THIS weekend will see another commemorative service at Culloden battlefield in remembrance of the Jacobite slain. This service, like all those before it, will be tainted by the falsehoods which seem to have been accepted down the ages by Anglophile historians.
The fact is that Culloden was so close to a Jacobite victory that Cumberland, who had previously been quite moderate, went haywire and started his programme of slaughter. My own ancestor, who was with the Keppoch regiment that day, came home to say that nobody fought like the Chisholms and if only they had been a bigger clan, they would have won the day.
Three days later, the clans who gathered at Ruthven were confident they could finish off Cumberland and were devastated when Prince Charlie gave the order to disperse.
Historians have been so lazy that none have investigated the supposed last words of Keppoch, "Why have the clan of my own name deserted me?" Why should a dying man, with seconds of his life remaining, include the phrase "of my own name?" The answer is because he led two names to Culloden, his own MacDonells and his Campbell bodyguard. The latter were led by my ancestor, his second cousin, who seems to have been killed with him.
If historians had looked a little closer, they would have found that the Gaelic phrase "Mi treig" was actually " Ni treig" and thus what Keppoch said to his clansman, who rushed back to his dying chief, was "My God, have the clan of my own name not left?"
George F Campbell,
28 Bruce Road, Pollokshields, Glasgow.
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