File:The first American Civil War, first period 1775-1778, with chapters on the continental or revolutionary army and on the forces of the crown (1911) (14762353322).jpg

Identifier: firstamericanciv01belcuoft (find matches)
Title: The first American Civil War, first period 1775-1778, with chapters on the continental or revolutionary army and on the forces of the crown
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Belcher, Henry
Subjects: United States -- History Revolution, 1775-1783
Publisher: London, MacMillan.
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d dragoons. TheFrench broke, and within twenty minutes fromGeneral Lumleys order the dragoons remounted,and joined in the general pursuit of the enemy. Thus,within half an hour Lord John Hay was in commandof cavalry, infantry, and again of cavalry. Riding light, on wiry horses (the animal best suited forthis service was called a dragooner)^ the services of thedragoons for policing a disturbed area were reckoned ofthe greatest value. Perhaps the proceedings in France ofthis class of mounted infantry, called the dragonnades,furnish the best illustration of the terrible servicethey could render. Quartered in the Calvinist districtsof France, these soldiers—dragons indeed !—soonbrought about that awful peace which ensues onmurder and rapine. It is for the military expert to decide in howfar the issues of this American War would havebeen affected by the full use of the cavalry arm. Butwhen hostilities began there were in America few horsesavailable for the royal army. Colonel Oliver De
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2 ^ ^z^ n FORCES OF THE CROWN 283 Lancey was commissioned by General Gage to pick upremounts for a dragoon regiment, but although he couldfind sellers in New York and Long Island he couldnot find roads along which to despatch his purchases tothe eastward, for the Patriots had beset and made im-passable every track leading to New England. On theother hand, very few horses survived the voyage fromCork Harbour to Massachusetts Bay. To cross theWestern Ocean in fifty days was considered a quickpassage, but fifty days of the stowage and fodder of atransport proved fatal to all but the very hardiestanimals. The Seventeenth Regiment of Dragoons was the onlymounted corps serving at the commencement of thiswar, and it will help to an appreciation of the difficultiesbesetting the cavalry arm in America if we glance at therecord of this distinguished regiment. Raised shortly after the battle of Minden in 1759,its establishment was fixed at four troops of 75 meneach, yet its achievements and popu

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