st effectual means for cutting off
the Highlanders on their retreat; and, in this council it was resolved
to march directly to Wakefield and Halifax into Lancashire, as
the most likely way of intercepting the rebels. Having arrived at
Wakefield on the 10th, and having advice that the main body of the
rebels was at Manchester, and their van-guard moving from thence
towards Preston, and finding that it was now impossible to come up
with them, he judged it unnecessary to fatigue the forces by hard
marches, and, therefore, detaching Major General Oglethorpe, on the
11th, with the cavalry under his command, he began the march, with the
rest of the forces to Newcastle. On the 13th a great body of the horse
and dragoons under Oglethorpe arrived at Preston, having marched a
hundred miles in three days over roads naturally bad, and at that time
almost impassable with snow and ice; "which," says the Historian, "was
a noble testimony of zeal and spirit, especially in the new raised
forces."

His Royal Highness immediately gave his orders for continuing the
pursuit of the rebels, with the utmost diligence. Accordingly
Oglethorpe advanced towards Lancaster; which place the Duke reached
on the 16th. Oglethorpe, continuing his pursuit at the heels of the
rebels, arrived on the 17th in front of a village called Shap, where
their rear was supposed to be, just before night-fall, in very bad
weather. Here he held a consultation with his officers, in which it
was decided that the lateness of the hour, and the exhaustion of the
troops, rendered it inexpedient to make the attack that night. He,
therefore, entered the neighboring village to obtain forage, and to
refresh. Meanwhile the Duke pressed on; and, next morning, when he
came to Shap, found that it had been abandoned by the rebels; but was
surprised at seeing on his right, towards the rear, an unexpected body
of troops. It turned out to be Oglethorpe's corps, which, from being
the van-guard of the army, had thus unaccountably become the rear.
Vexed at the disappointing occurrence, he caused Oglethorpe to be
arraigned before a Court Martial, for having "lingered on the road."
His trial came on at the Horse-guards on the 29th of September, and
ended the 7th of October, 1746; when "he was honorably acquitted, and
his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm the sentence."[1]

[Footnote 1: See _London Gazette_ for October 20th, 1746; and the
_Memoir_ in _European Magazine_ for 1785.