Background
“Charlie is my Darling” is a campaign set in the Highlands around the time of the last Jacobite rebellion in 1745. It is loosely based in the area to the north of Loch Lomond and around Loch Tay.
As it turns out this area seems to have quite an interesting story to tell. Killin holds the traditional burial ground of clan MacNab and Kinnell House the home of the clan chief. Just to the north however is Finlarig Castle, a traditional Scottish tower house which was held by clan Campbell and there were close connections between the MacNabs and the arch-whig Campbells.
During the ’45 the clan chief was seemingly John MacNab. He was an officer in one of the British highland regiments (the Black Watch if you believe the page at electricscotland, although an Archibald MacNab is listed in Loudoun’s 64th by Stuart Reid) and captured at Prestonpans. It seems that Allister or Alexander MacNab from a cadet branch of the clan at Innishewan west of Killin led most of the clan in the support of the rebellion however participating in the battle of Falkirk as a captain of Keppoch’s.
Meanwhile to the south is Inversnaid barracks on the edge of MacGregor territory, presumably garrisoned by a detachment of Murray’s at the start of the rebellion (as Cope reported the highland forts to be garrisoned by this regiment) later replaced by Guise’s.
So there is a fascinating triangle of loyalist Campbells, a fort garrisoned by regulars, a clan chief with the British, and a rebellious clan led by the junior branch but who don’t seem to have been present at many of the major battles.
The plan is to run a set of linked scenarios in the glens and hills near and around Loch Tay, but not as a single campaign, rather as a set of scenarios in similar settings and with a similar cast.
This will be using Sharp Practice with the additional Jacobite rules and force details that were published as a supplement a little while ago. I’ll change the names of the McNab clan and make up the names of any characters to hopefully avoid upsetting anyone who might stumble across this page (I used to work with someone called MacNab…).
Reference Material
- Reid, Stuart 1745 A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising (Spellmount Ltd, Staplehurst, 2001)