Manus O'Cahan's Regiment (English Civil War)
Encyclopedia
Manus O'Cahan's Regiment of Foot was a Scots Irish regiment
which served during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
in the mid-1640s.
’ (i.e. mercenary
) regiment. They were actually soldiers who sailed from Ulster
to Scotland to fight for the Royalist
cause there. Manus O'Cahan never set foot in England; all of his fighting took place in Ulster and Scotland. Their European combat experiences made them some of the most experienced soldiers serving in the Civil War.
and Macdonald
clans. As part of that feud, the Campbells had seized ownership of the Hebridean
isles of Islay
and Colonsey from an aged warrior called Colkitto (known as Col Ciottoch, Scots Gaelic for he who fights with both hands, as he was ambidextrous). Colkitto’s son was the 7 feet (2.1 m) Alastair McColla, who went to Ireland to raise the Irish cousins to the Macdonald
clan for raids against the men who now occupied the Hebridean Isles.
King Charles
had offended the Scots
as early as 1637, when he tried to impose the English Prayer Book on the nation. The Scots rebelled with riots, and a petition known as The National Covenant. The King declared War on his Scottish subjects. The two resulting Bishops' Wars ended in embarrassing and expensive defeat for the King.
The MacDonnells, Irish cousins to the Macdonald
s offered to sail to Scotland
to serve the King, hoping to use the conflict to gain their homes back as a reward if the Royalists won. This was a threat to the anti-Catholic puritanical Covenanters and the English Roundheads. Scottish allies to the King, including old Colkitto, were arrested and imprisoned to prevent them raising private armies to bring Scotland
to civil war. Unfortunately, two things led to the very civil war feared by the Covenanters.
1/. Alastair McColla avoided capture and stayed in Ireland
helping to raise an army composed of exiled or hiding Royalist Scots and their Catholic Irish cousins.
2/. Montrose, (James Graham
) who had been an ardent Covenanter
, became disillusioned by the brutalities inflicted on clansmen who he regarded as good friends. He changed sides and began to serve the Royalist cause.
), a strong Royalist sympathiser, the Irish Rebellion of 1641
erupted. Catholics turned on Protestant settlers who were pouring into the country by the thousand under a much despised plantation programme. McColla, and a cousin by marriage, Manus O’Cahan, were thrown together in a joint Catholic-Protestant Scots-Irish peace keeping force. Finding themselves despised by the Protestants in the force, the Scot and the Irishman rebelled and went on an a guerrilla warfare
rampage throughout Northern Ireland. In the course of the conflict they developed a new battle technique known as the ‘Irish Charge
’, this involved simply discarding heavy weapons such as pikes
and muskets to rush the enemy to kill them at close quarter with dirks, daggers, and swords or even with unarmed combat tactics. It proved to be highly effective, especially against musketeers who needed time to reload powder and shot between volleys. They also perfected the art of running directly at cavalry to cut the horses in the bellies and fetlocks as they ran underneath them. This forced the agonised horses to throw their riders.
McColla made himself unpopular in Ireland by changing sides, to serve the Protestants, and then changing sides again to serve Antrim and the Irish Catholic Confederation of which Antrim was a leader.
As the Scottish Covenant forces declared military support for the English Parliament in late 1643, Antrim hit on a plan to send Scots-Irish troops to Scotland. The aim was for them to cause as much destruction as possible, and force the Scots to withdraw their soldiers from Ireland, in order to deal with the increasing crisis back home. Antrim negotiated the plans through the Confederacy's Supreme Council, and with the full blessing of James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, a personal advisor to King Charles.
In one Ulster battle, McColla was badly wounded. O’Cahan personally dragged his giant [7 feet (2.1 m)] friend to safety through heavy fire on a makeshift litter and got him some urgently needed medical attention.
It was in order to raise an army to quell the rebellion in Ireland that King Charles
initially had recalled his Parliament in England. When his Parliament refused to co-operate with the King, his efforts to accuse them of treason against the crown led to the English portion of the Civil War.
As war erupted in England, Scottish Royalists, as planned by the Confederation, brought the conflict to the fore in Scotland too. On Antrim's orders, McColla and O’Cahan, with Thomas Lachnan and James MacDonnell
, raised an army of 1,500 men and sailed for Scotland, intending to make the most of the conflict to avenge the wrongs done to them by the Campbell clan, who were ardent Covenanters.
