{"id":91099,"date":"2025-02-16T05:53:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T05:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/cavalrymen-in-the-17th-regiment-of-foot\/"},"modified":"2025-02-16T05:53:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T05:53:23","slug":"cavalrymen-in-the-17th-regiment-of-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91099","title":{"rendered":"Cavalrymen in the 17th Regiment of Foot"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe British army sent only two cavalry regiments, the 16th and 17th Light Dragoons, from Great
\nBritain to fight in the American Revolution. Some Loyalist cavalry regiments and legions (regiments that
\nincluded both infantry and cavalry) were formed in America, but only two
\ncavalry corps were sent from the British Isles. Many horse soldiers, however, left other British cavalry regiments to serve in the American War
\nas infantry.<\/div>\n
\nThroughout 1775, when regiments were ordered to America –
\ninitially for a military buildup that was intended to prevent war, later
\nbecause war had broken out – they were brought up to full strength with
\napproximately equal numbers of recruits and drafts. Drafts were soldiers
\nalready in the army, serving in regiments that were not deploying overseas;
\nthey were “drawn” from one regiment to another. In this way, the
\nregiments going on foreign service did not have too many inexperienced men in
\ntheir ranks.<\/div>\n
\nThe infantry regiments that came to America in the first
\nhalf of 1775 received drafts only from infantry regiments. But in the second
\nhalf of the year five more regiments received orders to embark, and a call went
\nout for volunteers from cavalry regiments to join the infantry. Due to
\nlogistical problems, only the 17th, 27th and 55th Regiments sailed in late
\n1776, and all included a few drafted cavalry troopers in their ranks. Ten were
\nin the 17th Regiment of Foot.[i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nWhen more regiments were sent to America in 1776, more cavalry drafts filled
\ntheir ranks, over two hundred in all.<\/div>\n
\nNone of the troopers who “went volunteer for
\nAmerica” (to use the terminology on some of the cavalry muster rolls) left
\nan account of his reasons for volunteering. It was quite a career change. The
\ndifference in pay between the cavalry and the infantry was significant. The
\narmy’s adjutant general at the War Office wrote, \u201cWhat is this Mystery of the
\nwillingness of Troopers, to serve as private Grenadiers? I can\u2019t Decypher it:
\nhowever it\u2019s done.\u201d[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> The
\nbest guess is that overseas service in a war was preferable to the usual duties
\nof the cavalry, policing the English and Irish countryside, occasionally battling
\nsmugglers and ruffians.<\/div>\n
\nNot all of the cavalry men who joined the 17th Regiment are
\nexplicitly denoted as such on the muster rolls, but because a few are, the
\nothers can be determined by comparing names on the 17th’s rolls with the names
\nof drafts on the cavalry rolls. Five of them joined the 17th’s grenadier
\ncompany, an apt assignment because grenadiers needed to be experienced soldiers
\nand the cavalry generally recruited taller men than the infantry. John Campbell
\nwas thirty-one years old with eight years of service when he left the 5th
\nDragoons to join the grenadier company of the 17th Regiment. The native of county
\nSligo in Ireland was discharged in April 1779 because he had been wounded in
\nthe leg; he received a pension, a useful benefit because he had never learned a
\ntrade.[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nA fellow trooper from the 5th Dragoons, Bartholomew Reynolds, joined him in the
\ngrenadier company, but deserted in New Jersey on 19 June 1777.<\/div>\n
\nAlso in the grenadiers were James Lorimer, a twenty-eight
\nyear old Irish weaver from county Antrim who had joined the army when he was
\nonly fifteen years old. A trooper in the 2nd Horse Regiment, he joined the 17th
\nFoot and served the entire war, taking his discharge in December 1783 and
\nreceiving a pension because he had been wounded in the left arm during the war.[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nJames Carlisle, a trooper in the 3rd Horse from county Tyrone, went into the
\n17th’s grenadiers at the age of twenty-nine after five years in the army, and
\ncontinued to serve until 1799 when he was discharged and pensioned because he
\nwas \u201csuperannuated & rheumatic;\u201d although a “labourer” with no
\ntrade, he was able to sign his own name, and was granted a pension.[v]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nAnd Patrick Cunningham of the 9th Dragoons initially joined the 17th’s
\ngrenadier company, but soon after was transferred to the battalion; he was
