Paranormal History

Marston Moor, and its place in paranormal history.

As the sun ebbed away from the skies above Marston Moor on the 2nd July 1644 dark clouds rolled across the landscape, a sure sign that bad weather was brewing, a day to end with the thunderclap of a summer storm, and the fate of a nation decided.

In all honesty I could write a million words to describe why England erupted into Civil War in 1642, and there are plenty of people who would disagree or fully agree with my views. Its causes are a hundredfold, its cost high and its gains perhaps even higher. The war was effectively fought in various regions, the South West, where two friends fought one another in a series of engagements, the midlands / south midlands, where the Kings main army was based in Oxford and supported by Wales, and the North, where the Kings main supporter, William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle (later Marquis) fought against the double act of father and son, Lord Ferdinando Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas Fairfax. Up until early 1644 the war in the north had gone well for the King, Newcastle had beaten the Fairfax duo, most notably at Adwalton Moor close to Bradford and had besieged the Parliamentarians in Hull. If the north could be conquered it could mean Newcastle bringing his men south and turning the tide of the war elsewhere, the Parliamentarians in turn needed a saviour in the north, and they found it in the form of an alliance with the Scottish. Promises were made by the leader of Parliament, John Pym, promises of money and that the Church of England would be run along the lines of the Scottish Presbyterian model Kirk, all of this was more of Pym’s lies however as the Parliamentarians never lived up to their promise, yet in early 1644 Scottish troops advanced southwards into the North-East. The Earl of Newcastle moved quickly, he did not have the manpower to defeat the Scots and hold the Parliamentarians inside Hull and so after retreating from the city of Newcastle to Durham, Cavendish decided to hold onto the largest of the North’s cities, York.

York was besieged by the combined Scottish Army under the First Earl of Levan, Alexander Leslie, Lord Fairfax’s Parliamentarian Army and another Parliamentarian Army under the Second Earl of Manchester, Edward Montagu. Inside York were the now Marquis of Newcastle’s veteran army as well as the York Garrison commanded by Sir Thomas Glemham, John Belasyse and Sir Henry Slingsby. There were a series of assaults made on York, most notably by the Scots and Manchester’s troops but both were driven off after very heavy fighting. King Charles was not about to let the city be lost, and with it his Northern Army and the War. In truth there was little he could do to prevent it, he sent his nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine to relieve the siege; he was probably the best General on either side during the conflict yet suffered from being on the losing side.

The letter which King Charles wrote to Rupert, ordering him to relieve York has been the cause of much debate, it is not clear if Charles wanted Rupert to fight the Allied army; that however is how Rupert read the letter. By the 26th June he had arrived at Skipton Castle, he had advanced through Lancashire in the hope of gaining troops from the large amount of Catholic’s in the North West, on the way his men massacred the garrison of Bolton after a delegation had been fired upon, in war at this time if a town or city did not surrender they were shown no mercy, yet it was still an act of wanton depravity. From Skipton Rupert went to relieve the siege by coming from the north, using Parliamentarian built bridges to cross some rivers. Rupert never entered York; he was too busy finding out where the enemy was, yet five different commanders now all faced the same question, should a battle be fought?

It was clear York had been relieved, the Allied army, camped on Marston Moor decided to move to Tadcaster where a good road network would bring reinforcements to them and allow them to flee if disaster struck. On the 2nd July much of the Parliamentarian army was well on its way to Tadcaster when Royalist Cavalry came to investigate their old positions in the vicinity of Long Marston. Immediately the Allied Army turned around to confront the Royalists, who in turn appeared on their side of Marston Moor in dribs and drabs, a regiment at a time. The last to arrive on the battlefield were the Scots for the Allies, and the men from York for the Royalists, these men had suffered during the siege and had gorged themselves on the food left by the fleeing Allied Army.

Battles in this period were really three separate battles, the Infantry took the centre, 2/3 of all Infantry carried Matchlock Muskets, the rest carried Pikes anywhere from 8 to 12’ long (some soldiers cut them down to make them lighter, they were the ones who died when coming to an enemy out of their reach). Infantry moved slow and purposefully towards one another, with pikes outstretched and ragged volleys of musket fire killing or wounding enemy troops. It is a myth to believe that when the push of pike came that men with Muskets turned their muskets around and used them as clubs, each Musketeer also carried a short sword, a far more lethal weapon in a battle than a lump of wood. On either wing (either side of the central Infantry formations) would be the Cavalry, another myth often presented on TV is that cavalry charged full speed into the enemy, in truth they trotted towards the enemy, keeping a strict formation in lines of men and horses, at the beginning of the war Rupert had trained his men to hold their fire (they were armed with long pistols and carbines) until they were on top of the enemy, everyone else fired from a distance then wheeled their horse to the back of the formation. By Marston Moor most Cavalry fought as Rupert’s did, Cromwell’s ironsides being the best on the Parliamentarian side.

Looking Northwards on a map of the battle would see the Allied Left Wing Cavalry headed by Cromwell, the Infantry in the Centre had no overall commander; each Regiment had its own leader, the Right Wing of Allied Cavalry led by Sir Thomas Fairfax. Opposite Fairfax on the Royalist left (looking South) was Lord Byron, the centre, like the Allies, was led by individual regimental leaders. The Right was taken by Lord Goring, Prince Rupert kept a body of reserve Cavalry, his own bodyguard of troops and veterans of a dozen battles and skirmishes. Alexander Leslie did the same with contingents of Scots who had been making their own way back to the battlefield. The Royalists soon discovered (if they had not already known) that they were drastically outnumbered, 18’000 men for the King, against a combined 27’000 strong Parlo-Scottish Army.

In effect it took so long for the Parliamentarian Foot to march back to Marston Moor and for Newcastle’s troops to arrive that it was already late in the day when Prince Rupert told William Cavendish that the battle would be fought on the morning of the 3rd. The Royalists Infantry had a long ditch to their front, a defensive position which they manned with a forlorn hope of Musketeers, at the end of the ditch was some flat ground and so they placed some artillery on that spot. It is unsure whether this artillery unit began firing at the Parliamentarian horsemen opposite, but what is known is that Oliver Cromwell ordered his Cavalry to attack. As his order went out the skies darkened, men looked to the heavens as large rain drops began padding onto the dry ground, a Musket needs a lit taper (Match-Cord, much like a shoe lace soaked in saltpetre so it burns) to be able to work, for it to fire the gunpowder and so shoot the Musket Ball. Rain spoiled all of that, it was not impossible to fire during wet weather, but it was very hard. Cromwell’s Cavalry crashed into the Artillerymen and Royalist Cavalry from Byron’s Command came to help their beleaguered comrades and soon both Royalist and Parliamentarian Cavalry were firing point blank at one another, often both sides resorting to sword fighting from horseback to decide the smaller battles inside the larger conflict. As all of this was beginning the Allied foot troops advanced, easily pushing the Royalist’s and their wet Muskets back to their parent Regiments. They had trouble getting through the ditch, which may have had hedges alongside it, out on the Allied Right though things had not gone well. Lord Goring had charged his horses forward, Fairfax’s cavalry did not last long enough to engage their enemy before they turned tail and ran, it has often been pointed out that Royalist Cavalry ALWAYS ran off after their beaten foes, at Marston Moor however Goring stopped many of his men from doing so, they wheeled round and organised a charged into the flank of the Allied Foot Regiments, if the Cavalry could panic the Allied Infantry then victory would be delivered to Rupert and the King. Lord Goring’s men advanced and came to the Allied Right hand Infantry, these men were not the fallible Parliamentarians however, they were Scotsmen, and instead of running and giving victory to the King they stood their ground and gave a brave death to any of Goring’s Cavalry foolish enough to advance against them.

By now Rupert and Cavendish had discovered that a battle was going on, for as the first shots had been fired lightning had forked the sky and thunder had rumbled through the moor. Rupert led his Reserve to the right where Byron was being beaten, but not by Cromwell. Early in the engagement a fellow Parliamentarian trooper had fired his pistol close to Cromwell’s cheek and the flash of gunpowder had burned his skin, Cromwell fled back to safety to have his “wound” treated. Alexander Leslie may well have seen Rupert’s banner rush to the flank and so he too sent Cavalry to that part of the Battlefield, Scottish Lancers (not armed with Pistols but 6 to 8’ foot lances) and more regular cavalry crashed into Rupert and Byron’s men just as they were getting the upper hand, this counterstroke proved to be decisive, Rupert and Byron’s Cavalry crumpled and began to flee back towards York through Wilstrop Wood, Rupert himself had hidden in a bean-field, Parliamentarian Cavalry troopers found his belongings, then murdered his pet dog, a hunting poodle named ‘boy’, which Parliamentarian Propaganda had claimed to be the devil.

Goring’s Cavalry could not flee to York for fear of running into the now victorious Allied Cavalry which was chasing Rupert, Goring instead fled to the south. Whilst all of this Cavalry action had been taking place the Infantry battle in the centre had slowly gone the Allied Army’s way, men began fleeing in small numbers, then whole Regiments turned tail and fled, one Regiment or Irishmen dressed in Green coats were caught in open order by Allied Cavalry in the region of Moor Lane, the Regiment was wiped out. The Marquis of Newcastle had brought his own Foot Regiments to the battle, comprising around seven separate below-strength Regiments, these men dressed in White Coats now stood alone, defeated, exhausted after weeks of siege inside York they now formed a defensive position inside an old walled sheep pen, known as White Sykes Close. There may have been as many as 300 men inside White Sykes Close; the Catholic members of the Regiment wore a large Red Cross patch on their Coats. No one knows who commanded this body of men; they could have fled, and like many Regiments could have survived. Instead they stood their ground, 300 men against almost 27’000 men. It was a miracle any of them survived, after numerous assaults by infantry and cavalry they still stood their ground, calls were made to surrender, returned with calls of victory, or death. Only 30 men, each badly wounded and unable to stand, survived the horrors of White Sykes Close.

The battle over Cromwell sent word that god had given him victory, thus many people believed (and sadly still do) that Marston Moor was Cromwell’s victory, it is not known if he returned to action after having his cheek burned early on, without the Scottish then Parliament would have been defeated, a fact forgotten, especially by Cromwell himself.