Even the voyage, through waters patrolled by Parliament frigates, proved eventful. The Scots-Irish Brigade did not have all the vessels they had hoped for. There were three passenger carrying merchant ships in the small fleet that did sail; The Harp, The Christopher, the Angell Gabrielle (Flemish merchantmen) and they were protected by the Jacob Of Ross (Irish Merchantman) Many men, and most weapons had to be left behind in Ulster. The small fleet captured a group of Covenant ministers sailing for Ulster, and took them prisoner. One captive, John Weir, kept a diary of the events, from which most histories of the events are drawn.
The Scots-Irishry landed in Mull on July 5, 1644. They quickly started causing as much trouble and securing the coast in hope of more men coming over from Ireland.
On the 7th July Manus O’Cahan led the division who took Kinlochaline Castle
, coming under intense cannon fire, but emerging victorious to rejoin the main body of MacColla's men at their own captured territory, Loch Sunart
. A group of Irish stayed behind to hold the fortress at Kinlochaline. Earthwork battery ramparts and trenches were dug to help secure the territories
The ships were soon lost in acts of piracy against Covenant and Parliamentary vessels which now patrolled the waters looking for signs of the invaders.
Realising that their position was growing increasingly dangerous as, being just 1,500 strong, they were hopelessly outnumbered, O'Cahan and McColla started to move inland, recruiting among local clansmen as they went. Many refused, and some proved to be hostile. However, help was coming from an unexpected source, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
.
McColla and O’Cahan united with Montrose on the Mull Of Kintyre
on the 29 August 1644. The alliance proved to be a formidable one.
They fought a string of major victories and many smaller skirmishes through the heart of Scotland in what became known as their ‘Year Of Glory’. (1644–1645)
O’Cahan led an entire division of men on MacColla’s behalf throughout the Montrose campaigns. He remains mostly an illusive figure in the history books.
The first victory came at Tippermuir, on 1 September 1644, the next, at Aberdeen
, on the 13 September 1644, was more controversial in that the Royalists, including O’Cahan’s men were involved in the massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians throughout the city.
Montrose wanted to expand his forces and march south, to England to help the King, who was by this time faring badly as Cromwell
’s New Model Army
grew in strength. The bulk of the Scottish Covenant
army was also now fighting for Parliament in England. However, the successes Montrose and McColla had in battle made the Covenanters withdraw more and more men from England to fight the war on home soil.
McColla, and the Scottish Highlanders who served with him alongside O’Cahan’s Irishry had little interest in England, as they had their feud with the Campbells to address. The Highland warriors, who came to their aid frequently left the battlefields to take their spoils of war home, so they often vanished for months on end, though most did return. The Scottish soldiers who served Montrose constantly drew him back from his planned advances on the English border to have another charge against the forces of the Earl Of Argyll
, leader of the Campbell Clan.
McColla was more loyal to Montrose, but he often had to separate from him to go and help recruit more men as the army’s numbers waned. While McColla was away, O’Cahan usually stayed with Montrose, with whom he became a powerful ally. O'Cahan did briefly travel to Ulster on a mission to try to get more recruits there, but returned unsuccesfiully. It was when McColla was away on such a recruitment drive on the 21 October 1644 that Montrose and O’Cahan and their men found themselves pinned down at Fyvie Castle
by Argyll’s forces. O’Cahan led a daring night raid into the Campbell lines to break the siege. The Campbells fled and O’Cahan was able to grab the powder supplies abandoned by the deserters. He jokingly told Montrose “We must at them again, for the rogues have forgot to leave the bullets with the powder.” It is one of the few direct quotations the history books record from him.
McColla returned soon after the battle at Fyvie
with a strong battle plan of his own that Montrose regarded as impossible. McColla had raised a formidable body of Scottish Highlanders all of who felt a desire to crush the Campbell Clan once and for all. They were predominantly Macdonald
allies like the Clan Ranald. McColla proposed a raid through the heartland of Campbell owned estates, in effect the complete destruction of Argyllshire. The assault was to culminate in a near suicidal daring march on Argyll’s personal estate at Inverlochy
, which had a historic reputation for being impossible to capture. The march on Inverlochy was made, despite Montrose’s reservations, though he went along. Argyllshire was indeed razed. The hundreds of square miles covered were more remarkable for the march-taking place in the winter blizzards of early 1645, when even the sea off the coast of Scotland froze. The culminating attack, and massacre of Campbells at Inverlochy on 2 February 1645 was made after a two day march over the foothills of Ben Nevis
. Argyll himself abandoned his men and sailed away on his personal galley to save his own skin.
