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Not One Step Back
The Jacobite Last Stand At Derby, 1745
Part 1


Adapted from material previously submitted by the author at Changingthetimes.net


Prince Charles Edward Stuart fancied himself a liberator, the man who would lead the Scottish Highland rebels to final victory in their insurgency against the English crown. In reality, however, he was an arrogant and stubborn egomaniac whose determination to stand and fight at the town of Derby in December of 1745 would effectively sign the death warrant for the Highlanders' cause-- and pave the way for Stuart's own demise in the process. In a situation where a more skilled commander would have either organized an orderly retreat or led a successful attack on the English lines, the prince stubbornly insisted on making a do-or-die stand in an environment which all but guaranteed the men under "Bonnie Prince Charlie"'s command would be cut to ribbons by the better organized, better equipped, and better trained British Army troops under the leadership of King George II's cousin the Duke of Cumberland. To this day Stuart's handling, or more accurately mishandling, of the tactical situation confronting him at Derby is the subject of widespread harsh criticism by military historians.



Prince Charles Edward Stuart, would-be rebel chieftain whose inflated opinion of his own military abilities would lead to disaster for the Jacobites at Derby.

It was December 3rd, 1745 when the advance pickets of the Jacobite army arrived in Derby. Unfortunately for the Jacobites' cause, the men comprising the rebel army leadership couldn't agree on even the tiniest issues, let alone critical matters such as food distribution or the deployment of troops and artillery. When the Jacobite war council convened on December 4th to decide their next move, Jacobite military secretary Sir Thomas Sheridan immediately got into an argument with his colleagues about his proposal to make a stand against Cumberland's troops at Derby. The argument ended in Sheridan's favor when Stuart endorsed his idea, a decision both men would live(though not very long) to regret...

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