I have visited this battlefield many times, both on my own and with interested parties of people. I usually start a walk at the Sun Inn in Long Marston and walk down Marston Lane towards Tockwith, to the right is Marston Hall where Parliamentary officers were housed the night before the battle, it is said Cromwell himself haunts this place, though of course it could be, and more than likely is, a different Parliamentarian Officer who died in the fighting. Just beyond Marston Hall is the junction of Atterwith Lane, more on this later, next comes the Junction of Moor Lane, scene of the Irish Regiment’s disaster and also a place where ghostly soldiers have been seen many times in the past. Next to this is the Monument, where in 2006 I had my own strange encounter where I heard what I can only describe as someone running on gravel, I heard the heavy breathing and wheezing, as well as the rattle of various accoutrements which a soldier may have worn during the battle, I confess I was on my own and it was around 1:30 in the morning when this happened and it took me a good ten minutes to decide to look for an explanation, though I still found none. When walking the site I walk from the monument down Marston lane, on the right hand side is a hedge and beyond that would have been the ditch which proved to be a stumbling block to the Allied Infantrymen, I then turn right up Kendal Lane, it was here the fighting between Royalist and Parliamentarian horse started the battle. There is a public footpath on the right which takes me towards Wilstrop Wood, a very spooky place in the dead of night. Walking towards Wilstrop Wood along this pathway takes a walker past the Bean Field Rupert hid in. After being defeated Royalist Cavalry fled this way, aided by a young girl who opened a gate so they could pass through Wilstrop Wood, it is unsure how she died, some say she was trampled by accident by the Royalists, some say she was murdered by Parliamentarians, either way her ghost has been seen and heard screaming in this part of the battlefield. On through Wilstrop Wood brings you eventually to Atterwith Lane, a right turn here brings me to the main road once more, it is along this lane that Goring’s Cavalry advanced and beat off Fairfax, it is also midway along here that ghosts have been seen, mostly hiding in ditches or behind hedges, as the Royalists would have done so at the battles end. All over the battlefield men have been seen dressed as if still in battle, men and horses too have been seen around Cromwell’s Plump, which is a clump of tree’s opposite the Monument. If you’ve followed these directions and are still feeling fit then you may wish to find White Sykes Close, no one is sure of the exact location but in many guidebooks it is found if you walk up Moor Lane (next to the Monument) and turn left at the end.

It is thought 4’000 Royalists died in the fighting, which lasted less than an hour, perhaps as few as 300 Parlo-Scottish men died. After Marston Moor the North was lost, in truth though the Parliamentarians spent much effort and time defeating various strongholds in the North still loyal to King Charles, who in turn could never raise another Northern Army. Eventually a much depleted Royalist Army met its end at Naseby to a large Parliamentarian Army, by then the writing was on the wall, with the first marks being made in the mud, blood and carnage of Marston Moor. Men fought and died in these fields, their blood remains, their heroism and fates are recorded, regardless of their cause they deserve to be given credit for being the brave men we remember all soldiers to be, every year on November 11th.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.

Ghosts beneath the waves…

If someone said to you “tell me of a haunted location” you may know of a few castles, manor houses or pub’s which have ghostly tales attached to them, ghosts it seems like dry land, or do they? If ghosts exist in places they have lived, loved, fought or died then why not at the bottom of the sea on the endless number of shipwrecks found in every sea and ocean. Judging from the varied reports from around the world it may seem to hold true that ghosts do indeed haunt vessels where ever they are, be it the Endeavour birthed at Dundee, what remains of the Mary Rose in Portsmouth, or even the many wrecks within the Chuuk Atoll in Micronesia. The Battle of Truk is something I have covered previously for a documentary and so I know much of the operations and the history of the Island, including the local (Trukese) beliefs in spirituality, essentially they believe everyone has two souls, one of which is kind, benevolent and good, the other is not, the good is seen as a mans reflection, the bad is his shadow. In Anthropologist Ward Goodenough’s 1963 book on Micronesian Spiritualism he states about the people of Truk that “a soul may… possess someone and thereby become a spirit active in human affairs.” Essentially a person can be good or bad because his good or bad soul is possessing him to be so.

However a Trukese spirit medium can sever this possession by eating preserved breadfruit, which apparently the soul’s spirits find repugnant. The German Capuchin Laurentius Bolling also wrote of the exact same practice in 1927. He also wrote of a ghost story before the events of February 1944, it tells of a man from Tol Island marrying a woman from Moen Island (Tol and Moen being two of the Atolls many Islands), because of the tribal warfare the young men of Moen didn’t like this so they killed him. He appeared before his own islanders, and his wife, and told them of his murder, it is said that, “As the sun arose in the morning sky, his spirit drifted on the wind until he had vanished”.

Chuuk Atoll today is a pleasant place, almost an island paradise; sandy shores, palm tree’s and the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean greet many visitors to the Islands. Today we call if Chuuk, in the 1940’s it was called Truk (Chuuk being the Trukese word for Mountain). From 1942 to 1944 it was the headquarters of the Japanese Combined Fleet, within the atoll hundreds of ships came and went with supplies and troops, it was a very important place for the Japanese for they could reinforce other pacific islands which were under attack by the Allies, The Japanese believed Truk to be too heavily defended for the Allies to attack. In February 1944 the American’s launched Operation Hailstone to prove the Japanese wrong, to the Japanese this became known as トラック島空襲 Torakku-tō Kūshū, which means “the Airstrike on Truk Island. Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher had at his disposal Task Force 58, comprising many different naval assets, this was no invasion, this was to be an assault to destroy Truk Island, its infrastucture, its operations, and its defenders. Task Force 58 had as its aerial spearhead the carriers Enterprise, Yorktown, Essex, Intrepid and Bunker Hill, supported by the smaller carriers Bellau Wood, Cowpens, Cabot and Monterey. In total close to 600 aircraft to assault Truk where the Japanese had Cruisers, Destroyers, many transports and around 350 aircraft.

The attack lasted two days over 17th and 18th February 1944 and consisted of air assaults from the carriers as well as bombardments by the heavier battleships of Task Force 58. Japanese losses were devastating, in total 47 vessels (including 3 Cruisers and 4 Destroyers) were sunk inside or just outside the Atoll. The Japanese also lost 270 aircraft, most destroyed on the ground or shot down by better trained and better equipped US Navy and Marine pilots (it had been the other way round earlier in the war). The Americans lost just 40 people killed, 25 aircraft destroyed and no ships (though a battleship and an aircraft carrier were damaged just prior to the assault). A second raid in April 1944 destroyed what the first raid had missed. It wasn’t until the 2nd September 1945 that the Japanese surrendered Truk Island to officers from the USS Portland. It is said the Japanese left on Truk were close to starvation by their surrender, as Truk had been a Japanese possesion before the war there were some civilians who called it home too, many of them native Trukese, it wasn’t until late 1947 that American troops and sailors were allowed to go into the same areas as the Japanese and Trukese because of the hatred which they still felt towards the American personnel.

Many visitors come to dive the plethora of wrecks found in the vicinity, many people have reported seeing men standing on the decks of the ships, some manning now corroded anti-aircraft guns, some seen pointing as if to the sky. Some have reported hearing engine sounds from some of the ships or the sounds of screaming and shouting. It is possible that there is a natural explanation for all of this, and the many similar reports from wreck around the world. Nitrogen Narcosis is something which occurs on a regular basis when scuba diving, it is similar to being drunk on alchohol and can make people feel a variety of emotions from anxious to deeply at peace. In actual fact it follows the “Martini Law” of diving, that for every 10m down a person goes is the equivalent of drinking one Martini (seriously).

There are many siimilar stories from all over the world with regards underwater apparitions, for example beneath Lake Superior in the Great Lakes of North America lies the Emporer, an Iron ore transport Steamship which sunk in 1947 taking 12 men to their watery graves, divers here have seen a man lying in his bunk, another man in the engine room (where a body was recovered in the 1970’s) as well as the noise of engines and voices.I think I’ll leave the strangest story last, In 2007 holiday goers diving from the Wind Dancer close to Grenada were joined by a felow scuba diver, all the divers from the cruise ship had the same gear on, their visitor wore a white tee-shirt and had different dive gear to them, they thought nothing of it at the time, they were diving a shipwreck which was well known. When they came to the surface the three people (of a group of around twelve) who had seen the man in the tee-shirt were talking about it when they noticed that their fellow diver had come with them, they then noticed the only boat was their own and the only way onto the boat was the way they had come. The men (Doctors) were adamant they saw a man in a white tee-shirt diving with them, despite none of the others seeing him, even the dive co-ordinator said it would be impossible for someone to swim from shore to the wreck site. It remains a mystery what, or who these people saw.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.

“Remember the Alamo!”

In early 1835 Texas, then a part of Mexico, erupted with a revolutionary zeal, its cause was to extricate itself from the governance of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. He ruled Mexico as a dictator, centralising power and quashing anyone who stood in his way. By October 1835 armed uprisings in Texas as well as other parts of Mexico, supposedly a Federation, had turned into war, Mexican Federal troops were fired on by civilians at what was later called the Battle of Gonzales, though only 18 Texan’s took part in this brief encounter in which a Mexican Cannon was stolen, when the Mexican’s said they wanted it back they came under fire. The Mexicans from Gonzales fled to San Antonio de Bexar (pronounced Bay-har) which is modern day San Antonio. At the time San Antonio de Bexar was a small town, the Spanish Missionary dominated the skyline, today it still stands, surrounded now by much higher buildings, the business and commerce of a modern day city almost seem to overlap the older building, yet no one in their right mind would tear down this old building, originally built in 1718 as a Spanish Catholic Mission it was never completed, for this missionary is the Alamo,, a place which had changed hands time and again during the Texan Wars, and a place still lodged deep in the hearts of every Texan, and many other Americans too.

After their victory at Gonzales the Texan’s formed a volunteer army, this small force travelled down the Texan coastline, taking on larger Mexican forces at Goliad and Fort Lipantitlan and defeating them again and again. The Texan Army, bolstered every day by fresh recruits, not just from Texas but the US and Mexico, split up after Fort Lipantitlan, the majority of the men went with General Stephen F Austin to lay siege to the Alamo and capture not only the Mexican troops of its garrison, but also its cannon. After a number of small skirmishes around San Antonio de Bexar the Texans forced the Mexicans to surrender, whose General Martin Perfecto de Cos was allowed to parole his troops, meaning they were allowed to leave Texas with the proviso they do not fight again. It was mid December when Cos’ men fled to Mexico from San Antonio de Bexar, many Texans believed the war won and the volunteer army splintered, many men returning to farms, and families, some of the men from the other US States and Mexicans who fought for the Texans began to settle in new lands, to everyone in the region the fighting was over.

Everyone except Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna that is, he began to plan an invasion of Texas to suppress the revolution in a tide of bloodshed, he planned this even before the loss of Cos’ garrison. It iss also right to say that some Texans had decided to invade Mexico for Colonel Frank Johnston and Dr James grant had begun planning their own invasion by first attacking Matamoros, this plan was hotly disputed by Texan general Sam Houston, who was supposedly removed from his post because of his opposition to the planned invasion. The rest of the Texan Volunteer Army which had not gone home during the winter of 1835-36 had been split in two between the Alamo Mission in San Antonio de Bexar and the Presidio de Bahia in Goliad. After crossing the Rio Grande Santa Anna split his forces, this was a tactic favoured by Napoleon Bonaparte, for Santa Anna believed himself to be the ‘Napoleon of the West’. One part of the Mexican Army of Operations was led now by General Jose de Urrea, he moved towards Goliad, beat Johnston and Grant at San Patricio and Agua Dulce, the other part of the Army under the command of Santa Anna headed for San Antonio de Bexar, and infamy.