Inverlochy was MacColla and O’Cahan’s greatest moment. It is recorded that O’Cahan personally drew first blood. Few Campbells were allowed to live of those captured there.
The year of glory was now past its peak. Montrose became increasingly over-confident and he began to make tactical blunders. He also wrote letters claiming that the victories were all his own doing, rather than also the work of his Scots-Irish allies.
On 9 May 1645 came the debacle at Auldearn
. Many early historians regard Auldearn as Montrose’s supreme achievement and a carefully planned battle. In fact, it was a fiasco, where only luck and the bravery of the Scots–Irish forces saved the day.
Montrose had led his men after Covenanters who were seeking reinforcements in Inverness
. Failing to catch up with them in time, Montrose camped his men at Auldearn, as he didn’t expect the enemy to have time to launch an immediate counter-attack too soon. In fact, the Covenanters marched all night to be able to attack the Royalists at first light at Auldearn. Only Covenant musketeers cleaning their guns by firing them created enough noise to be able to warn MacColla’s men in time. Montrose had spread his men over a wide area rather than grouping them together. While McColla and O’Cahan held off the attack, Montrose desperately raced around trying to raise the rest of the camp.
The traditional version of Auldearn is that Montrose hid his main army in a hollow and set up McColla, and O’Cahan as a false front and a decoy target before closing in with a brilliant pincer movement to trap the enemy. In Fact, Montrose was caught completely off guard. MacColla’s defence was much more desperate and heroic than has been claimed. Fortunately, modern accounts have re-evaluated the battle, even to the detriment of Montrose. The Scots-Irish brigades fought ruthlessly. When a few of the Gordon’s Clan who helped them started to panic, McColla personally killed them to prevent their panic causing the desertion of the rest of their clan. One of MacColla’s men fought on despite taking a pike
through his mouth from one cheek to the other, narrowly missing his tongue.
Montrose only arrived with reinforcements when he had woken and rounded up his widely scattered forces, and finally the day was saved. Montrose had not hidden his army in a hollow ready to affect a spectacular ambush.
There were only two major Royalist victories to come in the Year Of Glory now. The Royalists won a resounding victory on 2 July 1645 at Alford
. They followed this up with a greater victory on 15 August 1645 at Kilsyth
, in effect rendering the Covenant forces of the Earl Of Argyll
useless.
O’Cahan stayed with Montrose as he started to prepare for the advance to the Scottish-English border. Unfortunately, the increasing collapse of the main Royalist forces in England meant that more Scots could now be sent back to help capture Montrose and his allies in Scotland. David Leslie, a leading highly experienced soldier and Covenanter, attacked O’Cahan’s men as they were just waking up at an encampment in Philiphaugh
(near to the site of today’s Selkirk
Rugby football club ) on the 13th September 1645. It was one year to the day after the Aberdeen
massacre.
O’Cahan’s forces and those of the other Irish divisions who had stayed with Montrose, found themselves under severe surprise attack and hopelessly outnumbered. Within hours they were reduced to less than five hundred men, but they fought on valiantly. Montrose, who had camped separately from the Irish, tried to fight his way to their aid, but he was forced back and eventually fled for his life. Many were offended by this desertion, but he may have been advised to do it by the men accompanying him.
David Leslie offered O’Cahan terms of surrender. If his men laid down their arms and agreed to leave Scotland forever, they would be allowed to go free. O’Cahan agreed to this, but Leslie had the now unarmed Irish captured, and O’Cahan witnessed the execution of virtually his entire army. The women and children who had followed his forces were also brutally executed, many by drowning in the rivers around Philipaugh. Colonels O’Cahan, and Thomas Laghtnan were taken to Edinburgh Castle and hanged from the South Wall there without a trial.
. Montrose fought on in Scotland until the King was captured and ordered a general Royalist cease-fire. The victorious Covenanters now forced Montrose into exile. He moved through Europe, and later led an attack on the Covenanters on behalf of King Charles II
, using an inexperienced army of Danish and Scandinavian mercenaries. He was defeated at Carbisdale, in Scotland on the 27 April 1650. Captured a few days later, Montrose was tried and executed in Edinburgh on the 30 April 1650.
Maurice Walsh, "And no Quarter" 1980 - Martin Somers is a surgeon/swordsman in O'Cahan's Irish regiment fighting the Covenanters for Montrose.
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
which served 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...
in the mid-1640s.
