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Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat with swords and firearms from horseback. While their use goes back to the late 16th century, dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the 17th and early 18th centuries; they provided greater mobility than regular infantry but were far less expensive than cavalry.
The name reputedly derives from a type of firearm, called a dragon, which was a handgun version of a blunderbuss, carried by dragoons of the French Army."took his name from his weapon, a species of carbine or short musket called the dragon" ()
The title has been retained in modern times by a number of armoured warfare or ceremonial mounted regiments.
In 1552, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, mounted several companies of infantry on to achieve surprise, another example being that used by Louis of Nassau in 1572 during operations near Mons in Hainaut, when 500 infantry were transported this way. It is also suggested the first dragoons were raised by the Marshal de Brissac in 1600. According to old German literature, dragoons were invented by Count Ernst von Mansfeld, one of the greatest German military commanders, in the early 1620s. There are other instances of mounted infantry predating this. However Mansfeld, who had learned his profession in Hungary and the Netherlands, often used horses to make his foot troops more mobile, creating what was called an armée volante (French for 'flying army').
The origin of the name remains disputed and obscure. It possibly derives from an early weapon, a short wheellock, called a dragon because its muzzle was decorated with a dragon's head. The practice comes from a time when all gunpowder weapons had distinctive names, including the culverin, serpentine, falcon, falconet, etc. It is also sometimes claimed a galloping infantryman with his loose coat and the burning match resembled a dragon. It has also been asserted that the name was coined by Mansfeld as a comparison to dragons represented as "spitting fire and being swift on the wing". Finally, it has been suggested that the name derives from the German tragen or the Dutch dragen, both being the verb to carry in their respective languages. Howard Reid claims the name and role descend from the Latin Draconarius.
In Britain, companies of dragoons were first raised during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and prior to 1645 either served as independent troops or were attached to cavalry units. When the New Model Army was first approved by Parliament in January 1645, it included ten regiments of cavalry, each with a company of dragoons attached. At the urging of Sir Thomas Fairfax, on 1 March they were formed into a separate unit of 1,000 men, commanded by Colonel John Okey, and played an important part at the Battle of Naseby in June.
Supplied with inferior horses and more basic equipment, the dragoon regiments were cheaper to raise and maintain than the expensive regiments of cavalry. When in the 17th century Gustav II Adolf introduced dragoons into the Swedish Army, he provided them with a sword, an axe and a matchlock musket, using them as "labourers on horseback". Many of the European armies henceforth imitated this all-purpose set of weaponry. Dragoons of the late 17th and early 18th centuries retained strong links with infantry in appearance and equipment, differing mainly in the substitution of riding boots for shoes and the adoption of caps instead of broad-brimmed hats to enable muskets to be worn slung.
A non-military use of dragoons was the 1681 Dragonnades, a policy instituted by Louis XIV to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or re-converting to Catholicism by billeting ill-disciplined dragoons in Protestant households. While other categories of infantry and cavalry were also used, the mobility, flexibility and available numbers of the dragoon regiments made them particularly suitable for repressive work of this nature over a wide area.
In the Spanish Army, Pedro de la Puente organized a body of dragoons in Innsbruck in 1635. In 1640, a tercio of a thousand dragoons armed with the arquebus was created in Spain. By the end of the 17th century, the Spanish Army had three tercios of dragoons in Spain, plus three in the Netherlands and three more in Milan. In 1704, the Spanish dragoons were reorganised into regiments by Philip V, as were the rest of the tercios.
Dragoons were at a disadvantage when engaged against true cavalry, and constantly sought to improve their horsemanship, armament and social status. By the Seven Years' War in 1756, their primary role in most European armies had progressed from that of mounted infantry to that of heavy cavalry. They were sometimes described as "medium" cavalry, midway between heavy/armoured and light/unarmoured regiments, though this was a classification that was rarely used at the time. Their original responsibilities for scouting and picket duty had passed to hussars and similar light cavalry corps in the French, Austrian, Prussian, and other armies. In the Imperial Russian Army, due to the availability of Cossack troops, the dragoons were retained in their original role for much longer.
Towards the end of 1776, George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, realized the need for a mounted branch of the American military. In January 1777 four regiments of light dragoons were raised. Short term enlistments were abandoned and the dragoons joined for three years, or "the war". They participated in most of the major engagements of the American War of Independence, including the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, Cowpens, and Monmouth, as well as the Yorktown campaign.
The seven regiments of Dragoon Guards served as the heavy cavalry arm of the British Army, although unlike continental they carried no armour. Between 1816 and 1861, the other twenty-one cavalry regiments were either disbanded or rebadged as lancers or hussars.