Three men who defended the Alamo have passed into legend, Lieutenant-Colonel William B Travis, Colonel James Bowie and Colonel David ‘Davey’ Crockett. Bowie arrived on the 19th January to begin dismantling the Alamo Mission and taking away the precious cannon, he soon found out that was impossible as there were no draught animals up to the job of carting away the artillery. Instead he wrote letters telling his superiors how vital the location was, and how he would defend it to the last. William B Travis arrived on 3rd February to reinforce the defence of the Alamo, he brought with him 30 men, the same amount which Bowie had brought with him yet still not nearly enough to defend the mission, not that they believed it needed defending. On the 8th February David Crockett arrived with more reinforcements, still more was needed. Men left to find more reinforcements and to find more provisions, the Mexican Army however was also having problems, they marched in snow sometimes three feet deep, they were short of food, dropping dead with disease and to top it all off Comanche raiders had killed many men under Santa Anna’s control. Still they marched on. When they reached the Medina River on the 21st February the Mexicans were only 25 miles from the Alamo, the defenders had no idea such a large force was so close at hand and a fiesta was organised in San Antonio de Bexar, with many of the garrison in attendance it was the perfect opportunity to catch the Texans unawares, the perfect Napoleon masterstroke.

Instead heavy rain stopped the Mexicans capturing a virtually empty Alamo, by the 23rd San Antonio had become a ghost town, its residents now knew the Mexicans were upon them and they fled on anything that would carry them away. Travis and Bowie had eventually come to an agreement that they would share command, neither man liked the other yet they put aside their differences as best they could to defend the Alamo. Travis was not convinced by the scouting reports of the closeness of the Mexicans, he ordered a man to stay in San Antonio de Bexar and ring the church bells when the Mexicans came in sight. Late on the 23rd February the bell rang loud, the Mexican Army was just a mile and a half away.

Santa Anna had 1’500 men under his command and as they marched into San Antonio de bexar he had raised the blood red flag, the colour of martyrdom for the Catholic Faith, a signal that no mercy was to be shown to the rebels inside the Alamo. Travis ordered the forts largest gun to fire in response to the flag, Bowie was outraged that he was not asked about the commencement of firing and so he sent an emissary to speak with the Mexicans. Travis was also upset that Bowie had sent an offer of surrender, and so he sent his own emissary, both met with Mexican Colonels Jose Bartes and Juan Almonte. Despite Bowie asking for good terms of surrender the Mexicans told them there would be no chance of surrender unless it was unconditional, which meant probable death to many in the fort.

After learning of this both Travis and Bowie agreed to the commencement of firing on the Mexican troops now opposing them. The next day Bowie collapsed from some illness, more than likely typhoid pneumonia, one of the many conditions which during this period fell under the guise of “Consumption”. Over the next few days both sides traded artillery fire, the Texan Artillery ably Captained by Almaron Dickinson, whose wife Susannah and children were still inside the fort on its fall, on two occasions Texan troops ventured out to burn some small shacks which provided cover for Mexican troops, during both times Texans from the fort provided covering fire for those burning the shacks, a handful of men on both sides became casualties. Upon taking sole command on the 24th Travis wrote a letter ‘To the people of Texas & All Americans in the World’ in which he wrote “I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honour & that of his country. VICTORY OR DEATH.’

The Mexican Army did not have enough men to fully surround the Alamo and messengers and reinforcements came and went with relative ease, it is thought Santa Anna wanted this so he could crush the whole Texan Army in one fell swoop, Colonel James Fannin set out from Goliad with 320 men and a few cannon to reinforce the Alamo, this force travelled less than a mile before Fannin ordered them to turn back, both he and his officers blamed one another for shirking their duties and causing the relief to be abandoned. On the night of 27th February men from Gonzales, tired of waiting for Fannin and under orders from a courier sent by Travis arrived at the Alamo to reinforce the garrison, they were few in number at around 28 men strong and as they neared the walls the Texans believed they were Mexicans and opened fire, the curses from a wounded man convinced the

Texans that they were shooting at their own men and so the Gonzales men were allowed inside.

On March 3rd a great cheer arose from the Mexican camps as around 1’000 men arrived as reinforcements, giving Santa Anna around 2’400 men under his direct control, more reinforcements arrived for the defenders that night as David Crockett and two other men were sent by Travis to find out where Fannin had got to (they still did not know he had turned back). Instead of finding Fannin the three men found a force of Texans numbering around 50 men. Crockett led most of these back into the fort, though some fled when Mexican troops began firing on them.

Santa Anna now began to plan an assault, although he could have waited for the 7th March as this was when it was hoped two large guns, 12 pounders, would arrive, with these he could batter the Alamo into submission. Instead he ignored all advice from more seasoned members of his staff, it is thought he became even more impatient to assault when a relative of James Bowie, his cousin-in-law Juana Navarro Alsbury, pleaded with him to allow the defenders to surrender. The next day he ordered his men to assault the fort, where inside the men had been given an ultimatum, not by the Mexican’s but by Travis himself. He had everyone arranged in the courtyard of the mission, he told them that the Mexicans were going to assault (they could see ladders being built) and so he drew a line in the sand and asked for any man willing to defend the Alamo to the last to cross the line and stand with him. All except one person did. (this is disputed by some historians)

During the siege the Mexicans had bombarded the fort nightly, at 10pm on the 5th March the guns fell silent and many inside the fort caught their first uninterrupted sleep in days. There were to be three separate assaults, with Santa Anna commanding 400 men as reserves in San Antonio de Bexar, Colonel Duque commanded 400 men and they made the most direct assault, Duque died early on and Colonel Castrillon took over, Colonel Romero also had 400 men but fewer ladders, Colonel Morales had 125 men and just two ladders. Mexican troops wore essentially French Napoleonic uniforms, consisting of Shako, Coat, Jacket, Breeches and leggings, coloured of course Blue, for the Napoleon of the West was always wishing to copy the great man himself. Mexican Cavalry (also wearing copied French dress) patrolled around the Alamo to not only stop any Texan’s fleeing but also any nervous new Mexican recruits who had been forced to join the army.

The Texans had sentinels positioned outside the Alamo, men on their own in small pits with a wall of small stakes to fire behind, the three sentinels had fallen asleep like many, if not all of the defenders, they were bayoneted in their sleep before they could fire to signal an attack, and so the Mexican’s were able to advance rapidly over ground which should have been strewn with their bodies had the Texans been awake, in fact the Mexican’s were the ones who awoke the defenders when assaulting troops began shouting “Viva Santa Anna!” Travis rushed to his post, seeing masses of enemy bayonets glistening in the moonlight, he is reported as shouting to his fellow defenders “Come on Boys, the Mexicans are upon us and we’ll give them Hell” he also called out in Spanish to the Mexican men defending the Alamo “No Rendirse, muchachos!” (No surrender boys!).

The first shots were fired, and the first men died in the assault. Texan Cannon had no canister to fire at the enemy, Canister being large musket balls packed in a tin can or a cloth bag, when fired from cannon the can disintegrates or the bag tears apart and the musket balls act like a shotgun blast. Instead of Canister the defenders hacked up old horseshoes, cutlery, anything metal they could find including door hinges and bed springs. One blast of cannon’s improvised canister killed “Half a company of Chasseurs from Toluca” according to their commanding officer, Jose Enrique de la Pena. As if being torn apart by bed springs was bad enough many Mexican troops were simply men pressed into service, attacking in a column only the front ranks could fire safely, however many in the rear ranks fired blindly forwards, killing and wounding many of their own men in the process. The assaulting blue-coated Mexicans crashed into the walls, ladders being held aloft passed overhead to the wall, the Texan’s having to lean over the wall now to shoot at the enemy beneath, as Travis fired his shotgun at the mass of enemy below he was hit between the eye’s and died immediately, he was one of the first to die in defence of the Alamo.

With Bowie in his death bed and Travis dead the command now fell to the third in line, the little known John Hubbard Forsyth, although he had been a Captain in a Kentuckian Cavalry unit he was born in Avon, New York and was 38 years old, he was also the third highest ranking officer and now took command, however at all parts the Mexican numbers overwhelmed the defenders, the Texan’s did not spike their guns as they fled backwards and the Mexicans turned the artillery on their previous users, Texan’s defending fortified buildings had walls blown open by their own guns, then Mexican infantry rushed in to finish the job with cold steel. In the Sacristy many women and children sought refuge, some men fled there, the last of the Texan positions to fall was an artillery unit inside the Chapel itself, behind them the doors were being hammered by axes of Mexican troops, the commander of the gun, Captain Dickinson, ordered the gun to be turned around, a blast of improvised canister killed the Mexicans on the other side of the door, more Mexicans broke in and the gunners now grabbed muskets, before being bayoneted to death around their gun. One of the men to fall alongside Dickinson was Francisco Esparza, his brother was a junior officer wearing a blue coat attacking the fort.

Also finding his life end at the tip of a bayonet was Jim Bowie, it is thought he had been given two handguns to fire on anyone who came into his room, however it is not known and some say he shot himself, whilst others believe he died fighting. Other men died in less honourable ways, possibly the last defender to die was Jacob Walker, he had fled to the Sacristy where the women and children were, hiding behind Susannah Dickinson (wife of the gun commander) he was found, dragged away a metre or so and bayoneted in front of the rest of the women and children. Around seven men of the garrison are believed to have survived the assault by surrendering. Santa Anna was outraged and ordered the surviving soldiers to be executed, it is believed by some that David Crockett was amongst those survivors to be executed.

As the dawns light crept over the battlefield it was clear that losses had been horrific, the Mexican dead were buried, the Texan dead were burned and their ashes are supposedly held in a coffin in San Fernando Cathedral, however it is more than likely they are buried elsewhere, Juan Seguin, who had left the Alamo to get more reinforcements, returned and claimed he had gathered the ashes together and buried them in a peach orchard, which has never been found. Only one of the defenders was allowed a proper burial, Gregorio Esparza was a member of the last gun battery to fall inside the Chapel, his brother wore a Mexican uniform that night, Francisco Esparza being an Officer in the Mexican Army. It is believed by many that Henry Warnell escaped the battle, he died of wounds a little later though, one man, Brigido Guerrero had defected from the Mexican Army and joined the defenders, when he saw the cause lost he locked himself in a room and claimed he was a prisoner of the Texans. By 6:30am the Battle of the Alamo was over, Mexican troops had suffered badly, around 50 to 75% of the number of assaulting troops had died, perhaps as many as 600 Mexicans, with the defenders numbers unknown for sure, anywhere from 150 to 300. Enraged Mexicans began bayoneting dead men, firing into dead bodies, calls by Mexican officers, even Santa Anna himself, could not stop the blood letting, it took fifteen minutes for the men to calm down, by then a few Mexicans had killed one another in the carnage and confusion.

It was a miracle anyone had survived, in fact it was a matter of inches that the women and children survived in the Sacristy, Texan defender Robert Evans was tasked with destroying the gunpowder stores in the event of the fall of the Alamo, his body was found dead with a lit torch in his hand inches away from a gunpowder trail leading the store room, if the gunpowder had exploded then hundreds more, including the women and children, would have died. As it was the women were now widows, and the children had lost their fathers. One civilian had been shot when Mexicans saw movement beneath a blanket and opened fire, they thought it was a Texan hiding, instead it was a child.

