The Myths of the '15 and '45 Jacobite Risings

The Battle of Culloden 16th April 1746: more conventional than usually portrayed

The '15 and '45 Jacobite Risings are often described as Highland versus Lowland as well as Catholic versus Protestant, and even Scotland versus England, but this is quite wrong.
The reality was civil war involving most of Scotland with families divided. In 1745 43-6% of the Jacobite Army came from the Highlands, 17-24% from Moray, Aberdeen and Banff, 17-20% from Perthshire, 7% from Dundee and Angus and 2.5% from Edinburgh and Hanoverian deserters with the balance being made up by the Irish Piquets, south and west Lowland recruits, the Manchester Regiment and the French Royal Scots. In the North Mackays and Sutherlands supported the Government as some clans were openly Hanoverian, for example the Campbells of the Argyll Militia stood with the Regular Army against the Jacobites.  Trevor Royle recounts that standing in Prince Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite army was Roderick Og Chisholm, youngest son of the chief of Clan Chisholm. On the opposing side, less than 600 yards away, were two of his brothers, James and John, who wore the uniform of St Clair's Regiment. Other clans were neutral, and the Farquharsons were an example of division. Lady Mackintosh, daughter of of the Laird of Monaltrie, raised Clan Chattan for the Jacobites while
her husband commanded the Black Watch in Flanders, and her brother led the Farquharsons at Culloden and Clan Ross where the chief raised an Independent
company to defend Inverness Castle against the Jacobites while another Ross joined the Jacobites. The Grants of Freuchie fought for the Hanoverians in the '15 while the Grants of Glenmoriston were out for the Jacobites in the '15 and the '45. While the exiled Stewarts espoused Roman Catholicism, many Jacobites, including the Earl of Cromartie were Episcopalians, the equivalent of the Church of England in Scotland, the Espiscopal Church having been disestablished by the Reformation in Scotland, of which  August 2010  marks the 450th Anniversary.

Murray Pittock sets out in the 2nd Edition of "The Myth of the Jacobite Clans", in its organisation, equipment, weaponry and tactics, the Jacobite Forces of 1745-46 were quite conventional for the times, and only Highland in costume and symbols, but national in its composition. Scots rallied to the cause to end an unpopular Union with England rather than to further a romantic Jacobite cause.

There remains no doubt, neverthelessm, that the aftermath of the '45 marked the end of the Highland Culture, irrespective of the positions adopted by the Highland Clans.

References:
The Myth of the Jacobite Clans, Murray G. H. Pittock 2nd Edition ISBN 978 0 7486 2757 8
Essay of the Week: Why we should honour the Redcoats - Herald Scotland | Comment | Trevor Royle
http://www.mains-of-monaltrie.co.uk/
http://www.scotweb.co.uk/info/ross/
http://heraldry.celticradio.net/search.php?id=13&branch=Bissett
http://www.banffshire-journal.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/3338/Jacobite_breakaway_chapel_is_revealed.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Jacobitism.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/union/trails_union_culloden.shtml  
Iain Laird's Family History Project - Culloden