CHAPTER III

REFORMS AFTER THE PEACE OF PARIS, 1763–1774

[Sidenote: 1760.]

In September Hale’s Light Dragoons moved up to Berwick-on-Tweed, and thence into Scotland, where they were appointed to remain for the three ensuing years. Before it left Coventry the regiment, in common with all Light Dragoon regiments, had gathered fresh importance for itself from the magnificent behaviour of the 15th at Emsdorf on the 16th July; in which engagement Captain Martin Basil, who had returned to his own corps from Colonel Hale’s, was among the slain. The close of the year brings us to the earliest of the regimental muster-rolls, which is dated Haddington, 8th December 1760. One must speak of muster-rolls in the plural, for there is a separate muster-roll for each troop--regimental rolls being at this period unknown.

These first rolls are somewhat of a curiosity, for that every one of them describes Hale’s regiment as the 17th, the officers being evidently unwilling to yield seniority to the two paltry troops [Sidenote: 1761.] raised by Lord Aberdour. The next muster-rolls show considerable difference of opinion as to the regimental number, the head-quarter troop calling itself of the 18th, while the rest still claim [Sidenote: 1762.] to be of the 17th. In 1762 for the first time every troop [Sidenote: 1763.] acknowledges itself to be of the 18th, but in April 1763 the old conflict of opinion reappears; the head-quarter troop writes itself down as of the 18th, two other troops as of the 17th, while the remainder decline to commit themselves to any number at all. A gap in the rolls from 1763–1771 prevents us from following the controversy any further; but from this year 1763, the Seventeenth, [Sidenote: 1763.] as shall be shown, enjoys undisputed right to the number which it originally claimed.

Albeit raised for service in the Seven Years’ War, the regiment was never sent abroad, though it furnished a draft of fifty men and horses to the army under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. All efforts to discover anything about this draft have proved fruitless; though from the circumstance that Lieutenant Wallop is described in the muster-rolls as “prisoner of war to the French,” it is just possible that it served as an independent unit, and was actively engaged. But the war came to an end with the Treaty of Paris early in 1763; and with the peace came a variety of important changes for the Army, and

## particularly for the Light Dragoons.

The first change, of course, was a great reduction of the military establishment. Many regiments were disbanded--Lord Aberdour’s, the 20th and 21st Light Dragoons among them. Colonel Hale’s regiment was retained, and became the Seventeenth; and, as if to warrant it continued life, Hale himself was promoted to be full Colonel. We must not omit to mention here that, whether on account of his advancement, or from other simpler causes, Colonel Hale in this same year took to himself a wife, Miss Mary Chaloner of Guisbrough. History does not relate whether the occasion was duly celebrated by the regiment, either at the Colonel’s expense or at its own; but it is safe to assume that, in those hard-drinking days, such an opportunity for extra consumption of liquor was not neglected. If the fulness of the quiver be accepted as the measure of wedded happiness, then we may fearlessly assert that Colonel Hale was a happy man. Mrs. Hale bore him no fewer than twenty-one children, seventeen of whom survived him.

The actual command of the regiment upon Colonel Hale’s promotion devolved upon Lieut.-Colonel Blaquiere, whose duty it now became to carry out a number of new regulations laid down after the peace for the guidance of the Light Dragoons. [Sidenote: 1764.] By July 1764 these reforms were finally completed; and as they remained in force for another twenty years, they must be given here at some length. The pith of them lies in the fact that the authorities had determined to emphasise in every possible way the distinction between Light and Heavy Cavalry. Let us begin with the least important, but most sentimental of all matters--the dress.

PRIVATES

_Coat._--(Alike for all ranks.) Scarlet, with 3-inch white lapels to the waist. White collar and cuffs, sleeves unslit. White lining. Braid on button-holes. Buttons, in pairs, white metal with regimental number.

_Waistcoat._--White, unembroidered and unlaced. Cross pockets.

_Breeches._--White, duck or leather.

_Boots._--To the knee, “round toed and of a light sort.”

_Helmet._--Black leather, with badge of white metal in front, and white turban round the base, plume and crest scarlet and white.

_Forage Cap._--Red, turned up with white. Regimental number on little flap.

_Shoulder Belts._--White, 2¾ inches broad. Sword belt over the right shoulder.

_Waist Belt._--White, 1¾ inches broad.

_Cloaks._--Red, white lining; loop of black and white lace on the top. White cape.

_Epaulettes._--White cloth with white worsted fringe.