History
Manus O’Cahan’s Regiment of Foot was a body of Scots-Irish soldiers, many of who had fought in Europe in the early years of the Thirty Years War. Some historians, like C. V. Wedgewood refer to them as a ‘GallowglassGallowglass
The gallowglass or galloglass – from , gallóglach – were an elite class of mercenary warrior who came from Norse-Gaelic clans in the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century...
’ (i.e. mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
) regiment. They were actually soldiers who sailed from Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
to Scotland to fight for the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
cause there. Manus O'Cahan never set foot in England; all of his fighting took place in Ulster and Scotland. Their European combat experiences made them some of the most experienced soldiers serving in the Civil War.
Background
Scottish events of the war were complex. By the Civil War of the mid-seventeenth century there was already a centuries old blood feud running between the CampbellClan Campbell
Clan Campbell is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically one of the largest, most powerful and most successful of the Highland clans, their lands were in Argyll and the chief of the clan became the Earl and later Duke of Argyll.-Origins:...
and Macdonald
Clan Donald
Clan Donald is one of the largest Scottish clans. There are numerous branches to the clan. Several of these have chiefs recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms; these are: Clan Macdonald of Sleat, Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, Clan MacDonald of Keppoch, and Clan...
clans. As part of that feud, the Campbells had seized ownership of the Hebridean
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
isles of Islay
Islay
-Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...
and Colonsey from an aged warrior called Colkitto (known as Col Ciottoch, Scots Gaelic for he who fights with both hands, as he was ambidextrous). Colkitto’s son was the 7 feet (2.1 m) Alastair McColla, who went to Ireland to raise the Irish cousins to the Macdonald
Macdonald
MacDonald, Macdonald, and McDonald are Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic name MacDhòmhnaill. It is a patronym where Mac means "son" and Dhòmhnaill means "of Dòmhnall". The personal name Dòmhnall is composed of the elements domno "world" and val "might", "rule"...
clan for raids against the men who now occupied the Hebridean Isles.
King Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
had offended the Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
as early as 1637, when he tried to impose the English Prayer Book on the nation. The Scots rebelled with riots, and a petition known as The National Covenant. The King declared War on his Scottish subjects. The two resulting Bishops' Wars ended in embarrassing and expensive defeat for the King.
The MacDonnells, Irish cousins to the Macdonald
Macdonald
MacDonald, Macdonald, and McDonald are Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic name MacDhòmhnaill. It is a patronym where Mac means "son" and Dhòmhnaill means "of Dòmhnall". The personal name Dòmhnall is composed of the elements domno "world" and val "might", "rule"...
s offered to sail to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
to serve the King, hoping to use the conflict to gain their homes back as a reward if the Royalists won. This was a threat to the anti-Catholic puritanical Covenanters and the English Roundheads. Scottish allies to the King, including old Colkitto, were arrested and imprisoned to prevent them raising private armies to bring Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
to civil war. Unfortunately, two things led to the very civil war feared by the Covenanters.
1/. Alastair McColla avoided capture and stayed in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
helping to raise an army composed of exiled or hiding Royalist Scots and their Catholic Irish cousins.
2/. Montrose, (James Graham
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
) who had been an ardent Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
, became disillusioned by the brutalities inflicted on clansmen who he regarded as good friends. He changed sides and began to serve the Royalist cause.
MacColla and O'Cahan
In 1641, as McColla raised his army in Ulster, on behalf of Randal MacDonnell (Earl of AntrimEarl of Antrim
Earl of Antrim is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of Ireland and both times for members of the MacDonnell family, originally of Scottish origins. This family descends from Sorley Boy MacDonnell, who established the family in County Antrim...
), a strong Royalist sympathiser, the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
erupted. Catholics turned on Protestant settlers who were pouring into the country by the thousand under a much despised plantation programme. McColla, and a cousin by marriage, Manus O’Cahan, were thrown together in a joint Catholic-Protestant Scots-Irish peace keeping force. Finding themselves despised by the Protestants in the force, the Scot and the Irishman rebelled and went on an a guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
rampage throughout Northern Ireland. In the course of the conflict they developed a new battle technique known as the ‘Irish Charge
Highland charge
The Highland charge was a battlefield shock tactic used by the clans of the Scottish Highlands which incorporated the use of firearms.-Historical Development :...
’, this involved simply discarding heavy weapons such as pikes
Pike (weapon)
A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the...
and muskets to rush the enemy to kill them at close quarter with dirks, daggers, and swords or even with unarmed combat tactics. It proved to be highly effective, especially against musketeers who needed time to reload powder and shot between volleys. They also perfected the art of running directly at cavalry to cut the horses in the bellies and fetlocks as they ran underneath them. This forced the agonised horses to throw their riders.
