Not a battle, nor a war, I've ever gamed, but highlanders have always been popular on the table, and a new 35 page booklet called The Battle of Prestonpans: Bonnie Prince Charlie's First Victory provides some sound background for the wargamer new to this period. John Thomson has produced an interesting brief account of the prelude and battle, on 21st September 1745. It’s well illustrated with line drawings and a map of the battlefield, where General Cope with 2,000 foot and several squadrons of Dragoons was routed by vigorous attacks by the Jacobites, losing all of his ordnance, six light field pieces and four coehorn mortars in the process. The participating regiments and clans are described briefly, and the course of the fateful day (at least for the English!) recounted.
The outcome of Preston Pans was so decisive that tents, baggage and the paymaster's chest all were taken by the Prince's army, along with no fewer than 1,600 prisoners, a number of whom changed sides and joined the victorious Jacobites in their march south to Derby.
Thomson has written a useful introduction to an all too frequently forgotten battle, and one well worth wargaming, since Cope with his trained line regiments, dragoons and a battery of artillery should have despatched the Highlanders who had gathered only a month before, with relative ease. His dragoons, even after they withdrew from the field, were rightly feared by the Jacobites, and Strathallan, commanding the Stuart's Perthshire horse refused point-blank to pursue them.
This short account together with a companion booklet entitled The Jacobite Occupation of Edinburgh would make a suitable gift for a young wargamer, or for a veteran seeking a rather different battle to fight. Both are priced at £2.50 + 1st or 2nd class postage, and are available from: Monty Books, 2 Grove Street Edinburgh, Scotland EID 8AT.
The same publisher produces The Edinburgh Volunteers on the capital's Napoleonic Defence Regiments; along with The Edinburgh Town Guard all at the same price.
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