CORPORALS

Same as the men. Distinguished by narrow silver lace round the turn-up of the sleeves. Epaulettes bound with white silk tape, white silk fringe.

SERGEANTS

Same as the men. Epaulettes bound with narrow silver lace; silver fringe. Narrow silver lace round button-holes. Sash of spun silk, crimson with white stripe.

QUARTERMASTERS

Same as the men. Silver epaulettes. Sash of spun silk, crimson.

OFFICERS

Same as the men; but with silver lace or embroidery at the Colonel’s discretion. Silk sash, crimson. Silver epaulettes. Scarlet velvet stock and waist belts.

TRUMPETERS

White coats with scarlet lapels and lining; lace, white with black edge; red waistcoats and breeches. Hats, cocked, with white plume.

FARRIERS

Blue coats, waistcoats, and breeches. Linings and lapels blue; turn-up of sleeves white. Hat, small black bearskin, with a horse-shoe of silver-plated metal on a black ground. White apron rolled back on left side.

_Horse Furniture._--White cloth holster caps and housings bordered with white, black-edged lace. XVII. L. D. embroidered on the housings on a scarlet ground, within a wreath of roses and thistles. King’s cypher, with crown over it and XVII. L. D. under it embroidered on the holster caps.

Officers had a silver tassel on the holster caps and at the corners of the housings.

Quartermasters had the same furniture as the officers, but with narrower lace, and without tassels to the holster caps.

ARMS

_Officers._--A pair of pistols with barrels 9 inches long. Sword (straight or curved according to regimental pattern), blade 36 inches long. A smaller sword, with 28-inch blade, worn in a waist belt, for foot duty.

_Men._--Sword and pistols, as the officers. Carbine, 2 feet 5 inches long in the barrel. Bayonet, 12 inches long. Carbine and pistols of the same bore. Cartridge-box to hold twenty-four rounds.

So much for the outward adornment and armament of the men, to which we have only to add that trumpeters, to give them further distinction, were mounted on white horses, and carried a sword with a scimitar blade. Farriers, who were a peculiar people in those days, were made as dusky as the trumpeters were gorgeous. They carried two churns instead of holsters on their saddles, wherein to stow their shoeing tools, etc., and black bearskin furniture with crossed hammer and pincers on the housing. Their weapon was an axe, carried, like the men’s swords, in a belt slung from the right shoulder. When the men drew swords, the farriers drew axes and carried them at the “advance.” The old traditions of the original farrier still survive in the blue tunics, black plumes, and axes of the farriers of the Life Guards, as well as in the blue stable jackets of their brethren of the Dragoons.

Passing now from man to horse, we must note that from 27th July 1764 it was ordained that the horses of Horse and Dragoons should in future wear their full tails, and that those of Light Dragoons only should be docked.[3] This was the first step towards the reduction of the weight to be carried by the Light Dragoon horse. The next was more practical. A saddle much lighter than the old pattern was invented, approved, and adopted, with excellent results. It was of rather peculiar construction: very high in the pommel and cantle, and very deep sunk in the seat, in order to give a man a steadier seat when firing from on horseback. Behind the saddle was a flat board or tray, on to which the kit was strapped in a rather bulky bundle. It was reckoned that this saddle, with blanket and kit complete, 30 lbs of hay and 5 pecks of oats, weighed just over 10 stone (141 lbs.); and that the Dragoon with three days’ rations, ammunition, etc., weighed 12 stone 7 lbs. more; and that thus the total weight of a Dragoon in heavy marching order with (roughly speaking) three days’ rations for man and horse, was 22 stone 8 lbs. In marching from quarter to quarter in England, the utmost weight on a horse’s back was reckoned not to exceed 16 stone.

A few odd points remain to be noticed before the question of saddlery is finally dismissed. In the first place, there was rather an uncouth mixture of colours in the leather, which, though designed to look well with the horse furniture, cannot have been beautiful without it. Thus the head collar for ordinary occasions was brown, but for reviews white; bridoons were black, bits of bright steel; the saddle was brown, and the carbine bucket black. These buckets were, of course, little more than leather caps five or six inches long, fitting over the muzzle of the carbine, practically the same as were served out to Her Majesty’s Auxiliary Cavalry less than twenty years ago. Light Dragoons, however, had a swivel fitted to their shoulder-belt to which the carbine could be sprung, and the weapon thus made more readily available. The horse furniture of the men was not designed for ornament only; for, being made in one piece, it served to cover the men when encamped under canvas. As a last minute point, let it be noted that the stirrups of the officers were square, and of the men round at the top.

