Historical Record of the Fifth, or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685; with Its Subsequent Services to 1838Cannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Fifth, or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1685; with Its Subsequent Services to 1838
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Princess Charlotte of Wales's Dragoon Guards, 5th
"SIR,--I have great pleasure in communicating to you, by
direction of Colonel Ponsonby, the cavalry and brigade orders
issued on a late occasion, when the FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS
attacked a very superior enemy, and forced him to retire with
the loss of about one hundred killed and wounded, besides one
lieutenant-colonel, two captains, one lieutenant, and one hundred
and forty men taken prisoners, with near one hundred horses.
This affair presents a pledge of the future good conduct of
the regiment whenever an opportunity again appears of meeting
the enemy, and must be peculiarly gratifying to you and to the
remainder of the corps at the depôt in England, to hear from such
undoubted authority, that the regiment still continues to support
that high character which it gained on many former glorious
occasions, and in our estimation this last is not the least:--the
regiment having, previous to the attack on three times its
numbers of the enemy's best cavalry, made a forced march of
upwards of sixty miles without halting,--four of the last of
which was at a very brisk pace, through a difficult country, over
rocks, ravines, and stone walls; then forming with unexampled
celerity, and charging with equal and regular rapidity through
a grove of olive-trees until it came in contact with the enemy,
who retired in great disorder under the cover of his infantry
and guns. Our loss in this brilliant affair was comparatively
trifling, as will be seen by the subjoined statement of the names
of the brave men who fell.
"W. JACKSON,
"ADJUTANT."
Thus the DRAGOON GUARDS of the nineteenth century are found
rivalling the celebrated heavy HORSE of the preceding ages. The
regiment lost, on this occasion, one corporal and fourteen private
men killed; Major Prescot, Lieutenant Walker, three serjeants, one
corporal, and twenty-one private men wounded.
A detachment of the FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS escorted the prisoners
captured on this occasion to the fortress of Elvas in Portugal. The
regiment afterwards marched to Crato.
Advancing from Crato into Spain, the FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS took part
in the movements by which the French were driven from Salamanca,
and the forts at that city were besieged and captured.
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