McColla made himself unpopular in Ireland by changing sides, to serve the Protestants, and then changing sides again to serve Antrim and the Irish Catholic Confederation of which Antrim was a leader.
As the Scottish Covenant forces declared military support for the English Parliament in late 1643, Antrim hit on a plan to send Scots-Irish troops to Scotland. The aim was for them to cause as much destruction as possible, and force the Scots to withdraw their soldiers from Ireland, in order to deal with the increasing crisis back home. Antrim negotiated the plans through the Confederacy's Supreme Council, and with the full blessing of James Butler, Earl of Ormonde, a personal advisor to King Charles.
In one Ulster battle, McColla was badly wounded. O’Cahan personally dragged his giant [7 feet (2.1 m)] friend to safety through heavy fire on a makeshift litter and got him some urgently needed medical attention.
It was in order to raise an army to quell the rebellion in Ireland that King Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
initially had recalled his Parliament in England. When his Parliament refused to co-operate with the King, his efforts to accuse them of treason against the crown led to the English portion of the Civil War.
As war erupted in England, Scottish Royalists, as planned by the Confederation, brought the conflict to the fore in Scotland too. On Antrim's orders, McColla and O’Cahan, with Thomas Lachnan and James MacDonnell
James MacDonnell
James MacKerras Macdonnell, PC, CC, was a Canadian lawyer and parliamentarian.He was born in Kingston, Ontario, the son of George W. Macdonnell and Mary Louise Philips, he was a Master at St. Andrew's College from 1904 to 1914 before becoming a trust company officer...
, raised an army of 1,500 men and sailed for Scotland, intending to make the most of the conflict to avenge the wrongs done to them by the Campbell clan, who were ardent Covenanters.
Even the voyage, through waters patrolled by Parliament frigates, proved eventful. The Scots-Irish Brigade did not have all the vessels they had hoped for. There were three passenger carrying merchant ships in the small fleet that did sail; The Harp, The Christopher, the Angell Gabrielle (Flemish merchantmen) and they were protected by the Jacob Of Ross (Irish Merchantman) Many men, and most weapons had to be left behind in Ulster. The small fleet captured a group of Covenant ministers sailing for Ulster, and took them prisoner. One captive, John Weir, kept a diary of the events, from which most histories of the events are drawn.
The Scots-Irishry landed in Mull on July 5, 1644. They quickly started causing as much trouble and securing the coast in hope of more men coming over from Ireland.
On the 7th July Manus O’Cahan led the division who took Kinlochaline Castle
Kinlochaline Castle
Kinlochaline Castle is a 12th century Scottish fortress on the Ardtornish estate in Morvern in the Highland council area. It is also known as Caisteal an Ime because a Lady of Clan MacInnes, Dubh Chal , is said to have paid the builder with butter equal to the volume of the...
, coming under intense cannon fire, but emerging victorious to rejoin the main body of MacColla's men at their own captured territory, Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart
Loch Sunart is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Sunart runs west from the sea, bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morvern district. An inlet from Loch Sunart, Loch Teacuis, runs south-easterly into Morvern.At it is the longest sea...
. A group of Irish stayed behind to hold the fortress at Kinlochaline. Earthwork battery ramparts and trenches were dug to help secure the territories
The ships were soon lost in acts of piracy against Covenant and Parliamentary vessels which now patrolled the waters looking for signs of the invaders.
Realising that their position was growing increasingly dangerous as, being just 1,500 strong, they were hopelessly outnumbered, O'Cahan and McColla started to move inland, recruiting among local clansmen as they went. Many refused, and some proved to be hostile. However, help was coming from an unexpected source, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
.
O'Cahan and Montrose
Montrose had planned on taking an army from England to serve his cause in Scotland, and made his way to an audience with Prince Rupert of The Rhine. Unfortunately, Montrose arrived just days after the English Royalist defeat at Marston Moor on 2 July 1644. Rupert promptly commandeered most of Montrose's men to make up his own fallen numbers. Montrose decided to go to Scotland incognito, with only two allies, Sir William Rollo, and Sir James Sibbart. On the journey through his own country, Scotland, where he was now an outlaw, he learned of McColla's arrival, and raced to meet him.McColla and O’Cahan united with Montrose on the Mull Of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast is visible and an historic lighthouse, the second commissioned in Scotland, guides shipping in the intervening North Channel...
on the 29 August 1644. The alliance proved to be a formidable one.