We must take notice next of a more significant reform, namely, the abolition of side drums and drummers in the Light Dragoons, and the substitution of trumpeters in their place. By this change the Light Dragoons gained an accession of dignity, and took equal rank with the horse of old days. The establishment of trumpeters was, of course, one to each troop, making six in all. When dismounted they formed a “band of music,” consisting of two French horns, two clarionets, and two bassoons, which, considering the difficulties and imperfections of those instruments as they existed a century and a quarter ago, must have produced some rather remarkable combinations of sound. None the less we have here the germ of the regimental band, which now enjoys so high a reputation.

Over and above the trumpeters, the regiment enjoyed the possession of a fife, to whose music the men used to march. At inspection the trumpets used to sound while the inspecting officer went down the line; and when the trumpeters could blow no longer, the fife took up the wondrous tale and filled up the interval with an ear-piercing solo. The old trumpet “marches” are still heard (unless I am mistaken) when the Household Cavalry relieve guard at Whitehall. But more important than these parade trumpet sounds is the increased use of the trumpet for signalling movements in the field. The original number of trumpet-calls in the earliest days of the British cavalry was, as has already been mentioned, but six. These six were apparently still retained and made to serve for more purposes than one; but others also were added to them. And since, so far as we can gather, the variety of calls on one instrument that could be played and remembered was limited by human unskilfulness and human stupidity, this difficulty was overcome by the employment of other instruments. These last were the bugle horn and the French horn; the former the simple curved horn that is still portrayed on the appointments of Light Infantry, the latter the curved French hunting horn. The united efforts of trumpet, bugle horn, and French horn availed to produce the following sounds:--

Stable call--Trumpet. (_Butte Sella_).[4] Boot and saddle--Trumpet. (_Monte Cavallo_).[4] Horse and away--Trumpet. But sometimes bugle horn; used also for evening stables. (? _Tucquet_).[4] March--Trumpet. Water--Trumpet. (_Auquet_).[4] Setting watch or tattoo--Trumpet. Used also for morning stables. (? _Tucquet_).[4] The call--Trumpet. Used for parade or assembly. Repair to alarm post--Bugle horn. (_Alla Standarda_).[4] Standard call--Trumpet. Used for fetching and lodging standards; and also for drawing and returning swords. Preparative for firing--Trumpet. Cease firing--Trumpet. Form squadrons, form the line--Bugle horn. Advance--Trumpet. (_Carga_).[4] Charge or attack--Trumpet. Retreat--French horns. Trot, gallop, front form--Trumpet. Rally--Bugle horn. Non-commissioned officers’ call--Trumpet.

The quick march on foot--The fife. The slow march on foot--The band of music.

All attempts to discover the notation of these calls have, I regret to say, proved fruitless, so that I am unable to state positively whether any of them continue in use at the present day. The earliest musical notation of the trumpet sounds that I have been able to discover dates from the beginning of this century,[5] and is practically the same as that in the cavalry drill-book of 1894; so that it is not unreasonable to infer that the sounds have been little altered since their first introduction. Indeed, it seems to me highly probable that the old “Alla Standarda,” which is easily traceable back to the first quarter of the seventeenth century, still survives in the flourish now played after the general salute to an inspecting officer. As to the actual employment of the three signalling instruments in the field, we shall be able to judge better while treating of the next reform of 1763–1764, viz. that of the drill.

The first great change wrought by the experience of the Seven Years’ War on the English Light Dragoon drill was the final abolition of the formation in three ranks. Henceforward we shall never find the Seventeenth ranked more than two deep. Further, we find a general tendency to less stiffness and greater flexibility of movement, and to greater rapidity of manœuvre. The very evolutions sacrifice some of their prettiness and precision in order to gain swifter change of formation. Thus, when the left half rank is doubled in rear of the right, the right, instead of standing fast, advances and inclines to the left, while the latter reins back and passages to the right, thus accomplishing the desired result in half the time. Field manœuvres are carried out chiefly by means of small flexible columns, differing from the present in one principal feature only, viz. that the rear rank in 1763 does not inseparably follow the front rank, but that each rank wheels from line into column of half-ranks or quarter-ranks independently. Moreover, we find one great principle pervading all field movements: that Light Dragoons, for the dignity of their name, must move with uncommon rapidity and smartness. The very word “smart,” as applied to the action of a soldier, appears, so far as I know, for the first time in a drill-book made for Light Dragoons at this period. In illustration, let us briefly describe a parade attack movement, which is particularly characteristic.

