A History of the 17th Lancers [Illustration: Sir Joshua Reynolds Walker & Burstall Ph. Sc. _John Hale_ _First Colonel of the 17^{th} Light Dragoons_.] A History Of the 17th Lancers (DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE’S OWN) BY HON. J. W. FORTESCUE London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1895 _All rights reserved_ [Illustration] To the Memory OF MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE WHO FELL GLORIOUSLY IN THE MOMENT OF VICTORY ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM BEFORE QUEBEC 13TH SEPTEMBER 1759 THIS HISTORY OF THE REGIMENT RAISED IN HIS HONOUR BY HIS COMRADE IN ARMS JOHN HALE IS PROUDLY AND REVERENTLY INSCRIBED Preface This history has been compiled at the request of the Colonel and Officers of the Seventeenth Lancers. The materials in possession of the Regiment are unfortunately very scanty, being in fact little more than the manuscript of the short, and not very accurate summary drawn up nearly sixty years ago for Cannon’s _Historical Records of the British Army_. The loss of the regimental papers by shipwreck in 1797 accounts for the absence of all documents previous to that year, as also, I take it, for the neglect to preserve any sufficient records during many subsequent decades. I have therefore been forced to seek information almost exclusively from external sources. The material for the first three chapters has been gathered in part from original documents preserved in the Record Office,--Minutes of the Board of General Officers, Muster-Rolls, Paysheets, Inspection Returns, Marching Orders, and the like; in part from a mass of old drill-books, printed Standing Orders, and military treatises, French and English, in the British Museum. The most important[· is a smudge?] of these latter are Dalrymple’s _Military Essay_, Bland’s _Military Discipline_, and, above all, Hinde’s _Discipline of the Light Horse_ (1778). For the American War I have relied principally on the original despatches and papers, numerous enough, in the Record Office, Tarleton’s _Memoirs_, and Stedman’s _History of the American War_,--the last named being especially valuable for the excellence of its maps and plans. I have also, setting aside minor works, derived much information from the two volumes of the _Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy_ compiled by Mr. B. Stevenson; and from Clinton’s original pamphlets, with manuscript additions in his own hand, which are preserved in the library at Dropmore.