Wellington’s heavy cavalry
Gabriele Esposito describes the organisation and uniforms of the British heavy cavalry units in the Napoleonic Wars
Gabriele Esposito describes the organisation and uniforms of the British heavy cavalry units in the Napoleonic Wars. These were the shock troops of the 18th century battlefield.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary Wars the British heavy cavalry consisted of two distinct categories of units: the Dragoon Guards and the Dragoons. In theory, the former were made up of heavy horsemen and the latter were made up of medium horsemen. However, in practice, there was very little difference between the two since both were trained and equipped to act as shock cavalry. A real tactical difference, in fact, existed only between them and the regiments of Light Dragoons. The Dragoon Guards was first created in 1746, when the general organisation of the British heavy cavalry underwent a radical reform. The first two heavy cavalry units that received the new denomination of Dragoon Guards were the Queen’s Own Regiment of Horse and the te Earl of Peterborough’s Regiment of Horse, which respectively became the 1st Dragoon Guards and the 2nd Dragoon Guards. In 1747 a third unit, the Earl of Plymouth’s Regiment of Horse, was converted into a regiment of Dragoon Guards. This was followed by another four units in 1788, when the British cavalry was again reorganised. As a result, by 1790, the British Army included a total of seven regiments of Dragoon Guards.
Since the days of the Restoration (1660), the English cavalry had been made up of horse regiments and of dragoon regiments. The first were equipped with cuirasses until the last decades of the 17th century and consisted of proper heavy cavalry. The second were originally raised as mounted infantry corps that were not tasked with conducting frontal charges. Initially, the dragoons were introduced in the European armies of post-1648 as chosen units of infantrymen who could use horses to travel but dismounted to fight. They were infantrymen with a higher degree of mobility. This was clear from the latter’s personal equipment, since they were armed with long infantry muskets and did not have the same leather boots used by the cavalrymen of the horse regiments.
With the progression of time, the dragoons gradually lost their original mounted infantry nature and transformed themselves into normal line cavalry. At the same time, the horse regiments discarded their metal cuirasses and started to use lighter personal equipment. As a result of these changes, the existing tactical differences that distinguished horse regiments from the dragoon ones practically ceased to exist. Both the heavy horsemen and the dragoons, in fact, did not wear cuirasses
and were now employed to perform the same duties. As a result, in 1746, the British government decided to transform the horse regiments into dragoon ones in order to cut economic costs and to eliminate a tactical differentiation that no longer existed. The heavy mounts of the horse regiments had a considerable cost but produced no real advantages during field battles. In addition, the soldiers of the horse regiments had the privilege of being paid much more than those of the dragoon units.
With the creation of the Dragoon Guards the British government found a good compromise in which the costly horse regiments were abolished, but at the same time their members kept alive the glorious traditions of the
British heavy cavalry. The term Guards of their new official denomination, in fact, underlined that the units of Dragoon Guards were the elite of the British heavy cavalry and marked a formal difference between them and the normal dragoons.
The transformation of the horse regiments into Dragoon Guards was very unpopular among the units affected by it, since it led to drastic reductions in the pay given to their members. In addition, the new official denomination did not signify the inclusion of the former horse regiments into the Royal Household. In practice, the Dragoon Guards were something placed between the Life Guards/Horse Guards and the normal regiments of dragoons. The latter, by the outbreak of the Revolutionary Wars, were six; as a result, the whole heavy cavalry of the British Army comprised a total of 13 regiments (reduced to 12 from 1799).
The structure
The heavy cavalry regiments of the British Army were structured on troops, with two of the latter making up a squadron. Squadrons were known by letters, troops were known by numbers. Before the outbreak of the Revolutionary Wars against France, each British heavy cavalry regiment consisted of six troops that were assembled into three squadrons; of the latter, one was a depot unit that was always kept of reserve in Britain. The depot squadron of each regiment had to provide new recruits with some solid basic training to the two active squadrons in order to replenish the losses suffered by the latter during overseas deployments.
In 1793, with the mobilisation that followed the outbreak of hostilities with France, the standard establishment of a heavy cavalry regiment was increased from six to nine troops (10 in some cases, like for the 1st Dragoon Guards or the 1st Dragoons). This organisational change, however, was not adopted by all units in a rapid way and thus several regiments continued to have a variable number of troops for some time. In 1800 the troops in each unit were increased to 10, in order to form four active squadrons and one depot squadron. During 1811, however, the number of active squadrons was reduced to three and thus the total of troops in each regiment was fixed at eight (six active and two of depot).
Again, this organisational change was not adopted by all units in a rapid way. The regimental staff of the heavy cavalry units comprised the following elements: one Colonel, two Lieutenant-Colonels, two Majors, six Captains, one Captain-Lieutenant, eight Lieutenants, nine cornets, one paymaster, one adjutant, one surgeon, two assistant-surgeons and one veterinary surgeon. Each troop, instead, included the following: one Captain, one Lieutenant-Colonel, one Major, one Quartermaster, four Sergeants, four Corporals, one trumpeter and 85 troopers. In June 1809 the quartermaster of each troop was transformed into a Sergeant-Major and a Lieutenant-Quartermaster was added to the staff of each regiment.
During 1810 the internal composition of a heavy cavalry unit’s regimental staff was partly modified and became the following one: one Colonel, one Lieutenant-Colonel, one Major, one Adjutant, one Lieutenant Quartermaster, one paymaster, one surgeon, two assistant-surgeons, one veterinary surgeon and one regimental Sergeant-Major. The new composition
of a single troop, instead, was this: one Captain, one Lieutenant, one cornet, one troop Sergeant-Major, three Sergeants, four Corporals, one trumpeter, one farrier and 63 troopers.