For the period of 1798 to October of 1806, the majority of Prussian Dragoon regiments were similar to Prussian Cuirassier regiments in staffing and organization. Most were made up of 5 squadrons with an 'on paper' war-time regimental strength of 935 men including soldiers, officers, and all the support staff. The minor difference was that Dragoon regiments had 10 more carabiniers (60 in a Dragoon regiment compared to 50 in a Cuirassier regiment) and therefore ten fewer regular troopers (660 Dragoons compared to 670 Cuirassiers). The average regimental staff of most of the regiments was around 37 officers, 65 NCOs, one staff trumpeter and 14 trumpeters, supported by 5 surgeons led by a regimental surgeon, 9 blacksmiths, a regimental quartermaster, a chaplain and a judge, a horse trainer, a saddlemaker, a gunsmith and a gunstock maker, a provost, and 68 servants. The two regiments that were exceptions were the 5th "Bayreuth" (re-designated in March 1806 as the Queen's or "Königin" Dragoons) and the 6th "Auer" Dragoon regiments, which were double-strength with 10 squadrons and retained 2/3rd German heavy horses.
After the disastrous results of the 1806-07 war with France, most of the Prussian army had ceased to exist. For example, the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th Dragoon regiments were totally lost and even the 9th and 14th Dragoon regimental depots had been destroyed. The complete re-organization of the Prussian army in 1808 led to numerous regiments being re-organized and re-designated, mixing surviving Dragoons and Cuirassier veterans with new recruits into a new numeric system and losing the traditional "Chef" naming schema in favor of a mostly geographical designation, with a few exceptions. For example, the old pre-1807 5th "Bayreuth"/"Königin" Dragoons became the 1st "Königin" Dragoon regiment, while the 7th "von Baczko" Dragoons became the 3rd "Lithuanian" Dragoon regiment. The newly designated 5th "Brandenburg" Dragoons were formed from merging the remains of the 5th "von Bailliodz" Cuirassier regiment and its depot with the remains of the old 1st "Konig von Bayern" Dragoon regiment and its depot. This resulted in the reduction of Prussian Dragoon regiments from 14 to 6.Nafziger, George F., The Prussian Army During the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). Volume III. The Cavalry & Artillery, West Chester, OH, 1996, p16-17
Many of these new Prussian Dragoon regiments fought in the 1813 Wars of Liberation in the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in central Europe and France into 1814.
The historic German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian dragoon regiments ceased to exist as distinct branches following the overthrow of the respective imperial regimes of these countries during 1917–18. The Spanish dragoons, which dated back to 1640, were reclassified as numbered cavalry regiments in 1931 as part of the army modernization policies of the Second Spanish Republic.
In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, France maintained 32 regiments of dragoons. Armed with lances, sabres and carbines they were primarily intended to carry out reconnaissance and infantry flanking functions.
The Australian Light Horse were similar to 18th-century dragoon regiments in some respects, being mounted infantry which normally fought on foot, their horses' purpose being transportation. They served during the Second Boer War and World War I. The Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade became famous for the Battle of Beersheba in 1917 where they charged on horseback using rifle in hand, since neither nor were part of their equipment. Later in the Palestine campaign Pattern 1908 cavalry swords were issued and used in the campaign leading to the fall of Damascus.
Probably the last use of real dragoons (infantry on horseback) in combat was made by the Portuguese Army in the war in Angola during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1966, the Portuguese created an experimental horse platoon to operate against the guerrillas in the high grass region of Eastern Angola, in which each soldier was armed with a G3 battle rifle for combat on foot and with a semi-automatic pistol to fire from horseback. The troops on horseback were able to operate in difficult terrain unsuited to and had the advantage of being able to control the area around them, with a clear view over the grass that foot troops did not have. Moreover, these unconventional troops created a psychological impact on an enemy that was not used to facing horse troops, and thus had no training or strategy to deal with them. The experimental horse platoon was so successful that its entire parent battalion was transformed from an armored reconnaissance unit to a three-squadron horse battalion known as the "Dragoons of Angola". One of the typical operations carried out by the Dragoons of Angola, in cooperation with airmobile forces, consisted of the dragoons chasing the guerrillas and pushing them in one direction, with the airmobile troops being launched from helicopter in the enemy rear, trapping the enemy between the two forces.
The Independence Dragoons wear 19th-century dress uniforms similar to those of the earlier Imperial Honor Guard, which are used as the regimental full dress uniform since 1927. The uniform was designed by Debret, in white and red, with plumed bronze helmets. The colors and pattern were influenced by the Austrian dragoons of the period, as the Brazilian Empress consort was also an Austrian Empire. The color of the plumes varies according to rank. The Independence Dragoons are armed with and , the latter only for the officers and the colour guard.
The regiment was established in 1808 by the Prince Regent and future King of Portugal, John VI, with the duty of protecting the Portuguese royal family, which had sought refuge in Brazil during the Napoleonic wars. However dragoons had existed in Portugal since at least the early 18th century and, in 1719, units of this type of cavalry were sent to Brazil, initially to escort shipments of gold and diamonds and to guard the Viceroy who resided in Rio de Janeiro (1st Cavalry Regiment – Vice-Roy Guard Squadron). Later, they were also sent to the south to serve against the Spanish during frontier clashes. After the proclamation of the Brazilian independence, the title of the regiment was changed to that of the Imperial Honor Guard, with the role of protecting the Imperial Family. The Guard was later disbanded by Emperor Pedro II and would be recreated only later in the republican era.CARVALHO, José Murilo de. D. Pedro II: Ser ou não ser. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2007, p. 98
At the time of the Republic proclamation in 1889, horse No. 6 of the Imperial Honor Guard was ridden by the officer making the declaration of the end of Imperial rule, Second lieutenant Eduardo José Barbosa. This is commemorated by the custom under which the horse having this number is used only by the commander of the modern regiment.
