On this day a great victory was won by the Marquis of Montrose - James Graham - over the Marquis of Argyle - Archibald Campbell. In a hard fought battle where the men of Argyle outnumbered the army of Montrose by two to one, 1500 of Campbell's troops were killed, while only 8 from the side of Montrose were lost in battle.
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Montrose, who was a Royalist, was fighting with the aid of Alasdair MacColla Macdonald of Clan Donald, and Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart, against Archibald Campbell - chief of Clan Campbell - who fought for the Covenanters.
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The Covenanters were formed by the Scots opposed to Charles Stuart's attempted reformation of the Scottish kirk. This was viewed as unneccesary and undesirable. It was further seen as Catholic - even Papist - in tendency. Episcopalian bishops fled South: the Presbyterian church was supported by the Covenanters.
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In the winter of '44 Montrose led his army over snow-choked passes into the Campbell lands around Inveraray. They sacked and pillaged the whole area before leaving in early 1645. They were bound for Inverness - capital of the highlands - but their way was blocked by the MacKenzies at the Great Glen. Behind them, Argyle was leading a 3000 strong army - out for revenge. Argyle marched up through Lorn, crossed by the ferry at Ballachulish, and camped at Inverlochy (just North of present day Fort William) near to the castle.
When Montrose heard of this, he audaciously doubled back to attack Argyle's army from the rear. To do so, he marched for two and a half days in mid-winter through knee deep snow. The advance party arrived three hours before most of his troops. Skirmishing broke out which spoiled the idea of a surprise attack. Nevertheless, Montrose made a full frontal attack, scaring the daylights out of the Lowlanders fighting with Argyle. They broke through the centre of Argyle's line, and a running battle ensued with only 8 of Montrose's men being killed against the slaughter of 1500 from the other side. Meanwhile Argyle slipped away in his galley down Loch Linnhe.
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