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@Svejk74 I'm not sure I follow the line of argument in the Equipment section; the initial paragraphs seem to suggest that by Culloden, most of the Highlanders were equipped and drilled to use muskets but this doesn't seem to line up with the use of the Highland charge. I'm not saying it's wrong, just that it needs clarification.
It's not particularly well organised at present; I've tended to try and get in all the relevant points first, then rearrange them so this may well need further rearranging (a fresh pair of eyes is always helpful).
Broadly speaking the evidence does seem to be there that the Jacobites, as per the arguments of Reid and Pittock, were organised and armed conventionally (I think Pittock overstates the argument a bit but that's another issue). Conversely, they seem to have felt that the 'Highland charge' was tactically their best tool for dealing with a numerically superior and better drilled opponent (and had this belief seemingly borne out once or twice). The problem is there are few unambiguous contemporary descriptions or ones that do not (for a variety of reasons) focus on the front rank men and their broadswords. I suppose the point I was trying to make is the one also made by Duffy that there were, perhaps, tactical reasons for this emphasis; the idea was to make people run.
There seem to be a few contradictory elements in descriptions too - for example many people follow the assumption that the Highlanders threw down their muskets after an initial massed volley, but several accounts of Culloden (e.g. of the left flank regiments getting into a firefight of sorts just short of the government line, or of the right flank trying to fire into the government lines at close range but hitting more of their own men - it's in Henderson or Jones) suggest they actually hung on to them. After all, you could always do what most 17th century infantrymem did and just turn your musket into an effective club. More recently it's been suggested that the 'Highland charge' was actually a bayonet charge but not sure I entirely believe that either. Svejk74 (talk) 22:42, 31 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
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