Check out this site
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=436K3RpDcuM

Slainte ;)

All that's needed a is a verse along the lines of
Did you see them,
Freeze their bits off,
Shirts a shining, white as snow,
See the rain storm, see the ice,
Jackets missing, 'cause they're not nice.

It's damned well freezing,
On the moor,
Cullonden's image is slowly failing,
Becoming faded, with tartan glasses that cannot see,
The true story of those who died,
For both kingships, there are those who lied,

But what we do know,
Is that is the scene that we see,
Is Victorian dreamland,
Of Highland gentry in plaids and shirts,
Not the true soldiers who died that day,
Death, destruction, that's what they'd say,

The Highland warrior,
The Redcoat soldier,
Should be remembered well,
Not shortbread clansmen, nor butcher men,
But real people who fought their kin,
For civil war is an evil sin.


Needless to say I hate all this folky, spirit of the highlands, aimed at the tourists rubbish. We should remember the '45 for what it really was. A civil war in Great Britain. Brother fighting brother. Men forced to fight or loose their homes, men who fought for what they believed in, and those who fought for money. Soldiers who fought because it was their job, men who were scared witless, and who died horribly.
If what I was told by my grandparents is true then my ancestors fought on the Jacobite side, my sister has found that another ancestor was an artilleryman (Goverment army), I don't know if he was at Culloden or not. Either way all this touristy bull is really beginning to get me down. If the majority of the net was to be believed all Highlanders wore multi coloured gillie shirts, wonderfully pleated plaid, no waistcoats, no jackets, no bonnets (unless of cloth and looking like a chefs hat), carried 16th century Claymores, didn't have guns, wore walking boots, had Victorian plaid broaches, ate venison every day, were all expert swordsmen and clan chiefs, and were on first name terms with Charles Edward Stuart.
Give another ten years and some one will put on a site that Nessie was seen in the rear rank.

I don't take any thing away from the song writers or performers, but it really isn't my thing. War in any form is horrible and the old "remember my bonnie laddie" songs make my skin crawl. However I respect the right to express a persons thoughts though their art.

It's late, the scotch is running low.
Rant over. :-X

Tod,
War is always hell.  There are always numerous better ways to settle whatever disputes are at the root of any war.  But such is the nature of man, at least some, that many a war has spilt far too much blood.  
In the aftermath of the savagery and brutality of warfare, human memory clings to the pictures of valor and bravery and self-sacrifice that wars produce, memorializing them in songs, poems, movies and myths.  At the same time it bids a swift farewell to the horror and gruesome truth that surrounds these pictures, wishing that they quickly fade into the misty oblivion of forgotten past.  And we know what is said of those who forget the past, don't we?
An ill-advised foray into northern England followed by an even more ill-advised engagement on Drummossie Moor are but the capstone on many failed and flawed attempts by Scottish patriots to win their freedom.  Though there were many who took up arms in these battles for noble and good cause, they were overshadowed by the deceit, conniving, greed and treachery, as well as the lack of military skill of too many of their own countrymen, especially in the upper classes.
And yet, there is much that took place, many who took up arms, many acts that deserve preservation in poem, prose and song, as well as in re-enactment, during and between these nationalistic bloodlettings.  
What we do as re-enactors is as much for those who watch as spectators as it is for our own pleasure.  As any movie studio, television network or book publisher would confirm, only the glory of war sells.  I hope that in spite of all of that, those of us who engage in re-creating the past are ever mindful that the bright and laudable history we spend much of our time re-enacting has a very dark, horrible and painful twin that should never be erased from the past and ever be avoided in the future.
Now as to the low tide in your water of life, I hope that you have been able to remedy that deplorable condition before Hogmanay!
Happy New Year to you, and many happy re-enactments in 2007!