Historical Record of the Fourteenth, or the King's, Regiment of Light Dragoons: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment and of Its Subsequent ServicesCannon, Richard
History
Historical Record of the Fourteenth, or the King's, Regiment of Light Dragoons: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment and of Its Subsequent Services
Cannon, Richard
Great Britain. Army -- History; Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Light Dragoons, 14th
Since the Regiments of Horse were formed into Dragoon Guards,
additional improvements have been introduced into the constitution
of the several corps; and the superior description of horses now
bred in the United Kingdom, enables the commanding officers to
remount their regiments with such excellent horses, that, whilst
sufficient weight has been retained for a powerful charge in line,
a lightness has been acquired, which renders them available for
every description of service incident to modern warfare.
The orderly conduct of these Regiments in quarters has gained the
confidence and esteem of the respectable inhabitants of the various
parts of the United Kingdom in which they have been stationed;
their promptitude and alacrity in attending to the requisitions of
the magistrates in periods of excitement, and the temper, patience,
and forbearance which they have evinced when subjected to great
provocation, insult, and violence from the misguided populace,
prove the value of these troops to the Crown, and to the Government
of the country, and justify the reliance which is reposed in them.
ON THE INSTITUTION
OF
LIGHT CAVALRY
IN
THE BRITISH ARMY.
The records of the military events of the remote ages speak of
heavy-armed horsemen being accompanied by others mounted and
equipped for light services. The Barons and Knights, who rode
the powerful horses celebrated by historians, and took the field
completely cased in steel, had a few light-armed attendants; the
feudal horsemen were variously armed; and the practice of employing
Light, as well as Heavy Cavalry, was adopted, to a limited extent,
by several commanders of antiquity. Armour, proof against arrow,
lance, and sword, and men and horses of colossal appearance, in
whom the greatest amount of weight and physical power, consistent
with a moderate share of activity, could be combined, were however
held in the highest estimation; but eventually the great advantage
of having a portion of Cavalry in which lightness, activity, and
celerity of movement, might form the principal characteristics,
was discovered. The introduction of fire-arms occasioned armour
to be gradually laid aside, or limited to a few heavy horsemen;
superiority of weight was no longer thought so necessary; and in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the use of Light Cavalry
became more general than formerly.
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