After the Alamo had fallen Santa Anna grouped his forces and pressed on, as news of the Alamo (and Johnston and Grants defeats) reached their ears many Texans became refugees, fleeing the barbarity of the Mexican Army. Sam Houston now reinstated as the head of all Texan forces commanded what remained of the Texan Army, they too fled with thousands of refugee’s and even the Texan Government, Houston ordered Fannin to leave Goliad, Fannin instead fought the Battle of Refugio where he lost, he then began his retreat to find Houston’s Army and link up with him, on his way his forces fought the Battle of Coleto, a disaster for Finnan as he and around 300 of his men were captured. The Mexican’s executed the prisoners, including Fannin, when news reached the rest of Texas it caused a bigger shock than the Alamo.

Almost every man, woman and child in Texas was fleeing with Houston, Santa Anna was hot on his heels with his blood thirsty army, something needed to be done, the Mexican’s had again split their forces in their pursuit, this was what Houston had been waiting to hear, he stopped his Army from running, and turned back to confront Santa Anna. The resulting Battle has gone down in legend. The Battle of San Jacinto lasted 18 minutes, the Texan’s, enraged by the massacre at Goliad and stirred by the calls from Sam Houston charged into the oncoming Mexican Army. 18 Minutes later and the Mexican Army was utterly destroyed, Sam Houston rousing his men with calls of “Remember the Alamo! Remember the Goliad!”

Santa Anna was captured, dressed in an ill fitting Sergeants coat he had tried to flee (again disputed), in return for his life Mexico would never rule in Texas, it wasn’t long before Texas became part of the United States of America, a state born in bloodshed, yet honoured because of the men who defended the Spanish mission in San Antonio de Bexar, where everyone remembers the Alamo.

I plan on writing a list of defenders and survivors of the Alamo, as well as a seperate post on the many ghostly stories associated with this enigmatic, and humbling location.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.

Bienvenue, L'Enfer!

(Welcome, to Hell!)

World War One, those three words which for us British capture images of men going over the top into a mass of mud and blood, many of the brave boys being mowed down by horrendous gunfire, scarred forever, if not physically then mentally. Grainy images in black and white, reporters making mock documentaries of the time, or filming the real death and sacrifice. Many people know it all started over the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, killed by Gavrilo Princip, a man who some describe as assassin, murderer, terrorist, whilst some say freedom fighter. As the Austro-Hungarians threatened Serbia over their involvement, Russia declared their alliance with Serbia, Germany jumped in and threatened Russia in defence of their ally, Russia's own allies, France and Britain then threatened Germany, after weeks of threats the talking stopped, the shooting, and the screaming, started. While its true these events took that course, it was not for want of trying that Britain, France and Germany found themselves fighting on mainland Europe. Germany's new expansion plans and empire building caused great concern to both France and Britain, mainly because the empire Germany created was at a detriment to both those great empires. Germany both loathed and lusted after the British Royal Navy, its own shipbuilding plans had gone from strength to strength but always Britains maritime Two-Power Rule would see them head and shoulders over any country, in fact the Two-Power Rule meant that Britains Navy would be as strong, if not stronger than any two navies in the world. German sailors spoke of the day of reckoning, when they would have the chance to confront, and defeat, the Royal Navy of Britain. They spoke about this from 1910, four years before World War One had started. In fact to call it World War One would be wrong, the combatants at the time called it the Great War, the war to end all wars (in fact during seances it is a good question to ask, if you can get some form of communication going ask the question "did you die in World War One", if the answer is yes then you have a problem because someone is faking something).

To us British the names of Gallipoli, the Somme, Jutland all may spring to mind, everyone knows the slaughter of a Great War battlefield, it is still a part of the GCSE at secondary schools across the country. Yet what about the Germans, and the French, what are their Gallipoli's, their Somme's. One word forever kept locked away in the back of their minds maybe the name of a small town on the River Meuse. Verdun. The town is often referred to as a City, but it is still a Town, in the department of the Meuse in the ancient province of Lorraine. In the Michelin guide to Verdun it states that it is 262km to Paris, 66km to Metz, Nancy 110km, Reims a little further at 116km. In February 1916 it was 18km from the German frontline. Back in 1914 the German armies swept into France and were eventually stopped just shy of Paris, the British and Germans fought a series of engagements to establish a line of trenches eventually running from Switzerland through France and across a tiny percentage of Belgium. In 1915 Germany defeated the Russians, who although still at war had no plans for any more attacks on Germany, thus the Germans now planned for a decisive breakthrough of the Western Front, but where to hit? The British Army was a strong force and would not budge, however they only held part of the front line from the Somme northwards. The French Army was massive, but if it could be concentrated into one place, a place where it would be forced to defend, a place where the Germans could "Bleed the French Army White" and "Knock Britains sword from her hand" then the chances of a German victory would be massive, it would without doubt win the war. Verdun created that opportunity, sitting on the Germans east bank of the Meuse it was an historically famous town, defended by a number of Forts on the surrounding hills, as well as a series of trench systems and command posts built between the Forts, Verdun might have seemed impregnable and it almost was. Almost. The Germans knew a few facts about Verdun, being on the East bank of the Meuse meant the French would have to cross the River to reinforce their lines, it also meant there were very few roads of re-supply open to the French, whilst for the Germans it meant they could supply Verdun easily with plenty of road and rail junctions heading that way. They also knew the French would not give up Verdun without a fight, without a slaughter.

The German planner in charge of devising the grand strategy was General Erich von Falkenhayn, whilst in overall charge of the troops going into battle would be Kaiser Wilhelm's own son, the Crown Prince Wilhelm. On the surface many would think he had attained this position because of his father, which could be partly true. However the Crown Prince was a very able soldier, remarkably amongst most Generals he was loved by his men, their love would be surely put to the test. The plans called for a massive Bombardment of French positions on the 12th February 1916, it was hoped the frozen ground would be suitable for the men going into battle, however the old saying is true, gods laugh when men make plans. On the 12th a sudden thaw turned rock hard ground into glutinous mud and stopped vital German reinforcements coming forward, the attack was postponed until later.

On the 21st it began, the Crown Prince gives us his own account, "Shortly before 8am on the 21st February the General commanding the Artillery, General Schnabel and the Corps Commanders received their instructions to open fire. In the clear winter air the thunder of the howitzers opened the chorus, which rapidly swelled to such a din that none of those who heard it had ever experienced hitherto".

The French Historian Jacques Péricard gives us a hint of the French take on the first phase, "The woods of Consenvoye, Étrayes, Crépion, Moirey, Hingrey, Le Bretuil, le petit de Gremilly, the forests of Mangiennes, and of Spincourt, the hillsides of Romagne, of Morimont, the woods of Tillale-Baty, seemed to be blowing a gale of flame without interruption. From now on the expression 'the bombardment of Verdun', will live on in the language of combatants to describe, not a rain of shells, but a hailstorm, a cataract."

The Germans captured the French forward trenches in the first stage of the fighting, a single French Regiment held on however, the 56th Chassuers led by a Colonel Emile Driant, their position was attacked repeatedly but they used the shell holes to good effect, rather than defending a line of trenches they took up positions where they could support one another in a defence in depth still used today by military tacticians. Driant led from the front, instilling in his men his own fortitude and charisma, his unit fought almost to the death, many of his men giving the ultimate sacrifice, on the second day as one of his men was wounded Emile Driant knelt down to pull a bandage from his pocket, a single machine gun bullet hit him in the head, killing him. The 56th's commanding officer also gave his life, but his courage allowed more French to escape the slaughter of the first few days, it gave them time to establish better defensive positions. The French had not put great trust in the Forts which surrounded Verdun, in 1914 the Belgian Forts had simply been blown apart by German high explosive shells, the French Forts were too bombarded, cracked, split open, but still the guns fired. They became havens to get out of the infantry killing artillery, Fort Douaumont was the most expensive and largest of them all, the Germans believed it to be a tough nut to crack and so made it a vital objective, a place where they themselves could rest out of the artillery fire coming back from the French. The French in fact had taken most of Douaumont's guns away, its garrison was small and its capture almost farcical. The German 24th Brandenburg Regiment was supposed to halt 750 yards from the Fort, wait for their own artillery bombardment to stop then attack. Instead part of the 24th Brandenburg kept going forward, one man named Sergeant Kunze led a party of troops edging forwards, expecting a machine gun to chatter its deadly echo and cut them all down, however nothing happened, and then a crash, an explosion and Kunze was thrown through the air as a German shell exploded near him, one miracle was that he was alive and un hurt, the second miracle was that he was close enough to the fort to realise that there was no one shooting at him from it. His men formed a human pyramid and he entered an open embrasure, he ventured inside, wondering where the French were, he quickly found them, a handful of 155mm Gunners (155mm is the size of the shell diameter used by a 155mm Gun) all being given a lecture in a single room, he quickly captured the lot of them and locked them up securely, he moved on, emboldened by the find of the French and their capture, he wanted to find more Frenchmen, instead he found a mess room full of food, so he tucked in and had a hearty meal. Upon leaving the mess room he stumbled into three German officers who had just gained entry themselves, for their actions Leutnant's (Lieutenant) Radtke and Brandis and Hauptman (Captain) Haupt and of course the courageous Sergeant Kunze were each lauded as heroes, Brandis and Haupt gained the Pour le Mérite, the highest award for heroism in the German army, Radtke only got a signed photograph of the Crown Prince whilst Kunze was given a promotion and sent back to Germany as a Police Inspector.

The loss of Douaumont was still a massive loss to French morale, so much so that when German aircraft dropped leaflets in Verdun saying that 'Douaumont has fallen, don't waste your lives for nothing' one French Lieutenant ran amok screaming "Sauve Qui Peut", effectively 'every man for himself'. The French General in charge, and who was responsible, was General Joseph Joffre, he was soon replaced after Douaumont by a man who would in 1916 steady the French nerve in the face of German attacks, General Phillipe Pétain. He saw the need for a better road linking Verdun with supply depots, to this end he had a massive labour corps, mostly made up of French Vietnamese labourers, to extend a road which quickly gained an immortal name, la Voie Sacrée, the Sacred Way. Further German attacks broke on French defences, Fort Vaux saw heavy fighting between both sides and a truly heroic defence by the French commanded by Commandant Raynal. Likewise the villages between the Forts were of strategic importance, bitter fighting surrounded these too, usually the loss of these villages was just as bad as the loss of a Fort, during this phase of fighting a French Captain was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp, his name was Captain Charles de Gaulle, later leader of France and the Free French forces during the Second World War he was captured at the village of Douaumont, while Fort Douaumont may have fallen without much of a fight, the village saw heavy fighting yet it still fell to the Germans who were exhausted by their attack. Now the second phase of the battle opened, and it came as just as much a surprise to the French as the first phase had been. On the Western side of the Meuse the Germans had held part of the ground, here they built up a massive amount of men ready to be hurled at the French, if they could strike south, cut off the French roads and supplies then most of the French inside Verdun would be lost. It was a bold move and if it succeeded it would have been a tragic blunder by the French.

