Dragoons

The New Model had one Dragoon Regiment, with ten 100 man companies, and in most major encounters of the Civil War each side had one or two Dragoon regiments.

A Typical cavalryman showing equipment and harness for an officer. A trooper would have plain holsters, saddle cloth and sword belt. The rather square-crowned hat is one of the various types which could be worn at this time, b Cavalry trumpeter. Note hanging sleeves trimmed with lace, usual for musicians. He has a typical low-crowned, curly brimmed hat with three plumes. The trumpet banner would probably carry a similar device to the troop standard, c Drummer wearing what is probably a Mon-tero cap, a short jacket and rather long, narrow breeches, both decorated with strips of lace as well as large bunches of ribbon at shoulder and knee. If he was a Royalist the

Drum might bear the Royal arms, d Rear view of a typical musketeer showing the back of the buff coat and probable appearance of Monmouth cap. e Royalist infantry officer wearing a sleeveless buff coat decorated with a fringe and knots of ribbon, and fashionable loose, open-bottomed tubular breeches with several bands, perhaps of gold lace, and ribbon knots at the bottom. Red sash around waist. Gorget, partisan and boots and spurs indicate his commissioned rank, f Parliamentarian musketeer, possibly of the New Model Army. He wears a plumed helmet rather than the more usual hat, and a sleeveless jerkin.

The English Civil War

Monck recommended that an army have as many troops of dragoons as regiments of horse (ie from one-fifth to one-quarter the strength of the horse), and in fact it seems that a single dragoon troop or company was sometimes incorporated into a cavalry regiment, though separate regiments, usually of five or six troops or companies, were probably more usual. Dragoons were trained to ‘give fire on horseback’ and very occasionally did deliver mounted charges, but they were still essentially mounted infantry and had not yet managed to assimilate themselves into the cavalry.

Their dress appears to have been that of the infantry musketeer, save that boots and spurs replaced shoes and stockings and a helmet was sometimes worn, so they were ill-protected for a cavalry fight. They had swords, but only the officers carried pistols, the rest having either a ‘dragon’ (a musket-bore firelock with a 16 inch barrel) or a shortened but wide-bore firelock musket, neither, again, well suited to a mounted melee (both were normally slung from a swivel on a broad leather shoulder-belt). Their mounts were also small and cheap, unfit to stand against cavalry chargers.

Lacking pikes, they would have had a hard time trying to stand against attack on foot either, and their true tasks were mainly of a skirmishing nature, screening flanks or retreats, seizing strategically placed patches of cover ahead of the main army, or giving mobile fire support to the cavalry. Not surprisingly, dismounted behind a hedge was their favourite battlefield station.