The long march home
The Jacobite retreat from Derby in December 1745 marked the beginning of the end for the '45 rising. On 6 December — "Black Friday" to the Jacobite cause — Prince Charles Edward Stuart's army turned its back on London and began the long march north to Scotland. The prince was devastated. His commanders were pragmatic. The consequences would be fatal.
The decision to retreat was taken at a tense council of war at Exeter House in Derby. Lord George Murray, the ablest Jacobite general, argued that the army of 5,000 Highlanders was dangerously exposed. Two Government armies were converging on their position — the Duke of Cumberland from the northwest and Marshal Wade from the northeast. The promised English Jacobite support had not materialised. The French invasion force had not sailed. To march further south was to invite encirclement and destruction.
Charles was furious. He believed that one more push would have taken London and that the Hanoverian regime would have collapsed. He may have been right — there was genuine panic in the capital. But his commanders were professional soldiers, and they judged the military situation hopeless. Charles never forgave them, and the breach between the prince and Lord George Murray would poison Jacobite decision-making for the rest of the campaign.
The retreat itself was conducted with skill. The army marched north in good order, fighting a sharp rearguard action at Clifton in Westmorland — the last battle on English soil before Culloden became the last on British soil. They recrossed the border, recaptured Stirling briefly, and won the Battle of Falkirk Muir in January 1746. But the strategic initiative was gone. The army fell back to Inverness, where it spent a miserable winter. Cumberland followed with overwhelming force. The road from Derby led inexorably to Drummossie Moor and the slaughter of 16 April 1746.