This part of the battlefield was made up of a series of hills, Cote 304 overlooked another hill, one with a curious name. Le Mort Homme, in English it means "the dead man". Years before the war a dead man had been found on the hill, no one knew who he was and so the name had been used and had stuck. Now its name would be the grave for hundreds of men. As the Germans attacked these two hills they came under intense artillery fire, losses mounted but eventually the Germans took the hill, but it had bled them so much they could not go on and so they stopped in their tracks, the plan had begun to grind to a halt, with only one outcome. Many people taking tours around Verdun and in particular le Mort Homme, have looked to the sky when hearing the sound of an old aircraft, they see a replica of a German fighter trailing fire and smoke, it disappears behind the crest of Cote 304 and when asked about it none of the locals will tell you what it might be, "ghosts are an English phenomena" you might be told, and the aircraft is certainly a ghost. It is believed to have been the German Ace and tactical genius Oswald Boelke, who died in this area during the battle, though of course it could have been any of the hundreds who died not just on the ground, but up in the air in 1916. Verdun was described by the Crown Prince Wilhelm as "the Mill on the Meuse, which ground to dust the hearts as well as the bodies of our men". He was not wrong.

The French under General Phillipe Pétain gained a harder edge to their situation, he is reported to have said "ils ne passeront pas!" which means "They shall not pass!", however this was not actually recorded in those exact words, but never the less his men loved him, but it was at Verdun in its later stages that French discontent started to surface, in 1917 this led to open mutiny of the entire French army, but for now French troops were willing to defend Verdun from an almost unstoppable enemy. As if being ripped apart by artillery shells, mown down by machine gun bullets or gassed to death wasn?t bad enough, accidents too claimed many lives. On the 8th May around 650 German troops inside Fort Douaumont died in a massive accidental explosion, various accounts surround this event, most point to troops using fuses from Grenades to boil water for a cup of coffee, or perhaps a burner was lit too close to boxes of Grenades being kept inside the fort. What is known that a massive explosion ripped through the entire fort, exploding ammunition crates, boxes of Grenades and even a supply of Flame thrower tanks. So bad was the charnel house of destruction that the Germans, without being able to bring out the dead because they would be shot by the French doing so, had to block up a large section of the Fort, the section to this day is still blocked off and is seen as a shrine to the German dead of Verdun. Of course it is also a very haunted place, shadows in the darkness, grunts and crying have been seen and heard in this part of Douaumont.

The French were so emboldened by Pétain that they recaptured places lost in the first days of the Battle, even Fort Douaumont was re-claimed at a much bigger loss than it took defending the Fort, so had the German plans worked? Were the French bled white? Yes they were, the French lost a staggering total of around 377'000 dead, missing, wounded and taken prisoner, but one thing the Germans had not foreseen happened too, their own losses at Verdun were close to 337'000 dead, missing, wounded and prisoners. In total around a quarter of a million men died at Verdun, it is the biggest loss of life in any single Battle, in any conflict. In the summer of 1916 the British attacked the Germans at the Somme, a battle in which almost 20'000 British soldiers died in the first day with another 40'000 missing, wounded or taken prisoner, in just one day. By the end of the battle of the Somme in November Germany had lost another quarter of a million men as casualties, Germany had succeeded in bleeding France white, but had almost killed itself in the process too.

The French soldiers were all nicknamed Poilu, which meant "hairy one" denoting the common occurrence of French soldiers having beards (they saw it as a mark against their honour to shave in order to wear gas masks). After Verdun the Poilu were much more questioning of their officers, this led to mutiny in 1917, by then the USA was involved in the war, by 1918 the Germans knew they had one big last push to make before the American's brought too many men to France, they over extended themselves allowing the British to counter attack and win the war. But hundreds of thousands of men who are buried around Verdun never got the chance to take part in the victory or suffer the defeat of 1918, their sacrifice giving them a covering of earth and a cross for their name to be scribed upon, and that is if they are lucky.

Any person visiting Verdun today will no doubt take a tour and visit places such as Douaumont, Vaux, the lost villages which have never been rebuilt (yet still have mayors?) And of course the Ossuary, a massive monument built to oversee a cemetery of 15'000 burials, 15'000 crosses all looking back at the Ossuary, many people are staggered at that number, what many fail to realise is that the Ossuary itself houses another 130'000 missing mens bones. Verdun after the war still claimed casualties, even in the 1960's explosions would be heard coming from the surrounding countryside as old shells which had not exploded during the war are triggered off, somewhat sickeningly the last two people to die at Verdun were veterans of the battle, killed when a shell exploded beneath them as they camped in the countryside where they had fought many years before.

Is Verdun haunted? With so many dead it is inevitable, though if you ask a local they will rarely tell you so, "ghosts are an English phenomenon" is a popular saying on the continent, in fact some of my French, Dutch and German friends are shocked to hear that their local castle or town is haunted, although not a lot of things are reported at Verdun it is simply because not a lot has been looked into, ghostly sounds of battle, the screams of men, the shadows in the dark are all phenomena associated with any battlefield, where men have died for any ideal. No one wins a war, everyone loses, yet it was Plato who said it best

"only the dead, have seen the end of war."

CJ Linton.

Niagara Falls on the border of the United States and Canada is one of the best known holiday locations for people from around the world, many people take boat rides into the mist, some people are foolish enough to ride the rapids whilst a very select few instead choose to be cast over the falls in all manner of equipment, to take their lives into the hands of the surging unrelenting water as it cascades to the depths below. Today in the 21st century it is still just as awe inspiring and captivating as it has been for thousands of years, yet for a small piece of time people travelled to Niagara Falls not with the intention of pleasure or thrill seeking, but war, carnage and bloodlust. On the 25th July 1814 two opposing armies fought one another in a bloody battle for possession of a single hillside, a hill on which the locals had built their cemetery, a place of mourning the dead and remembering those they had lost. In 1814 the numbers of dead dwarfed those buried in their own quiet piece of earth, for at Lundy’s Lane the armies of American Major General Jacob Brown, and the British forces under the command of Lieutenant General George Drummond met in an escalating battle where both sides engaged and held one another in place whilst reinforcements came from far and wide to lend their support to what was a bloody battle, during a bloody, terrible war.

How had it come to this?

America, a newly free country, able to govern itself, able to make its own way in the world, had already defeated Britain and her vast Empire and now in 1812 the United States had declared war upon Britain, a Britain which was fighting a war with Napoleonic Europe. In fact there were lots of reasons, for one the British Royal Navy had press-ganged ex-British naval men in American ports, America and France were allies and trade between the two was giving Napoleon a lot of money with which to build his armies, therefore Britain stopped this (to a certain extent). As the American states pushed westward they encountered Amer-Indian tribes which had been supplied by the British to stop the spread of the American people into land which was not theirs, American forces raided parts of Canada to hold as bargaining chips, “if you let us trade with France you can have these parts of Canada back”, British diplomats time and time again showed outright disrespect for American officials. During the course of the inevitable war both sides invaded one another’s territories, Canada and the North-Eastern United States became battlegrounds where men fought one another, just as their fathers had each fought the same foes, American Bluecoats testing their mettle against British Redcoats. The war see-sawed back and forth from 1812 to 1815, at one point the British captured Washington and burned down the Presidents official residence, its blackened timbers still stood when the British left and so they simply painted the burned wood white, hence, the Whitehouse.

Yet in May 1814 Major General Brown launched his offensive across the Niagara River and into Canada, his first objective fell to a determined assault, Fort Erie was in American hands. Two days later one of his subordinates, Brigadier General Winfield Scott won the battle of Chippawa, the British were falling back to defensive positions but Brown was hot on their heels, at Fort George, near the mouth of the Niagara, the British waited for the attack, knowing the enemy were breathing hotly on the back of their necks. The attack never came. Brown needed more men, and bigger cannon to knock out the Forts defences, British Royal Naval ships controlled the waters of the nearby lakes and so no sea route could be taken for reinforcements, almost as soon as it had begun, Browns attack had been blunted. Browns men were in exposed positions and open to Canadian and Indian militia attacks, so he pulled his men back closer to Chippawa where reinforcements could get to him quicker and his men could better defend himself. No sooner had Brown reached Queenston, British Major General Phineas Riall advanced with British troops and artillery and occupied a small piece of land known as Lundy’s Lane.

On the 25th July Lieutenant General Drummond arrived at Fort George to take over the entire defence, his first orders were for more troops to move out of Fort George to shadow the Americans, who in turn wished the British to stay locked in their Fort until their own reinforcements arrived, the Americans it seems did not know that British Redcoats were in defensive positions at Lundy’s Lane, the position putting them directly on the Americans flank, a position which the British could use to devastating effect. Riall however ordered his troops back to Fort George, no sooner had his troops packed up and were about to leave than Drummond countermanded these orders and ordered them to stay put to threaten the American flank. Drummond force-marched a column of men to Lundy’s Lane with himself at its head, he hoped the Americans were still oblivious to their presence, but it appears they were not.

Just as the British began re-occupying their positions the Americans turned up in strength, British artillery held the high ground, about 25 metres higher than the surrounding countryside, inside a small cemetery. They had only a handful of cannon and around one thousand eight hundred men in total, almost the same amount of men as the Americans coming to take the position, however the Americans would be arriving piecemeal and not altogether. The Bluecoated troops had seen their British counterparts marching away, and must have been dismayed to break the tree lines and find them back in their places, bayonets bristling with a glinting death for each of them. Winfield Scott’s Brigade of around a thousand men attacked first, crossing open ground his men were hit hard by the British artillery fire, he ordered the 25th US Infantry Regiment to outflank the British, which they did after engaging British and Canadian troops belonging to the Light Company of the 8th (Kings own Foot Regt.) and the Upper Canada Incorporated Militia Battalion. The actions fought by the 25th US were confused because the British were only just getting organised and as British wounded had begun to retreat they were rounded up, one of them being Riall who had been injured in the arm. The Americans did not have the numbers to storm the hill, despite now virtually surrounding it. Drummond ordered his lines to fold inwards, consolidating his position as more Bluecoats could be seen in the distance. These belonged to Browns main army, and as night began to fall he threw his tired troops into the fray. The 1st US Infantry Regiment attacked the British Infantry, whilst the 21st Regiment swept up the hill to attack the artillery itself, the 21st Regiments commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Miller, when asked to take the guns replied “I’ll try sir”, a reply which became the motto for the 21st Regiment to this day. Browns first reinforcements belonged to the forces under Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley and Militia under Peter Porter, Scott extricated his men as these troops came forwards. Miller’s 21st US marched the rising hillside suffering fire from the artillery, 30 paces from which they stopped, loaded, fired their muskets and killed most of the British artillerymen (who also wore blue), then they charged forwards and captured the guns, immediately Drummond ordered they be retaken, to lose artillery in battle is a severe battering to the morale of a man, especially if those guns start firing at you. The 21st beat off a quick attack by the British 2nd Battalion 89th Regiment, with the help of more regular US reinforcements. Darkness had fallen and the battlefield became a tangle of broken Regiments, broken units and broken men.