\nwounded at Stony Point in 1779, and his subsequent fate is not known.[vi]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\nWilliam Armstrong was a private trooper in the 14th Light
\nDragoons, but was appointed corporal a year after joining a battalion company
\nin the 17th Regiment. In 1782 he was appointed sergeant, but he didn’t get to
\nenjoy that elevated post for long; he died on 25 April 1783. Also from the 14th
\nLight Dragoons came Robert Quin, who was appointed corporal in June 1778. He
\nwas among the unfortunate men of the 17th who was captured at Stony Point,
\nreleased, and captured again at Yorktown; when prisoners were repatriated at
\nthe close of hostilities in 1783, he did not return and was written off the
\nrolls.<\/div>\n
\nFrom the 5th Dragoons came John Shorthal, whose career with
\nthe 17th was cut short when he died of unknown causes on 20 March 1777. John
\nGuthrey volunteered from the 3rd Horse Regiment and served in the 17th Foot for
\nthe entire war, but there is no record of him receiving a pension after his
\ndischarge in 1783. Thomas Newenham of the 5th Dragoons was taken prisoner soon
\nafter joining the regiment; his name appears on a list of prisoners with the rebels
\ndated 29 December 1776. He was released, only to be captured once again at
\nYorktown. He appears to have been an officer\u2019s servant, as he was given leave
\nto return to Great Britain rather than remaining in captivity. He was discharged
\nin September of 1783.<\/div>\n
\nAnd there were others. In October of 1778, the 16th Light
\nDragoons, one of the two cavalry regiments sent as a whole to America, was sent
\nback home. Following the usual practice, men who were fit for service were
\ndrafted into other regiments remaining in America. Most of these dragoons went
\nto the 17th Light Dragoons and to Loyalist cavalry regiments, but eleven of
\nthem were drafted into the 17th Regiment of Foot. It\u2019s possible that these men
\nhad served as dismounted troopers in the 17th Light Dragoons; the muster rolls
\ndo not distinguish between mounted and dismounted men. Their careers in the
\ninfantry could be traced through the muster rolls of the 17th Foot, but we\u2019ll
\nleave that for another day.<\/div>\n

\nWhen men were drafted, they typically retained their
\nuniforms from their old regiments, which they owned, having paid for them
\nthrough pay stoppages. But they received new uniforms with their new regiment\u2019s
\nnext clothing issue, if not sooner. It is possible that among the men in the
\n17th Regiment at Princeton in January 1777 were a few private soldiers in
\ncavalry uniforms, but by the summer of 1777 they had surely been replaced. A
\nfew old garments and buttons may have continued to be seen here and there. The
\nmore important takeaway is in understanding that many of the \u201cnew\u201d soldiers in
\nthe regiment were in fact quite experienced, and knew more of the army than
\njust the infantry.<\/p>\n

\nLearn more about British soldiers in America!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n[i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nMuster rolls, 17th Regiment of Foot, WO 12\/3406, and muster rolls of other
\ninfantry and cavalry regiments in the WO 12 series, The National Archives of
\nGreat Britain (TNA). Unless otherwise noted, all subsequent information about
\nindividual soldiers in this article is drawn from this collection.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Edward
\nHarvey to Lt. Col. Smith, 7 September 1775, WO 3\/5 f41, TNA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nPension admission books, WO 116\/7, TNA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> Pension
\nadmission books, WO 116\/8, TNA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n[v]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nDischarge of James Carlisle, WO 121\/35\/153, TNA.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British army sent only two cavalry regiments, the 16th and 17th Light Dragoons, from Great Britain to fight in the American Revolution. Some Loyalist cavalry regiments and legions (regiments that included both infantry and cavalry) were formed in America, but only two cavalry corps were sent from the British Isles. Many horse soldiers, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[17448,43965,2645,13660],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-91099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-17th","tag-cavalrymen","tag-foot","tag-regiment"],"yoast_head":"\nCavalrymen in the 17th Regiment of Foot - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=91099\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cavalrymen in the 17th Regiment of Foot - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The British army sent only two cavalry regiments, the 16th and 17th Light Dragoons, from Great Britain to fight in the American Revolution. 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