Tuesday 10 November 2015

2nd Continental Dragoons

The 2nd regiment of Continental Light Dragoons was commissioned by Congress in December 1776, with Colonel Elisha Sheldon in command (the regiment was also known as "Sheldon's Horse") and with men recruited largely from Connecticut at first, and then New Jersey and Massachusetts.  The regiment rarely acted a whole, and instead elements and/or troops were allocated to various duties as required.  In addition to carrying out reconnaisance, patrolling, supply-raiding and courier activities, the regiment was present at many of the larger battles of the war: Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Saratoga, Whitemarsh and Yorktown.  At the end of the Saratoga campaign, the 2nd escorted General Burgoyne to Boston after his surrender.  In 1781 the regiment was re-organised along "legion" lines, so it combined mounted troops with dismounted infantry.  George Washington's chief of intelligence, Benjamin Tallmadge, was an officer in the 2nd Dragoons.

These are more figures from the Eureka Continental Dragoons range.  I've been painting a lot of the "ragged" figures as militia, Legions and other irregular troops recently (see here for all previous American cavalry posts), but you can of course use the non-ragged, "uniformed" figures as Continental Dragoons themselves.  Since the Eureka cavalry were released the Perries came out with their own American cavalry, and they have made specific figures for each of the 4 Continental Dragoon regiments.  I don't have any of those yet, but will probably use the Perry 1st and 4th Dragoons figures.  In the meantime, however, I'm more than happy to continue with the Eureka range.  So these are all the smarter Eureka figures in uniform coats with brass helmets.  The 2nd Dragoons appear to have worn dark blue coats faced white or buff and brown/buff breeches.   I wasn't entirely sure whether to paint the helmets brass or black; I went for the former because it looked better.  Also, I decided not to reverse the coat of the trumpeter.  I'd already decided to put him on a white horse and I thought that reversing the coat would make him look a bit too...white.  In the published "British Grenadier!" scenarios, the 2nd Dragoons appear only in the Whitemarsh scenario, as a 4-figure unit.  I thought I'd paint up 6 as I like to have cavalry units of at least 6 figures even where that's a bit more than the scenarios require.  The rather fancy flag is by Adolfo Ramos.  The 2nd had a blue regimental flag, as shown here, and then a separate flag for each squadron (coloured green, red and white).  The central device, repeated on all of the flags, depicts ten bolts of lightning emanating outwards from a winged thundercloud. The Latin motto underneath is thought to be an appreviated form of "Patria Concita Fulminent Nati", which roughly translates as "the fatherland exhorts its sons to strike like lightning".  The regiment had a further national flag that was captured by Tarleton in 1779.

There is an excellent website of the re-enacted 2nd Dragoons here.  This site is top class and really worth a look - it even has a Powerpoint presentation!  It was the source of much of the information in this post, particularly on the flag.  Next up will be more Eureka cavalry, but this time painted as loyalists.  

6 figures.  Painted September 2015.  Flag by Adolfo Ramos.






11 comments:

David said...

Fine work there Giles,as always! Great colour for the jackets too.

Michael Awdry said...

These are superb Giles.

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I prefer the blue tones you used on these to what others often use. Nicely shaded and textured as well. Great stuff Giles. They make me want to paint up some of my own to replace the ones I bought pre-painted.

Stephen said...

Cracking work

Simon said...

The horses and troopers are fantastic.

Simon

Stefan (aka. Monty) said...

Hi Giles,

wonderful work once more and an excellent historical review.

Unfortunately depending from where I access you blog I have problems with either the pictures or with the comment function. Especially when I use our tablet it's a bit tricky. Probably it's fault but therefor I don't place comments all the time. But I surely admire your work very much.

Now I'll take the time to catch up the last posts.

Cheers
Stefan

Giles said...

Thanks, all!

Stefan - it's not just you. I have the same problem. I did a blog catch-up yesterday and while I could leave a comment on your site I couldn't on about 4 others. I sometimes get pop-ups saying "Goggle will shortly stop supporting your current browser" or something like that - maybe that has something to do with it.

irishhighlander said...

I was at reenacting events with this unit. They also sent members to Nova Scotia for the filming of Mary Silliman's War back in 1992.

Cincinnatus said...

Nice work. Following your blog now...

Anonymous said...

quality stuff as usual Giles

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Outstanding work Giles!

Christopher