They fought a string of major victories and many smaller skirmishes through the heart of Scotland in what became known as their ‘Year Of Glory’. (1644–1645)
O’Cahan led an entire division of men on MacColla’s behalf throughout the Montrose campaigns. He remains mostly an illusive figure in the history books.
The first victory came at Tippermuir, on 1 September 1644, the next, at Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
, on the 13 September 1644, was more controversial in that the Royalists, including O’Cahan’s men were involved in the massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians throughout the city.
Montrose wanted to expand his forces and march south, to England to help the King, who was by this time faring badly as Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
’s New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
grew in strength. The bulk of the Scottish Covenant
Scottish Covenant
The Scottish Covenant was a petition to the United Kingdom government to create a home rule Scottish parliament. First proposed in 1930, and promoted by the Scots Independent in 1939, the National Covenant movement reached its peak during the late 1940s and early 1950s...
army was also now fighting for Parliament in England. However, the successes Montrose and McColla had in battle made the Covenanters withdraw more and more men from England to fight the war on home soil.
McColla, and the Scottish Highlanders who served with him alongside O’Cahan’s Irishry had little interest in England, as they had their feud with the Campbells to address. The Highland warriors, who came to their aid frequently left the battlefields to take their spoils of war home, so they often vanished for months on end, though most did return. The Scottish soldiers who served Montrose constantly drew him back from his planned advances on the English border to have another charge against the forces of the Earl Of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, 8th Earl of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell, was the de facto head of government in Scotland during most of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, also known as the British Civil War...
, leader of the Campbell Clan.
McColla was more loyal to Montrose, but he often had to separate from him to go and help recruit more men as the army’s numbers waned. While McColla was away, O’Cahan usually stayed with Montrose, with whom he became a powerful ally. O'Cahan did briefly travel to Ulster on a mission to try to get more recruits there, but returned unsuccesfiully. It was when McColla was away on such a recruitment drive on the 21 October 1644 that Montrose and O’Cahan and their men found themselves pinned down at Fyvie Castle
Fyvie Castle
Fyvie Castle is a castle in the village of Fyvie, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.The earliest parts of Fyvie Castle date from the 13th century - some sources claim it was built in 1211 by William the Lion. Fyvie was the site of an open-air court held by Robert the Bruce, and Charles I...
by Argyll’s forces. O’Cahan led a daring night raid into the Campbell lines to break the siege. The Campbells fled and O’Cahan was able to grab the powder supplies abandoned by the deserters. He jokingly told Montrose “We must at them again, for the rogues have forgot to leave the bullets with the powder.” It is one of the few direct quotations the history books record from him.
McColla returned soon after the battle at Fyvie
Fyvie
Fyvie is a village in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.-Fyvie Castle:Fyvie Castle is reputed to have been built by King William the Lyon in the early thirteenth century...
with a strong battle plan of his own that Montrose regarded as impossible. McColla had raised a formidable body of Scottish Highlanders all of who felt a desire to crush the Campbell Clan once and for all. They were predominantly Macdonald
Macdonald
MacDonald, Macdonald, and McDonald are Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic name MacDhòmhnaill. It is a patronym where Mac means "son" and Dhòmhnaill means "of Dòmhnall". The personal name Dòmhnall is composed of the elements domno "world" and val "might", "rule"...
allies like the Clan Ranald. McColla proposed a raid through the heartland of Campbell owned estates, in effect the complete destruction of Argyllshire. The assault was to culminate in a near suicidal daring march on Argyll’s personal estate at Inverlochy
Inverlochy
Inverlochy may refer to:* Inverlochy Castle* Battle of Inverlochy * Battle of Inverlochy...
, which had a historic reputation for being impossible to capture. The march on Inverlochy was made, despite Montrose’s reservations, though he went along. Argyllshire was indeed razed. The hundreds of square miles covered were more remarkable for the march-taking place in the winter blizzards of early 1645, when even the sea off the coast of Scotland froze. The culminating attack, and massacre of Campbells at Inverlochy on 2 February 1645 was made after a two day march over the foothills of Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. It is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William....
. Argyll himself abandoned his men and sailed away on his personal galley to save his own skin.
Inverlochy was MacColla and O’Cahan’s greatest moment. It is recorded that O’Cahan personally drew first blood. Few Campbells were allowed to live of those captured there.
