who were veterans of the Dutch wars were overwhelmed by Highlanders of clan Cameron; the Highlanders secured a complete victory by a charge which killed 2000 redcoats for the loss of 800 Highlanders.

Once the ring bayonet was adopted the Highland charge became similar to other shock tactics

Shock tactics

Shock tactics, shock tactic or Shock attack is the name of an offensive maneuver which attempts to place the enemy under psychological pressure by a rapid and fully committed advance with the aim of causing their soldiers to retreat...

 as its effectiveness then lay in the psychological impact of the rush of screaming Highlanders on the discipline of troops in the opposing unit; if troops reacted as panicked individuals the Highlanders could cut them down with impunity. This happened at such battles as Tippermuir

Battle of Tippermuir

The Battle of Tippermuir was the first battle James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose fought for the king during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms....

 and Falkirk

Battle of Falkirk (1746)

During the Second Jacobite Rising, the Battle of Falkirk Muir was the last noteworthy Jacobite success.-Background:...

. The final and least successful use of the Highland charge was in 1746 during the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, the Battle of Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

. The battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

 against an army commanded by Prince William, Duke of Cumberland loyal to the British government. The under-nourished and unpaid Jacobite force was badly outnumbered and outgunned by well-trained regular troops and routed.

Culloden

To the dismay of his military advisors, Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

 insisted on offering battle to the pursuing army of Cumberland on the open moorland of Culloden with the intention of fighting defensively, a decision that most historians have seen as playing into the hands of the government forces. The Jacobites failed to take advantage of the opportunity of attacking before the enemy had positioned their artillery and were ready for action. Cumberland's artillery bombarded the Jacobite army, which was stationary and exposed, until up to a third of Charles' men were dispersed or made casualties (including a groom decapitated while holding Charles Edward's horse). At this point - and without orders from the by now unnerved Jacobite command - Clan Mackintosh in the centre of the Jacobite line began to charge. Donald Cameron of Lochiel

Donald Cameron of Lochiel

Donald Cameron of Lochiel , was an influential Highland Clan Chief known for his magnanimous and gallant nature. His support of Charles Edward Stuart was instrumental in the Jacobite Rising of 1745...

 led the Camerons to join them and some other clans followed in a spontaneous, uncoordinated and disorganized charge in which many failed to use their firearms. Despite canister shot

Canister shot

Canister shot is a kind of anti-personnel ammunition used in cannons. It was similar to the naval grapeshot, but fired smaller and more numerous balls, which did not have to punch through the wooden hull of a ship...

 and volleys, the charge reached - and in places broke through - the British front line (though many Highlanders were without targe

Targe

Targe was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, target, came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century....

s to protect from bayonets). However, Coehorn

Coehorn

A Coehorn was a portable mortar developed in the Netherlands by Menno van Coehoorn in 1674 and in use from the seventeenth to the mid nineteenth centuries. Unlike larger, heavier mortars, the Coehorn was designed to be movable by as few as four men...

 mortar shelling and devastating enfilade musket fire from the deeply echeloned government forces killed those who had made a breakthrough, while the others, after suffering heavy casualties, fell back in a retreat that quickly became a rout.

Celtic ancestry and the tactical offensive

Grady McWhiney

Grady McWhiney

Grady McWhiney was a historian of the American south and the Civil War.McWhiney was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and served in the Marine Corps in 1945. He married in 1947. He attended Centenary College on the G.I. Bill and earned an M.A. in history from Louisiana State University, working with...

 argued that, due to a high proportion of Celtic ancestry, Southerners during the American Civil War had a predilection for attack but lacked self-discipline and patience; this led to them repeatedly making reckless attacks that lost battles. He drew comparisons between the battles of Telamon (225 BC), Culloden (1746) and Gettysburg (1863). According to this thesis, the South lost the Civil War because Southerners made risky charges like their Celtic ancestors at a time when the rifled musket

Rifled musket

The term rifled musket or rifle musket refers to a specific type of weapon made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels rifled...

 had shifted the balance against offense (as shown by the casualties suffered in attacks like Pickett's Charge

Pickett's Charge

Pickett's Charge was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Its futility was predicted by the charge's commander,...

). Paddy Griffith

Paddy Griffith

Paddy Griffith was an influential British military theorist, he was the author of numerous books in the field of War Studies, a wargame designer for the UK Ministry of Defence, and a leading figure in the wargaming community....

was the proponent of an almost exactly countervailing view; he contended that lack of discipline among Civil war volunteers on both sides meant that potentially successful shock actions failed due to lack of commitment; rather than pressing assaults home, troops routinely went to ground at about sixty yards from the enemy line or entrenchment and engaged in short range firefights.