Legends of the Broadsword:
The Broadsword in the New World
June, 1741- a party of grenadiers, the elite of the invading Spanish army, advances along a narrow road beside a marsh. They have already fought and defeated the British forces, and are now pursuing their beaten foe through the trees. Losing sight of the fleeing enemy they sit down for lunch, stacking their weapons nearby with total confidence.
From the forest on either end of their line, two broadswords are raised. From each broadsword hangs a Highland bonnet, the signal for an ambush. Before the Spanish grenadiers can get to their weapons, they are already dying. Volleys of musket-fire at nearly point-blank range, followed by a terrifying war cry and the flashing of claymores, as the clansmen charge in to finish the rout. The grenadiers break and run, but not many of them make it out. One hundred and sixty Spanish soldiers are either cut down or gunned down in the "Bloody Marsh." Most of their officers are killed or captured. The Spanish invasion of Georgia has been defeated.
The claymore is seen as the national sword of the Scottish Highlander, but it also has a long history in North America. For one thing, there were a lot of Highlanders here in America at one point, and in the early days a good number of them were swordsmen. The Highland Regiments in the British Army proved remarkably effective at wilderness combat, earning the respect and sometimes the friendship of the Indians. Gaelic poetry from the French and Indian war boasts that the "Forest People" will not be able to resist the broadswords and targes of the Highland warriors, but the Highlanders came to identify with the Indians as fellow warriors and victims of colonialism. A Gaelic song about the New World that was originally named "They’re Indians Sure Enough" eventually became "We’re Indians Sure Enough" in the oral tradition. As for the Indians, they were said to have viewed the Highlanders as "brothers," and "of the same extraction as themselves." One Indian leader, referring to the Highlanders’ entry into the war, said, "the English, formerly women, are now men."
The Highland soldiers quickly adapted to the fierce conditions of frontier warfare, adopting the custom of scalping and occasionally even headhunting as their Celtic ancestors had done . The Indians responded by changing their tactics to avoid close combat, where the Highlanders could bring their broadswords into play. Nevertheless, when the Highlanders were able to force hand to hand fighting, the broadsword proved very effective against the tomahawk and war club.
At the battle of Bushy Run, Highland soldiers destroyed a force of Delaware and Shawnee with the broadsword and bayonet, leading the Delawares, Hurons and Five Nations to end the war shortly afterwards. The Highlanders of the Georgia colony were armed with both the broadsword and the targe or small round shield, an indication that they considered themselves professional warriors and not mere peasants. They initially refused to do manual work around the colony for this very reason, but they certainly proved their worth as soldiers in the Bloody Marsh. This settlement produced one of the leading American generals of the War of Independence, a man named Lachlan McIntosh who killed a politician in a pistol duel.
Many of the American Highlanders, however, were British Loyalists, and they took up their broadswords for King George III when war broke out:
When the day came the Highlanders were seen coming from near and from far, from the wide plantations on the river bottoms, and from the rude cabins in the depths of the lonely pine forests, with broad-swords at their side, in tartan garments and feathered bonnet, and keeping step to the shrill music of the bag-pipe. (Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America , by J.P . Maclean, at electricscotland.com)
This "uprising of the MacDonalds," as it was called, met with total disaster at Moore’s Creek. The rebel minutemen were on the other side of the creek from the Highlanders. At the cry of "King George and broadswords!" the Highlanders charged, but unfortunately for them the rebels had removed most of the planks from the bridge before the battle, and only two men could get across at one time. The inevitable result was that they were gunned down without ever reaching the rebel lines: Donald MacLeod and Captain John Campbell rushed forward and succeeded in getting over. The Highlanders who followed were shot down on the logs and fell into the muddy stream below. Major MacLeod was mortally wounded, but was seen to rise repeatedly from the ground, waving his sword and encouraging his men to come on, till twenty-six balls penetrated his body. Captain Campbell also was shot dead, and at that moment a party of militia, under Lieutenant Slocum, who had forded the creek and penetrated a swamp on its western bank, fell suddenly upon the rear of the royalists. The loss of their leader and the unexpected attack upon their rear threw them into confusion, when they broke and fled. The battle lasted but ten minutes. There were times when the broadsword was used effectively in the American Revolution, but this wasn’t one of them. Then as now, it was usually a bad idea to bring a broadsword to a gunfight.