[1] Following the death of Viscount Dundee in the Jacobite victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, command of the Jacobites was passed to Colonel Alexander Cannon, leader of the recruits from Ireland, in preference to the 60-year-old veteran Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, one of the most formidable Highland chiefs.

[2] With the Scottish Privy Council preparing to leave Scotland in the wake of an expected Jacobite onslaught, the council ordered the newly formed Cameronian regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Cleland to move north from Perth and to hold Dunkeld at all costs.

[5][page needed] although in the town's narrow, winding streets there was no room for the type of Highland charge that had succeeded at Killiecrankie.

[2] The Cameronian regiment's 27-year-old Colonel William Cleland, a veteran of the Covenanter cause, died in the first hour of battle by taking one bullet in the liver and another in the head, before dragging himself out of sight so that his men would not see him fall.

[2] At 11:00 pm, depleted of energy and ammunition, the Highlanders decided to call it a day and withdrew, leaving 300 of their men dead or dying in the town.