British reinforcements from Fort George, under the command of Colonel Hercules Scott, entered the battlefield and ran straight into Ripley’s Brigade, became disorganised and were forced backwards, leaving another three guns temporarily in the possession of the Americans. Drummond was furious, his first day in hs new job and his entire force was a shambles, he organised a battle line and pointed to the top of the hill, his neck had been caught by a musket ball earlier and his jacket was stained with his own blood. His orders were not subtle, no skirmishers were sent out to try and find any American weakpoints, it was simply fix bayonets and forward arms!

The Americans had been trying to organise some of their own artillery into position with the captured British pieces, this they had failed to do when the British infantry screamed its warnings as it came nearer, in the darkness both sides came closer to one another than normal, a Redcoated British line faced off against a Bluecoated American line and both sides fired shot after shot into one another, the British Glengarry Light Infantry moved forwards to harass the Americans, however in the darkness the British mistook them for the enemy and they suffered appaling casualties, as much by their own side as the enemy. The Glengarry fell back and soon so did the entire British line, not halting until the shooting had stopped, safe in the tree lines at the base of the hill. Little time was spent on resting and recuperating, Drummond gathered his officers together once more and pointed to the crest of the hill, again the cheers went up, faces blackened by powder burns, throats coarse with the lack of water and the tang of the gunpowder cartridges all turned towards the hill and swept upwards in a seething mass of men intent on ending the day at the top, either dead or live with victory. The Americans waited once more, Winfield Scott had cobbled together the remains of his men and now used them to counter-attack the British without any orders from Brown. The Americans on the hill could not see who they were firing at and because they had not been told of Scott’s gamble they fired and fired and fired and kept doing so until ordered to stop. Many of Winfield Scott’s men fell with American musket ball wounds in them, the attack had worked, the British were thrown back in disorder, but Winfield Scott’s men were practically wiped out and spent.

Drummond once more, feeling faint at the day’s exertions and his own loss of blood, pointed his sword at the hills top. His men followed him once more, the third and last time they charged that day, by now the Redcoated horde were all mixed up, units intermingled with one another, men screaming in English, Irish, Scotch and Canadian. Every man able to walk or stumble rolled up the blood slicked hillside into ragged volleys of fire from the American infantry, who were just as miserable, thirsty and exhausted as their foes. Drummond pushed his men on and on, the Americans reloading and firing again and again, the smoke, smelling of rotten eggs from the sulphur in the gunpowder, would have hung on the midnight air, the flashes of the muzzles the only indication of the enemy line. The British third attack stumbled and shoved its way to the top of the hill and the weary, devastated, men of both sides had to resort to bayonets to beat away their opponents. Again it was the British who were spent, they fell back in as good an order as they could and regrouped at the foot of the hill, Drummond knowing the day was over and he could not order his battered command up the hill again.

As dawn broke the scene would have been appalling, in total both sides lost around 350 men killed and another 1,200 badly wounded, with another 250 missing presumed dead. Brown and Winfield Scott were both badly wounded, Drummond and Riall too. The Americans took their new guns back to Fort Erie while the British fell back to Fort George, after wards Drummond came under criticism for his lack of tactical ability, why had he not defended his guns with skirmishers, then during the counter-attacks why had he not deployed skirmishers to find weak points and harass the enemy, the war went on for two years, at the end neither side one, they had simply had enough. The hillside on which both sides shed so much blood in 1814 was quickly renamed Drummond Hill, and it is no stroke of fiction to describe it as one of Canada’s most haunted Battlefields.

Close to the church on Drummond Hill there stands some houses, it is said that people sitting in these houses have seen Redcoated soldiers marching outside, when the witness reaches their front door they see and empty road beneath a bright moon. It is also no surprise to find that many pictures of Orbs have been caught at this location, though of course water moisture in the air would be my first port of call when it comes to explanations, perhaps one or two of them are genuine. Lundy’s Lane is now part of the city of Niagara and like many battlefields its features are being built over, these building projects disturb the ground where the British were buried (the Americans were burned in massive funeral pyres) so there is no doubt that the ghosts of long ago have a reason to still march up the hillsides on certain nights. Not only that but both sides claimed victory in this bloody contest, in fact before the American Civil War many tourists came to walk around the site, those from Britain or Canada would end their tour looking at a St George’s flag whilst the American tourists ended their tour by overseeing the stars and stripes. Drummond Hill and the cemetery are still there and always will be, as will the ghosts of those brave boys long ago, wearing the Blue and the Red.

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.

During the English Civil War Chester was the scene of battle and bloodshed, with two sieges

occurring, the second of which went on for six months. The Royalists defending the City knew they

would receive no quarter from their enemy. During the wars there were many cases of barbarity to the

local populace committed by both sides, places like Bolton and Leicester suffered horribly at the

hands of their own countrymen, and if Chester had fallen to the Parliamentarians then the city would

have suffered a similar fate. At a section of the City’s walls stands Morgan’s Mount, an earthwork

defence which would have been built by the citizens of Chester to defend their homes, on top was

stationed a gun commanded by a Captain Morgan, hence the name of the location as Morgan Mount.

It could be his spirit which ahs been seen on regular occasions atop the mount, what is known is that

there is a gentlemen dressed in the clothes of the time, however to call one side Cavalier and the

other Roundhead would be wrong for in peacetime both sides dressed very similar, and in wartime

both dressed the same too. So it is a mystery as to who this gentleman is, he could be a local

merchant who died during the siege, suffering from malnutrition or some disease. Or he could be the

unfortunate Captain Morgan, forever watching over the city which he defended all those years ago.

CJ Linton.

Culloden Moor 1746

In the late morning of the 16th April 1746 a Jacobite Army commanded by General George Murray fighting for Prince Charles Edward Louis John Severino Mario Stuart stood ready to charge into the teeth of its enemies guns. Fathers stood with sons and some even with their grandsons. Not all the men present were there out of nationalist fervour however, as the reverend James Robertson of Ross-shire wrote "I saw boys dragged from their plows, one young man tried to make a run for it but was overtaken by speed of foot, once informed he had just joined the Jacobite cause he stated he would rather die than join the rebellion, the Highlanders then clubbed him across the head with their muskets and took him away all bleeding", however some whole villages had sent every man available to fight against a red coated army of Government troops who were also commanded by a Prince, the Duke of Cumberland, Prince William Augustus. Son of George II of Britain. His ascension to the throne was part of the result of the Glorious Revolution in the late 1600's, where Catholic James II had been ousted by the Government who planted Protestant William of Orange and his wife Queen Anne on the throne, they had no children so they had George of Hanover crowned . After over 100 years of civil wars and rivals for the throne it had all come down to this day, this final cataclysmic crash of steel and blood in which the future of every living Briton swung in the balance.

This last phase of fighting saw the return to Britain of a foreign Prince. Charles Stuart had been born in Bologna near Rome, Italy, in 1720. His father fed his dreams with the glory of the Stuarts, and of the nightmares of failure. James II had seen his own hopes crushed in rebellion after rebellion and now turned to his son James III known as the pretender to restore his family name to that of King of England and all of its dominions, however James III was not to succeed and so wanted his son to help him become King. Charles needed help and he was to find it in the court of the French who promised ships, men, arms and money for Charles to start a war in Scotland. The French were having trouble with the English in Holland where the Protestant Dutch and the Protestant English were beating back the French time and again. Just as in the 100 years war the French planned to open up another front North of the English / Scottish Border. Charles set off from Belle Isle with two ships, one had gold and arms, the other had the troops. Unfortunately the English Cruiser HMS Lion spotted the two ships and attacked the larger of the two French vessels, both the English and the French Troop ship were badly mauled in the ensuing fight, both limped back to their home ports. Charles now had no troops to land in Scotland with, he would have to rely on his Scottish allies to bear the brunt of the fight to come.

Charles landed at Loch nan Uamh, Eriskay, on the 5th July 1745 with a grand total of Seven supporters, the local Lord told him to go home his reply was "I am come home". The ship which brought him to Scotland was called the Doutelle , skippered by Antoine Walsh. His grandfather was Philip Walsh, the Captain who had taken Prince Charles? own grandfather James II into exile from his defeat in Ireland in 1690. He raised the standard at Glenfinnan in hope of the local clans coming to his aid. And they did but only at a trickle, the Government knew exactly what was going on but its main army was off overseas fighting against the French all over the world, from North America to India. The Commander of the Government troops in the north of Scotland, Sir John Cope, had little more that two and a half battalions at his disposal, and those were distributed throughout the many castles in Scotland. What little forces he could muster met with defeat at the battle of Prestonpans on the 21st September 1745. Jacobite forces swelled after this victory and Charles promised them more glory, on their march to London.

At Prestonpans the Jacobites had won by sheer luck, firstly they had marched throughout the night to get around the rear of the Government troops. This had not worked exactly to plan, the Jacobite forces split into two groups unintentionally, however this meant that when they charged the two groups hit the Government line at its weakest points. Its flanks were protected by Dragoons, mounted Infantry, the Jacobites hit the two flanks at roughly the same time and the men on horseback kicked back their heels and took flight, leaving the Infantry in the centre pointing their muskets at an empty cornfield, but with Scottish Clansmen hacking away at their flanks. These men too fled but many were caught trapped against a walled enclosure of a large estate building called Preston House. The slaughter was immense and little quarter was given.

With Cope defeated the Jacobites were in the mood now for Invasion. The French promised more troops (some had arrived, Irish troops in French Regiments had volunteered for a Jacobite Unit called the Roi-Eccosois, or Royal Scots). And the French even planned an invasion of the Thames area in 1745. Charles promised more however, he said that the North of England would rise up against the Government if the Scottish would invade and so they did. By the 15th November they had taken Carlisle, on the 28th they stood outside Manchester. All except one Sergeant called John Dixon, his Girlfriend and a twelve year old drummer boy. Getting lost in the night they entered Manchester and the towns garrison of Government troops surrendered to this solitary Jacobite soldier. By the 5th of December Derby had fallen, but then disaster struck. A spy in the service of the Government told the Jacobites that he was a volunteer and he had just come from London where a massive army was waiting to pounce upon them. Not only this but Government forces had landed troops at Newcastle to catch the Scots in a massive pincer movement. This was all lies however as the majority of Government troops were still in Holland, in fact at Newcastle the only troops were Dutch who were obliged by the rules of their pardon not to fight against the French and so could not march away from Newcastle at all.

The Jacobite commanders argued that Charles had led them astray, not many volunteers had volunteered for the Stuarts? cause south of the border, a hundred or so had volunteered from Manchester, whilst only three had done so in Derby. Worse than that no French Invasion had taken place in the south, but unknown to them the French were loading the boats to invade. The Jacobites turned back for home on the 6th December, when the French heard of this they abandoned their own invasion plans. All because of one Spy. James Bond eat your heart out. On the 18th December a small Government force of Dragoons sent to shadow the Jacobites home came into contact with the Jacobite rearguard at Clifton in Cumbria (another haunted battlefield). By the 20th the Scots and their French, Irish and very few English allies crossed the border back into Scotland.