The year of glory was now past its peak. Montrose became increasingly over-confident and he began to make tactical blunders. He also wrote letters claiming that the victories were all his own doing, rather than also the work of his Scots-Irish allies.
Decline and fall
Montrose now had support from Royalist cavalry horse divisions supplied by the Gordon’s Clan, and he barely spoke to the men who had served him all along on foot any more.On 9 May 1645 came the debacle at Auldearn
Auldearn
Auldearn is a village situated east of the River Nairn, just outside Nairn in the Highland council area of Scotland. It takes its name from William the Lyon's castle of Eren , built there in the 12th century....
. Many early historians regard Auldearn as Montrose’s supreme achievement and a carefully planned battle. In fact, it was a fiasco, where only luck and the bravery of the Scots–Irish forces saved the day.
Montrose had led his men after Covenanters who were seeking reinforcements in Inverness
Inverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
. Failing to catch up with them in time, Montrose camped his men at Auldearn, as he didn’t expect the enemy to have time to launch an immediate counter-attack too soon. In fact, the Covenanters marched all night to be able to attack the Royalists at first light at Auldearn. Only Covenant musketeers cleaning their guns by firing them created enough noise to be able to warn MacColla’s men in time. Montrose had spread his men over a wide area rather than grouping them together. While McColla and O’Cahan held off the attack, Montrose desperately raced around trying to raise the rest of the camp.
The traditional version of Auldearn is that Montrose hid his main army in a hollow and set up McColla, and O’Cahan as a false front and a decoy target before closing in with a brilliant pincer movement to trap the enemy. In Fact, Montrose was caught completely off guard. MacColla’s defence was much more desperate and heroic than has been claimed. Fortunately, modern accounts have re-evaluated the battle, even to the detriment of Montrose. The Scots-Irish brigades fought ruthlessly. When a few of the Gordon’s Clan who helped them started to panic, McColla personally killed them to prevent their panic causing the desertion of the rest of their clan. One of MacColla’s men fought on despite taking a pike
Pike (weapon)
A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the...
through his mouth from one cheek to the other, narrowly missing his tongue.
Montrose only arrived with reinforcements when he had woken and rounded up his widely scattered forces, and finally the day was saved. Montrose had not hidden his army in a hollow ready to affect a spectacular ambush.
There were only two major Royalist victories to come in the Year Of Glory now. The Royalists won a resounding victory on 2 July 1645 at Alford
Alford, Aberdeenshire
Alford is a large village in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland, lying just south of the River Don. It lies within the Howe of Alford which occupies the middle reaches of the River Don....
. They followed this up with a greater victory on 15 August 1645 at Kilsyth
Kilsyth
Kilsyth is a town of 10,100 roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.-Location:...
, in effect rendering the Covenant forces of the Earl Of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, 8th Earl of Argyll, chief of Clan Campbell, was the de facto head of government in Scotland during most of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, also known as the British Civil War...
useless.
Philiphaugh and the death of Manus O'Cahan
Montrose was now ready to head south through Lowland Scotland and into England, but many of his allies deserted him as they had little interest in such non-Scottish campaigning. McColla is often accused of being among the deserters, but it is more likely that he left Montrose’s side to go out recruiting more men for the cause as he had done several times before. This time, he would be too late.O’Cahan stayed with Montrose as he started to prepare for the advance to the Scottish-English border. Unfortunately, the increasing collapse of the main Royalist forces in England meant that more Scots could now be sent back to help capture Montrose and his allies in Scotland. David Leslie, a leading highly experienced soldier and Covenanter, attacked O’Cahan’s men as they were just waking up at an encampment in Philiphaugh
Philiphaugh
Philiphaugh is a village by the Yarrow Water, on the outskirts of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders.Places nearby include Bowhill, Broadmeadows, the Ettrick Water, Ettrickbridge, Lindean, Salenside, Yarrowford and the Yair Forest....
(near to the site of today’s Selkirk
Selkirk RFC
Selkirk Rugby Football Club are a rugby union side based in Selkirk in the Borders, Scotland.They play in their home games at Philiphaugh, and are now in Premiership Division Two and the Border League ....
Rugby football club ) on the 13th September 1645. It was one year to the day after the Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
massacre.
O’Cahan’s forces and those of the other Irish divisions who had stayed with Montrose, found themselves under severe surprise attack and hopelessly outnumbered. Within hours they were reduced to less than five hundred men, but they fought on valiantly. Montrose, who had camped separately from the Irish, tried to fight his way to their aid, but he was forced back and eventually fled for his life. Many were offended by this desertion, but he may have been advised to do it by the men accompanying him.