By 1809 the average numerical consistency of all heavy cavalry regiments was of 905 officers and men each. The only exception to this rule was the 1st Dragoons that had 1,083 officers and men (with an additional troop).
The uniforms
Until 1796 the British heavy cavalry continued to wear its pre-revolutionary uniforms, which comprised black bicorn hat and red tail-coat with open lapels on the front, which were in the distinctive colour of each regiment. In 1796 the lapels started to be worn buttoned up in order to form a single frontal plastron. One year later, in 1797, a new model of tail-coat was introduced. This was single-breasted and did not have lapels on the front; as a result, it was much more comfortable to wear.
In 1812 there was a real revolution in the uniforms of the British heavy cavalry, since a new and much modern dress was introduced. This had a black leather helmet as headgear and substituted the old-fashioned tail-coat with a single-breasted jacket having short turnbacks. The M1812 uniforms were retained until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The pre-1797 dress was as follows: black bicorn with white-and-red plume and with black cockade having yellow lace holder; red coat with collar and round cuffs in regimental colour, frontal lapels in regimental colour, additional stripes of yellow lace on the buttonholes of the collar (one), front of the coat (eight in four couples), cuffs (one) and sleeves (three); the buttonholes on the cuffs and sleeves were V-shaped. White turnbacks, white trousers, black leather tall boots and white leather belt equipment. Officers had all the yellow elements listed above in gold and wore a red sash wrapped around the waist. In addition, their rank was shown by golden epaulettes and contreepaulettes that were worn on the shoulders. The regimental colours, which did not change during the period taken into account, were as follows:
• 1st Dragoon Guards: dark blue
• 2nd Dragoon Guards: black
• 3rd Dragoon Guards: white
• 4th Dragoon Guards: medium blue
• 5th Dragoon Guards: light green
• 6th Dragoon Guards: white
• 7th Dragoon Guards: black
• 1st Dragoons: dark blue
• 2nd Dragoons: dark blue
• 3rd Dragoons: dark blue
• 4th Dragoons: dark green
• 5th Dragoons: dark blue
• 6th Dragoons: yellow
The new M1797 dress comprised the following elements: black bicorn with black cockade having yellow lace holder and with white-and-red plume; red coat with collar and round cuffs in regimental colour, shoulder straps in regimental colour with white or yellow piping, red shoulder wings piped in white or yellow; additional stripes of white or yellow lace on the buttonholes of the collar (two), front of the coat (10 in five couples), cuffs (one) and sleeves (one). Turnbacks in regimental colour, white trousers, black leather tall boots and white leather belt equipment. Officers had all the white/yellow elements listed above in gold and wore a red sash wrapped around the waist. In addition, the shoulder straps and shoulder wings of their uniforms were covered with golden scales.
The Scots Greys were the only regiment that did not have the bicorn as headgear; they wore, in fact, a black bearskin that was retained in service also after the introduction of the new M1812 dress. This had a brass frontal plate reproducing the British coat-of-arms, a black leather peak, a white plume, brass chinscale and a decorative white cord with two tassels of the same colour. In addition, on the back, it was ornamented with a red circle inside which a white Horse of Hanover was embroidered. On the campaign trail the plume of the bearskin was removed and the whole headgear was protected by a cover made of oilskin.
The piping colour of the various units could be white or yellow and helped to distinguish the corps having the same regimental colour, according to the following scheme:
• 1st Dragoon Guards: yellow
• 2nd Dragoon Guards: white
• 3rd Dragoon Guards: yellow
• 4th Dragoon Guards: white
• 5th Dragoon Guards: yellow
• 6th Dragoon Guards: white
• 7th Dragoon Guards: yellow
• 1st Dragoons: yellow
• 2nd Dragoons: white
• 3rd Dragoons: yellow
• 4th Dragoons: white
• 5th Dragoons: white
• 6th Dragoons: white
The new M1812 uniform comprised the following elements: black leather helmet with brass frontal plate bearing the royal monogram on the front, black leather peak, brass chinscale, brass crest covered with a black mane and having a black tuft on the front; red singlebreasted jacket with collar and pointed cuffs in regimental colour having white or yellow piping, shoulder straps in regimental colour having white or yellow piping, white or yellow piping to the front and bottom edges of the jacket, turnbacks in regimental colour with white or yellow piping (short), white trousers, black leather boots and white leather belt equipment. A sash was worn around the waist, which was in the regimental colour and in the piping colour (white or yellow).
On campaign the white trousers were replaced by dark grey ones having red piping and brown leather reinforcements on the internal part. Officers of all the regiments, both with parade dress and with campaign dress, wore the same uniforms of their men but with all the white/yellow elements in gold. The shabraque of most regiments was dark blue with the royal monogram embroidered in the piping colour of each unit on the back corner; on the external edge it had a band in the piping colour of each unit with dark blue piping in the centre. Some regiments had the shabraque in regimental colour and not in dark blue. Over the shabraque a protective black or white sheepskin was worn on most occasions.
Until 1812 trumpeters were dressed with the standard uniform of their regiment but with reversed colours. In that year they received the same dress of the ordinary troopers but were easily distinguishable on the battlefield since the mane and the tuft of their helmets were red instead of black. In addition, they also had decorated shoulder wings.