In January the Jacobites met another Government army, another scratch force of Redcoats, at the Battle of Falkirk on the 17th. Both sides lost heavily but the Jacobite threat remained. More volunteers turned up every day, but some also left. While all the time Government forces were building and training too. At Prestonpans survivors told how they had fled before the Jacobites wild Highland charge. The new commander, the Duke of Cumberland trained his men to fight as a unit, instead of attacking the man directly ahead the Redcoats were told to strike for the man 45 degrees to their right. This was based upon the fact that as a Jacobite soldier makes contact he first sweeps away his opponents Bayonet with his targe (small shield) then in an overhand cut brings his claymore sword down onto the undefended redcoat. As he raises his right hand to deliver this blow his entire right flank from hip to arm-pit is unprotected and so makes the ideal place to hit with the Bayonet. Historians have always said that this tactic won the following battle of Culloden but I disagree in part. Firstly it would mean the Jacobites would have to charge in a single long line abreast for the tactic to work en masse, but they didn?t. They would engage as fast as their legs would carry them. Unco-ordinated and uncontrollable. The only reason I think it helped is because it gave the Government soldier the confidence to stand and fight, not to run away and be slaughtered.

Over the first few months of 1746 both sides made for the north of Scotland, the Jacobites held Inverness and stocked it full of supplies. The Government troops took Aberdeen and did the same. Then in April they sought to out manouevre the other. On the 15th April the Government troops encamped near Nairn. The Jacobites camped close by Culloden Park Estate. But they were not there long. The Jacobite commander, Lord George Murray, was persuaded to a night march to attack the Government troops, much the same as had happened at Prestonpans. However it was a shambles. As dawn was breaking only half the Army had reached its starting points, the other half commanded by Murray had gone back to their camp. Murray had not even told the rest of the army he had sent his men back. Government soldiers woke up to find the Jacobites on the march, but not marching towards them. They were marching back to Culloden. Orders were issued and men dressed their ranks and marched off to give battle. This force was mostly English who fought for the Government, though quite a lot were Scotsmen, three whole Regiments were 100% Scottish, more men than the whole of the Jacobite Army. These Government troops had been brought back from Holland to sort out Bonnie Prince Charlie once and for all.

As the Jacobites formed up for battle the McDonald clan were dismayed to find that the most honourable position (the right wing) had been taken up by the Atholl Regiment, Murray?s own men. The McDonald?s had fought as the right wing in every major Scottish battle since Bannockburn 400 years earlier. The McDonald?s were pushed out to the left, in the centre were the Mackintosh?s, Lovats and Stewart?s of Ardsheals. On the right were the Regiments of Locheil and the Brigade of Lord Atholl. Opposite them Government troops marched in unison to form their three lines of regiments. At this time they were named both by number but also their Colonels name, for example the 20th Foot were also known as Bligh?s Foot. The ground in between was not good for the Jacobites, at Prestonpans they had a clear field of corn-stubble to cross with the odd coal mound or slag heap from the small industrial estate as well as a wooden railway line (which a few men tripped over).

But here at Culloden it was not the same, in the north where the McDonald?s had the furthest to go there were large boggy areas, whilst in the south there was a wall in the way and so the Atholl men would run into Locheil?s men in the charge to come. The French Ambassador, the Marquis d?Eguilles went down on his knees and begged Prince Charles not to order an attack. Both sides now employed their artillery, which the Jacobites had very few pieces of, and even then there were few artillerymen to cause effective casualties on the red-coated lines facing them. The Government troops however had a lot of artillery and the men manning the guns were the best in the world. In the Infantry and Cavalry a man was promoted if he could afford to do so, in the Artillery it was done purely on merit. The Artillery barrage may have only lasted five to ten minutes and may not have caused that many casualties but it would have stirred the Jacobites into activity. As in all Civil Conflicts families often were split between both sides, Lord Kilmarnock commanded one of the Prince?s second rank regiments, while his son stood wearing a red coat across the moor. Also split were the McIan family, "old" McIan was chief of the Chisholms, his youngest son, Roderick Og, led the clan for the Prince, whilst his other two sons, John and James, were officers in the Royal Scots regiment standing just in front of the Duke of Cumberland. The commander of each Jacobite Regiment would have been on horseback so the troops could see where to stand, as they were still doing this the leader of the Monaltrie Regiment was killed. A cannonball hit him in the back and burst from his stomach, nearly cutting him in two. For moments he sat on his horse with his own guts across the horse?s back, then the horse bolted and the top half of him fell to the ground whilst his legs stayed on the horse and were found to be still on the horses back days later. His own two grandsons and two sons witnessed this, and in fact went into battle covered in his blood.

The first Jacobite troops to charge were Lady Mackintosh?s Regiment in the centre, they did so without orders and so must have taken casualties for the Jacobites to be stung enough to charge forwards, orders to charge had been issued but in the bombardment Charles? courier had been killed. At the south of the line Atholl and Locheil had 500 metres to cross before hitting the redcoats, in the north the McDonald regiments had 700 metres to cross. At 300m range the Government artillery tuned from roundshot cannonballs to Cannister Grapeshot. Small cartridges packed with seventy musketballs would burst forth from the mouths of the Government Cannon in massive shot-gun like explosions. The results were devastating. Because Atholl and Locheil?s men had to cross one another?s paths they had to slow down and took a bad mauling from the artillery as they did. In the north the McDonald?s were slowed down by the boggy ground (water up to the waist in some parts) and too took a heavy toll. The majority of the Grapeshot found by archaeologists however is in the south, where the ground was best for an assault and from where the charge had begun. Very few of Lady Mackintosh?s Regiment made it to the next phase of the charge.

At 100m range the Infantry opened fire, after the first massive salvo the front rank of Redcoats stood with bayonets fixed at the enemy ready to receive the charge whilst their colleagues behind kept up the rate of fire. Also at this distance the Clansmen stopped running and swung up their own muskets and fired their single volley, throwing down their musket and drawing their swords ready for the final sprint, teeth snarling, eyes glaring and cursing the Government troops in ancient Gaelic languages. In the North the McDonald?s had not even reached halfway, in the centre the Jacobites had been decimated. But in the south, partly protected by the wall and with a more assured footing on drier ground the Atholl Brigade and the Locheil Regiment came on and on to hit the Government line at its southern point.

Barrel?s 4th Foot bore the brunt of this assault, each soldier had bullet cartridges, these cartridges had a bullet at one end and gunpowder at the other, the infantryman bit off the bullet and held it in his mouth, then poured the gunpowder down the barrel, followed by the paper to act as wadding, then he spat the bullet down the muzzle finally ramming it to the bottom. He had to do this three times a minute, by the time the Jacobites were on Barrels men the soldiers would have fired thirty times. Now it was the butchers job, messy, sticky and very bloody. Cut and thrust, jab and poke. The ground would be slippy with blood, wounded men and boys would be screaming and cursing as they died slowly, trampled by their friends and family still fighting around them. Barrels 4th Foot did not break, but it sure did buckle, the Jacobites smashed into the rear ranks of the 4th and pushed on, Captain Lord Robert Kerr of the 4th was cleft from Crown to collar bone by Gillies McBean of the MacIntosh Regiment. Barrels commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rich tried to save his Regiments colours (Flags), his left hand was cut off and his right arm taken off at the elbow, he also received six cuts to the head and survived! Reinforcements were rushed from the second line of Government troops and surrounded the Highlanders on three sides pouring bullet after bullet into the mass of tartan clad men. The battle had only lasted maybe twenty minutes to half an hour and it was already lost for Prince Charles, he ordered a general retreat. The McDonald?s had only just got to firing positions when they began to stream back, pursued by Government Dragoons. Locheil and Atholl?s men began to retreat, many could not, if they turned they would die anyway. The Roi-Eccosois stood in the centre and kept up a steady rate of fire, as their Red-coated counterparts were hammering away at them too. The Roi-Eccosois were the only regular infantry in the Jacobite force, wearing uniforms like the Government army except they had blue coats and blue bonnets. Many of these men were Irish who had gone to France to fight the English in Holland and now they found themselves in the Highlands of Scotland, fighting a mixed force of Scots and English, for a lost cause.

As the Jacobite charge had floundered the Government commander had sent a force of Dragoons and Loyalist Highlanders (commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Campbell of Mamore) through the walled up fields to the south and around the Jacobite flank, as the Atholl and Locheil men fled they were attacked by these forces from the side, the Roi-Eccosois fought a hard skirmish with these troops as they too had to pull back, many were captured and most of the Irish were killed. The French in the Regiment were sent to prison. The retreat turned into a rout and the cause was lost forever, Charles eventually went back to Italy and died a grumpy alcoholic in 1788. Murray and a lot of the Jacobite clansmen went back to Loch nan Uamh were they found French ships and £35'000. They decided to continue the fighting in the Highlands. Prince William did not want to follow the clansmen into the Highlands but he was ordered to do so by Government and over the next 30 years the clan system was effectively wiped out by the Government. Scottish Clansmen would join the British Army (or starve) and fight all over the world, their tactics were used to great effect in the wars of the late 18th and early 19th century. Culloden was the last major Battle fought on British soil, it kept the King on his throne and meant that Britain could be truly united in its wars against the French to come.

Paranormal History of Culloden.

In July 1974 men clearing trees away were shocked to see an eight foot tall man dressed in Jacobite clothing resting on his massive sword. He turned to them and said "defeated" then vanished. This figure has been seen all over the battlefield and is the most common known phenomena at Culloden.

Close to Leanach Farm there used to stand a barn which, legend has it, was used to house wounded Jacobites after the battle. Government forces burned it to the ground with the Jacobites still inside. Wether this story is true or not red lights have been seen dancing around close to the ground near to the farm where the red-barn is thought to have stood.

During the night march before the battle a Jacobite Commander riding his horse saw coming out of the ground a massive black raven with no eyes, it flew from out of the ground straight into the air and vanished. He took this to be a bad omen and indeed it was, he died the next day. This Bird has been seen many times since.

In the Car Park area sounds of Battle have been heard and the figure of the Eight Foot tall Jacobite have been seen. Also the Black Raven has been seen here too. There is a strange AA Guide to car-parks which states that Culloden?s car-park is the scariest.

The Battlefield has changed a little since 1746. Most of the stone walls have gone to the south, in the north the ground is still boggy. In 1746 the ground was used by tenant farmers for their cattle to feed and so mostly it would have been low grass covered land, now though it is heather covered with shrubs here and there. During the early 1900's the whole area was forested but most of this has been taken away to allow people to look around the battlefield. In the early 2000's an Archaeological dig for a TV Show called "Two Men in a Trench" discovered that the group of stones close to Leanach Farm is not the site of the Red Barn, it is natural stone simply coming up from the ground.