David Leslie offered O’Cahan terms of surrender. If his men laid down their arms and agreed to leave Scotland forever, they would be allowed to go free. O’Cahan agreed to this, but Leslie had the now unarmed Irish captured, and O’Cahan witnessed the execution of virtually his entire army. The women and children who had followed his forces were also brutally executed, many by drowning in the rivers around Philipaugh. Colonels O’Cahan, and Thomas Laghtnan were taken to Edinburgh Castle and hanged from the South Wall there without a trial.
Aftermath
McColla (his father Colkitto now freed under prisoner exchange arrangements) and Montrose, fought on, independently of one another. They never met again. In his late seventies Colkitto retook the Isle of Islay, only to be captured on July 1, 1647. He was executed soon afterwards but the exact date of this is unknown. McColla returned to Ireland where the rebellion continued. McColla fought and died on the 13 November 1647 at the Battle of KnocknanussBattle of Knocknanuss
The Battle of Knocknanauss was fought in 1647, during the Irish Confederate Wars, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, between Confederate Ireland’s Munster army and an English Parliamentarian army under Murrough O’Brien...
. Montrose fought on in Scotland until the King was captured and ordered a general Royalist cease-fire. The victorious Covenanters now forced Montrose into exile. He moved through Europe, and later led an attack on the Covenanters on behalf of King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, using an inexperienced army of Danish and Scandinavian mercenaries. He was defeated at Carbisdale, in Scotland on the 27 April 1650. Captured a few days later, Montrose was tried and executed in Edinburgh on the 30 April 1650.
Further reading
- John Buchan - MONTROSE 1918 Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd.
- Kevin Byrne - COLKITTO! A CELEBRATION OF CLAN DONALD OF COLONSAY (1370–1647) 1977 House Of Lochar
- John McDonnell - ULSTER CIVIL WAR OF 1641 AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 1879 H. H. Gill & Son Dublin
- Stuart Reid– AULDEARN 1645 2003 Osprey Publishing
- Stuart Reid – SCOTS ARMIES OF THE 17th CENTURY Vol. 1/. THE ARMY OF THE COVENANT 1639-51 1988 Partizan Press
- David Stevenson - HIGHLAND WARRIOR (ALASDAIR MACCOLLA AND THE CIVIL WARS) 1980 The Saltire Society.
- Mark Stoyle – SOLDIERS AND STRANGERS. AN ETHNIC HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR . 2005. Yale University Press.
- D. R. Watson – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES THE FIRST 1972 Weidenfeld & Nicolson. .
- C. V. Wedgwood - MONTROSE 1952 Fontana
- Ronald Williams - THE HEATHER AND THE GALE 1997 House Of Lochar
- Ronald Williams - MONTROSE - CAVALIER IN MOURNING 2001 House Of Lochar
- Bishop George Wishart - JAMES, FIRST MARQUESS OF MONTROSE (1612–1650) (A HISTORY OF THE KING * * * * * MAJESTIES"S AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND UNDER MONTROSE). 1903 EDITION.
Manus O'Cahan in fiction
- Marianne Lamont, Nine Moons Wasted 1976 Pan Books pseudonym of Jean Sanders/Anne Rundle. A romantic story about the Irish camp follower women who followed O'Cahan, and Montrose around the battlefields.
- Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose 1819 - Novel loosely based on the assassination of Lord Kilpont soon after the battle of TippermuirBattle of TippermuirThe Battle of Tippermuir was the first battle James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose fought for the king during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms....
O'Cahan's men were initially suspects in the murder, which was committed by James Stewart of Ardvorlich. Scott's story changes the identity of the killer, though he names him in the introduction. - Nigel TranterNigel TranterNigel Tranter OBE was a Scottish historian and author.-Early life:Nigel Tranter was born in Glasgow and educated at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. He trained as an accountant and worked in Scottish National Insurance Company, founded by his uncle. In 1933 he married May Jean Campbell Grieve...
, The Young Montrose; Montrose: The Captain General 1973 Coronet/Hodder & StoughtonHodder & StoughtonHodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
. Novelised version of the life and times of Montrose, with O'Cahan as a minor background character.
Maurice Walsh, "And no Quarter" 1980 - Martin Somers is a surgeon/swordsman in O'Cahan's Irish regiment fighting the Covenanters for Montrose.