The Royal Canadian Dragoons is the senior Armoured warfare regiment in the Canadian Army. The regiment was authorized in 1883 as the Cavalry School Corps, being redesignated as Canadian Dragoons in 1892, adding the Royal designation the next year. The RCD has a history of fighting dismounted, serving in the Second Boer War in South Africa as mounted infantry, fighting as infantry with the 1st Canadian Division in Flanders in 1915–1916 and spending the majority of the regiment's service in the Italian Campaign 1944–1945 fighting dismounted. In 1994 when the regiment deployed to Bosnia as part of the United Nations Protection Force, B Squadron was employed as a mechanized infantry company. The current role of The Royal Canadian Dragoons is to provide Armour Reconnaissance support to 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (2 CMBG) as well as C Squadron RCD in Gagetown which is a part of 2 CMBG and the RCD Regiment with Leopard 2A4 and 2A6 tanks.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were accorded the formal status of a regiment of dragoons in 1921. The modern RCMP does not retain any military status however.
Lithuanian cavalrymen served in dragoon regiments of both the Russian and Prussian armies, after the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Between 1920 and 1924, and again between 1935 and 1940, the Lithuanian Army included the Third Dragoon Iron Wolf Regiment. The dragoons were the equivalent of the present-day Volunteer Forces.
In modern Lithuania the Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion ( Lithuanian: didžiojo kunigaikščio Butigeidžio dragūnų batalionas) is designated as dragoons, with a motorized infantry role.
This regiment of dragoons was created in 1904 following the suggestion of a French military mission which undertook the reorganization of the Peruvian Army in 1896. The initial title of the unit was Cavalry Squadron "President's Escort". It was modelled on the French dragoons of the period. The unit was later renamed as the Cavalry Regiment "President's Escort" before receiving its current title in 1949.
The Peruvian Dragoon Guard has throughout its existence worn French-style uniforms of black tunic and red breeches in winter and white coat and red breeches in summer, with red and white plumed bronze helmets with the coat of arms of Peru and golden or red epaulettes depending on rank. They retain their original armament of and , until the 1980s rifles were used for dismounted drill.
At every day, the main esplanade in front of the Government Palace of Perú fronting Lima's Main Square serves as the stage for the changing of the guard, undertaken by members of the Presidential Life Guard Escort Dragoons, mounted or dismounted. While the dismounted changing is held on Mondays and Fridays, the mounted ceremony is held twice a month on a Sunday.
During the Portuguese Colonial War in the 1960s and the 1970s, the Portuguese Army created an experimental horse platoon, to combat the guerrillas in eastern Angola. This unit was soon augmented, becoming a group of three squadrons, known as the "Angola Dragoons". The Angola Dragoons operated as mounted infantry – like the original dragoons – each soldier being armed with a pistol to fire when on horseback and with an automatic rifle, to use when dismounted. A unit of the same type was being created in Mozambique when the war ended in 1974.
The tercios were converted into a Regimental system, beginning in 1704. Philip V created several additional dragoon regiments to perform the functions of a police corps in the New World. Notable amongst those units were the leather-clad dragones de cuera.
In 1803, the dragoon regiments were renamed as " caballería ligera" (light cavalry). By 1815, these units had been disbanded.
Spain recreated its dragoons in the late nineteenth century. Three Spanish dragoon regiments were still in existence in 1930.Knotel, Richard. Uniforms of the World, pp. 408–409.
The abolition of the dragoon units, believed to be the last non-ceremonial horse cavalry in Europe, was a contentious issue in Switzerland. On 5 December 1972 the Swiss National Council approved the measure by 91 votes, against 71 for retention. Dragons toujours en selle, Éditions Imprimerie centrale, Neuchâtel (1974)
The 1st Dragoons was reformed in the Vietnam War era as the 1st Squadron, 1st U.S. Cavalry. It served in the Iraq War and remains as the oldest cavalry unit, as well as the most decorated one, in the U.S. Army. Today's modern 1–1 Cavalry is a scout/attack unit, equipped with , M3A3 Bradley CFVs, and .
Another modern United States Army unit, informally known as the 2nd Dragoons, is the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. This unit was originally organized as the Second Regiment of Dragoons in 1836 and was renamed the Second Cavalry Regiment in 1861, being redesignated as the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in 1948. The regiment is currently equipped with the Stryker family of wheeled fighting vehicles and was redesignated as the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in 2006. In 2011 the 2nd Dragoon regiment was redesignated as the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment has the distinction of being the longest continuously serving regiment in the United States Army.
The 113th Army Band at Fort Knox is also officially nicknamed as "The Dragoons". This derives from its formation as the Band, First Regiment of Dragoons on 8 July 1840.
Company D, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps, is nicknamed the "Dragoons". Their combat history includes service in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2013.
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