A History of the 17th Lancers
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Walker & Burstall Ph. Sc.
John Hale
First Colonel of the 17th 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
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
[ix]
Preface
This history has been compiled at the request of the Colonel andOfficers of the Seventeenth Lancers.
The materials in possession of the Regiment are unfortunately veryscanty, being in fact little more than the manuscript of the short,and not very accurate summary drawn up nearly sixty years ago forCannon’s Historical Records of the British Army. The loss of theregimental papers by shipwreck in 1797 accounts for the absence of alldocuments previous to that year, as also, I take it, for the neglectto preserve any sufficient records during many subsequent decades. Ihave therefore been forced to seek information almost exclusively fromexternal sources.
The material for the first three chapters has been gathered in partfrom original documents preserved in the Record Office,—Minutes of theBoard 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 theselatter are Dalrymple’s Military Essay, Bland’s MilitaryDiscipline, and, above all, Hinde’s Discipline of the LightHorse (1778).
For the American War I have relied principally on the[x] originaldespatches and papers, numerous enough, in the Record Office,Tarleton’s Memoirs, and Stedman’s History of the AmericanWar,—the last named being especially valuable for the excellenceof its maps and plans. I have also, setting aside minor works, derivedmuch information from the two volumes of the Clinton-CornwallisControversy compiled by Mr. B. Stevenson; and from Clinton’soriginal pamphlets, with manuscript additions in his own hand, whichare preserved in the library at Dropmore.
For the campaigns in the West Indies the original despatches inthe Record Office have afforded most material, supplemented by acertain number of small pamphlets in the British Museum. The MaroonWar is treated with great fulness by Dallas in his History ofthe Maroons; and there is matter also in Bridge