The regiment having been formed by previous manœuvres in echelon of wings (three troops to a wing) from the left, the word is given, “Advance and gain the flank of the enemy.”

_First Trumpet._--The right files (of troops?) of each wing gallop to the front, and form rank entire; unswivel their carbines, and keep up a rapid irregular fire from the saddle.

Under cover of this fire the echelon advances.

_Second Trumpet._--The right wing forms the “half-wedge” (single echelon), passes the left or leading wing at an increased pace, and gains the flank of the imaginary enemy by the “head to haunch” (an extremely oblique form of incline), and forms line on the flank.

_Third Trumpet_--“_Charge._”--The skirmishers gallop back through the intervals to the rear of their own troops, and remain there till the charge is over.

_French Horns_--“_Retreat._”--The skirmishers gallop forward once more, and keep up their fire till the line is reformed.

The whole scheme of this attack is perhaps a shade theatrical, and, indeed, may possibly have been designed to astonish the weak mind of some gouty old infantry general; but a regiment that could execute it smartly could hardly have been in a very inefficient state.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1765.]

In 1765 the Seventeenth was moved to Ireland, though to what part of Ireland the gap in the muster-rolls disenables us to say. Almost certainly it was split up into detachments, where we have reason to believe that the troop officers took pains to teach their men the new drill. We must conceive of the regiment’s life as best we may during this period, for we have no information to help us. Colonel Blaquiere, we have no doubt, paid visits to the outlying troops from time to time, and probably was able now and again to get them together for work in the field, particularly when an inspecting officer’s visit was at hand. We know, from the inspection returns, that the Seventeenth advanced and gained the flank of the enemy every year, in a fashion which commanded the admiration of all beholders. And let us note that in this very year the British Parliament passed an Act for the imposition of stamp duties on the American Colonies--preparing, though unconsciously, future work on active service for the Seventeenth.

[Sidenote: 1766.]

For the three ensuing years we find little that is worth the chronicling, except that in 1766 the regiment suffered, for a brief period, a further change in its nomenclature, the 15th, 16th, and 17th being renumbered the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Light Dragoons. In this same year we discover, quite by chance, that two troops of the Seventeenth were quartered in the Isle of Man, for how long we know not. In 1767 a small matter crops up which throws a curious light on the grievances of the soldier in those days. Bread was so dear that Government was compelled to help the men to pay for it, and to ordain that on payment of fivepence every man should receive a six-pound loaf--which loaf was to last him for four days. Let us note also, as a matter of interest to Colonel Blaquiere, a rise in the value of another article, namely, the troop horse, whereof the outside price was in this year raised from twenty to twenty-two guineas.

[Sidenote: 1770.]

In 1770 we find Colonel Hale promoted to be Governor of Limerick, and therewith severed from the regiment which he had raised. As his new post must presumably have brought him over to Ireland, we may guess that the regiment may have had an opportunity of giving him a farewell dinner, and, as was the fashion in those days, of getting more than ordinarily drunk. From this time forward we lose sight of Colonel Hale, though he is still a young and vigorous man, and has thirty-three years of life before him. His very name perishes from the regiment, for if ever he had an idea of placing a son therein, that hope must have been killed long before the arrival of his twenty-first child. His successor in the colonelcy was Colonel George Preston of the Scots Greys, a distinguished officer who had served at Dettingen, Fontenoy, and other

## actions of the war of 1743–47, as well as in the principal battles of

the Seven Years’ War.

Meanwhile, through all these years, the plot of the American [Sidenote: 1770.] dispute was thickening fast. From 1773 onwards the news of trouble and discontent across the Atlantic became more frequent; and at last in 1774 seven infantry regiments were despatched to Boston. Then probably the Seventeenth pricked up its ears and discussed, with the lightest of hearts, the prospect of fighting the [Sidenote: 1775.] rebels over the water. The year 1775 had hardly come in when the order arrived for the regiment to complete its establishment with drafts from the 12th and 18th, and hold itself in readiness to embark at Cork for the port of Boston. It was the first cavalry regiment selected for the service--a pretty good proof of its reputation for efficiency.[6]

[Illustration:

Marching Order. Field-day Order. Review Order.

PRIVATES, 1784–1810.]

##