COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES - RAISING OF PRINCE CHARLES'S
STANDARD MARCH OF SIR JOHN COPE INTO THE HIGHLANDS INTRIGUES OF LORD LOVAT - PREPARATIONS OF THE PRINCE FOR FIGHTING COPE, WHO TAKES THE ROUTE TO INVERNESS, LEAVING THE ROAD TO THE LOWLANDS OPEN-MARCH OF PRINCE CHARLES TOWARDS THE SOUTH- CHARACTER OF LORD GEORGE MURRAY — ARRIVAL OF THE HIGHLAND ARMY AT PERTH.
In the mean while, and even before the day appointed by Charles Edward for erecting his standard, the civil war commenced. This was not by the capture of the Duke of Argyle, or the projected attack upon the forts, neither of which took place. But the hostile movements of the Highlanders had not escaped the attention of the governor of Fort Augustus, who, apprehensive for the safety of Fort William,* which lay nearest to the disaffected clans, sent a detachment of two companies under Captain John Scott, afterwards General Scott. He
"Fort William, Fort Augustus, and Fort George, called also the Castle of Inverness, formed the chain of forts which had reached from the east to the west sea. The country between Fort William and Inverness is one of the wildest parts of the Highlands, and was then inhabited altogether by the disaffected clans." - HOME. 1