A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
History
A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)
Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir
Great Britain. Army. Lancers, 17th -- History
For the rest, certain peculiarities should be noted which distinguish
cavalry from infantry. In the first place, though every troop and
every company had a standard of its own, such standard was called in
the cavalry a Cornet, and in the infantry an Ensign, and gave in each
case its name to the junior subaltern whose duty it was to carry it.
In the second place there were no sergeants in old days except in the
infantry, the non-commissioned officers of cavalry being corporals
only. In the third place, the use of a wind instrument for making
signals was confined to the cavalry, which used the trumpet; the
infantry as yet had no bugle, but only the drum. There were originally
but six trumpet-calls, all known by foreign names; of which names
one (_Butte sella_ or _Boute selle_) still survives in the
corrupted form, “Boots and saddles.”
How then have these minor distinctions which formerly separated cavalry
from infantry so utterly disappeared? Through what channel did the two
branches of the service contrive to meet? The answer is, through the
dragoons. Dragoons were originally mounted infantry pure and simple.
Those of the Army of 1645 were organised in ten companies, each 100
men strong. They were armed like infantry and drilled like infantry;
they followed an ensign and not a cornet; they obeyed, not a trumpet,
but a drum. True, they were mounted, but on inferior horses, and for
the object of swifter mobility only; for they always fought on foot,
dismounting nine men out of ten for action, and linking the horses by
the rude process of throwing each animal’s bridle over the head of the
horse standing next to it in the ranks. Such were the two branches of
the mounted service in the first British Army.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1745.]
A century passes, and we find Great Britain again torn by internal
strife in the shape of the Scotch rebellion. Glancing at the list of
the British cavalry regiments at this period we find them still divided
into horse and dragoons; but the dragoons are in decided preponderance,
and both branches unmistakably “heavy.” A patriotic Englishman, the
Duke of Kingston, observing this latter failing, raised a regiment
of Light Horse (the first ever seen in England) at his own expense,
in imitation of the Hussars of foreign countries. Thus the Civil War
of 1745 called into existence the only arm of the military service
which had been left uncreate by the great rebellion of 1642–48. Before
leaving this Scotch rebellion of 1745, let us remark that there took
part in the suppression thereof a young ensign of the 47th Foot,
named John Hale--a mere boy of seventeen, it is true, but a promising
officer, of whom we shall hear more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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