This is an article I wrote for Paranormal Magazine in October 2007

In August 1919 Pearson’s Magazine printed a story concerning a report credited to Captain W.E. Newcome of the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. His unit had been sent from Loos northwards to a place called Albert, this happened at the end of October 1916 where the fighting was still raging from the Somme Offensive of the 1st July, a battle which saw in the first day 20'000 dead English. Commonwealth and French troops. From July to the end of November the Allies tried time and time again to drive a wedge through the German lines but failed miserably as the rains started to fall and turn the dry shell-riddled fields into a morass of glutenous mud which was just as deadly as the dreaded gas attacks. The 2nd Battalion was sent straight into this hell hole and on the 5th of November something strange happened to the men of this Battalion. Captain Newcome was holding a part of the line against German counter-attacks, he had very few men to lead as they were coming to the end of their stint on the front line, very soon they would be going back for reinforcement and rest. At midnight on the 4th -5th of November the Germans tried to re-take their trenches with a small probing attack, easily repulsed by British rifle fire (the best in the world even in 1916), however a little later the Germans came back en masse, but before the Suffolk’s were overwhelmed a ghost appeared before the lines, a single spirit being, although the witnesses (including Newcome’s official report) described it as being a brilliant white light they also said it wore an older style of service uniform. The spectral figure rose as if from out of the ground and walked along the front of the trenches for about one thousand yards, then stopped, turned and looked towards the Germans (who by now had become fixated on its presence too) then turned and looked at the British manning the trenches, with it still being early morning the British were firing flares onto no-mans-land to illuminate the Germans, each time a flare passed close to this ghost it seemed to stand out more prominently. Red flares were fired signalling Artillery help and soon British shells were falling on no-mans-land. And not before long the German attack was beaten off, and the Ghost had disappeared too. Some of the eye witnesses claimed that it bore a certain resemblance to Field Marshal Lord Kitchener who had created a "New Army", this army had first seen major action as part of the Somme Offensive, Kitchener, Lord of Khartoum (the troops called him K-of-K) died on the 5th June 1916 whilst en route to Russia his ship HMS Hampshire, struck a mine and sank, he never saw his troops go into action, or did he?

The main thing which makes this story stand out from the others is that the officer who witnessed it left us his name and his unit identification, so was there a Captain Newcome? Yes there was, a Scot by birth he had moved to Suffolk at the age of ten and joined up in 1914 just a week before Gavrilo Princip shot dead the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand. Was there a Regiment from Suffolk, yes again, throughout WW1 they had 2 Battalions in the Regular Army pre-war, another three were formed for Kitcheners Army and another 8 Battalions as Territorial Battalions. Did they fight at the Battle of the Somme, yes again.

However, could the soldiers all have seen something else, perhaps a mass hallucination? I suppose it is perfectly possible, the soldiers were right at the end of their stay on the front line and would have been extremely stressed and tired, the perfect conditions for hallucinations (without drugs that is). Either way, it’s a good story.

Other stories are even more astounding, another Officer called William M. Speight had seen a phantom figure in his dug-out one night, the next evening he invited another officer to witness the strange spectre, sure enough the two of them witnessed the spirit of a British Officer walking around in the dugout, then he stopped pacing and pointed to the floor, Speight gathered a party of engineers to take apart the floor boards, then sent for miners to dig down a few feet to see if something was underneath the soil, thinking perhaps this dead officer had buried something valuable and maybe wanted it sending home, but what the miners uncovered was something of far greater importance, it was a Mine, a German one filled with High Explosives and a timer timed to go off in 13 Hours time, the Engineers came back and defused the explosives and took them away, no doubt to be used in a British Mine somewhere else.

One story which holds some credence was that of an anonymous Lieutenant who on the 27th August was leading his men forwards towards the front, where they passed "Squadron after Squadron of French Cuirassiers, wearing their bright polished Cuirass (metal Breastplate) and their Blue uniforms, all about them seemed to shine and they made no sound at all as we marched past" at the time the French Cavalry did still wear these kinds of uniforms, though not for fighting, but they did 100 years before for Napoleon, could this anonymous Lieutenant have seen the ghosts of French Cavalry from a century before? A few days later he sought out his commanding officer to tell him about the Cavalry, suggesting they blacken their armour lest they be shot by a German for being so shiny, his Commanding officer told him straight that all French Cavalry was fighting much further south (the Germans were almost overrunning Paris at the time) and he must have been seeing things. Unfortunately like a lot of these stories the witnesses leave out their names so finding wether Lieutenant such and such was real is very hard to do.

Poets seemed to be associated with the spirit world in France at the time of WW1, here are two stories that relate to firstly Wilfred Owen and secondly Robert Graves.

"I had gone down to my cabin thinking to write some letters, I drew aside the door curtain and stepped inside to my amazement I saw Wilfred sitting in my chair. I felt shock run through me with appalling force and with it I could feel the blood draining away from my face. I did not rush towards him but walked jerkily into the cabin - all my limbs stiff and slow to respond. I did not sit down but looking at him I spoke quietly : " Wilfred how did you get here? " he did not rise and I saw that he was Involuntary immobile, but his eyes which had never left mine were alive with the familiar look of trying to make me understand; when I spoke his whole face broke down into his sweetest and most endearing dark smile. I felt no fear - I had not when I first opened my door curtain and saw him there; only exquisite mental pleasure at thus beholding him. All I was conscious of was a sensation of enormous shock and profound astonishment that he should be here in my cabin. I spoke again " Wilfred dear, how can you be here, its just not possible..." But still he did not speak but only smiled his most gentle smile. This not speaking did not now as it had done at first seem strange or even unnatural; it was not only in some inexplicable way seem perfectly natural but radiated a quality which made his presence somehow right and in no way somehow out of the ordinary. I loved having him there; I could not and did not try to understand how he had got there. I was content to accept him, the meeting in itself was complete and strangely perfect. He was in uniform and I remember thinking how out of place his Khaki looked amongst my cabin furnishings. With this thought I must have turned my eyes away from him; when I looked back my cabin chair was empty... I felt the blood run slowly back to my face and looseness into my limbs and with these an overpowering sense of emptiness and absolute loss... I wondered if I had been dreaming, but looking down I saw that I was still standing. Suddenly I felt terribly tired and moving to my bunk I lay down; instantly I fell into a deep and oblivious sleep. When I woke I knew with absolute certainty that Wilfred was dead.

This was written by Harold Owen, a Naval officer aboard his ship at Scarpa Flow in the Orkney Islands, he had his vision on the day peace was declared, the 11th November, his brother, the poet Wilfred Owen, had been dead a week and he would not have had the news by then.

The poet Robert Graves was the witness in the next story, in his memoirs he recalls that...

"I saw a ghost at Bethune. He was a man called Private Challenor who had been at Lancaster with me and again at F Company in Wrexham. When he went out with First Battalion he shook my hand and said " I’ll meet you again in France Sir " he was killed in Festubert in May and in June he passed by our C Company billet where we were just having a special dinner to celebrate our safe return from Cuinchy... Challoner looked in through the window, saluted and walked away. There was no mistaking him, or the cap badge he was wearing. There was no Royal Welch Battalions billeted within miles of Bethune at the time. I jumped up and looked out of the window, but saw nothing except a fag end smoking on the pavement. Ghosts were numerous in France at the time."

When asked a few years later about what he perceived ghosts to be he replied.

" I think one should accept Ghosts very much like one accepts fire - a common but equally mysterious phenomenon. What is fire? It is not really an element, not a principle of motion, not a living creature - not even disease, though a house can catch it from its neighbours. It is an event rather than a thing or creature. Ghosts, similarly, seem to be events rather than things or creatures "

Makes you think... wether the Ghostbusters were onto something when they made an old Fire Station as their HQ

The most famous of all paranormal stories associated with the horrors of WW1 is the following, known universally as, The Angel of Mons.

On the 14th of September 1914 there appeared an unusual story in the London Evening News, written by Arthur Machen. The Author had already written many supernatural stories and was a one time member of the Mystical Society , The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Story was titled "The Bowmen" and told by implication, not explicit description, that St George and a host of ethereal Medieval Archers, came to the aid of beleaguered British troops fighting at Mons and helped them repel German attacks. Machen made no promise of fact to the story and stated quite a number of times that it was fiction, however the editors of The Occult Review and Light, two supernatural publications printed at the time, made their own enquiries about this strange manifestation. Several Parish magazines up and down the country sought permission to re-print the article and a fierce argument started when a clergyman actually stated that the story was genuine, claiming that Mr Machen’s plea that it was false was not true, not only this but the ghosts were not those of long dead English bowmen but Archangels sent down to earth to defeat the Hun! Machen replied that he had started "a Snowball of rumour which had grown to a monstrous size". A Miss Phyllis Campbell contributed an article in the Occult Review in August 1915 stating that "everyone who had fought between Mons and Ypres had seen them", Machen replied to her stating that if it were so then there would be at least one eye witness account to come from the front, instead all of the articles concerning the Angels of Mons were anonymous, was it through fear of ridicule or was it all made up? The story of the Angels of Mons does not end with an argument in Britain, the Reverend C. M. Chavasse, whose own brother won two Victoria Crosses, posed a serious question: was Machen correct in his recollection that the story of all a figment of his own imagination, or had it been influenced by reports such as the ghostly Cavalry? A Grandson of an employee of Mr Machen claimed after the war that it was from him that Machen acquired the story, and that it was genuine. Not only this but the man was well known for being a hard drinker, after his sighting at Mons he became tee-total and a local pillar of his community. Another confirmation of some kind of strange sighting came during the Allied counter-offensive in 1918, a German dug-out was captured further south by American troops, inside was a luggage box of diaries taken from dead German officers throughout the war, inside the diary of a Hauptmann (Captain) Karl Herlisch he wrote about joining the army as a student in 1914, after a little training he was sent straight to Mons to fight the British there, as his men attacked one day he was sending reinforcements to his firing line, when himself and about a dozen of his reserves saw a strange sight, in the area of the British firing line there was a brilliant light, two large clouds of white, nothing but white, started to rise from the ground and took on the forms of two men, with their arms stretched upwards these bright white clouds descended up into the sky. The men around him all made the sign of the cross and they were very reluctant to go forwards. Hauptmann Herlisch was killed in the Somme in 1916 and so cannot verify what he saw that day. Me personally I believe that something strange was seen that day, a ghostly re-enactment of some long lost event perhaps? The only trouble is that all of the English reports are anonymous and some of them are very unbelievable, such as the reports of German soldiers seen dead with arrows protruding from them. The report of Hauptmann Herlisch may also be false, he may not have existed at all and his diary may have been a fake, after the war people made money from things brought back from France, such as fake Iron Crosses, fake German Pickelhaube helmets and fake documents such as diary’s.

The reasons for the amount of carnage witnessed during the "Great War" today would seem barbaric, yet the bravery of the men and boys of all nations should never be forgotten, whatever their cause, their colour or religion. To die before your time is not just a waste of life, but a waste of all the things which matter to everyone, the essence of being, love, honour, charity. Thank you for reading this, I am no advocate for war, I get asked a fair bit if I’ve ever been in the army, I always reply "No, instead of being a hero, I’d rather talk about heroes".

Thank you for your time.

CJ Linton.

THE BATTLE OF TOWTON 1461

The Key Players: