Jim Piecuch - Cavalry of the American Revolution

Cavalry of the American Revolution

Edited by

Jim Piecuch

2012 Westholme Publishing

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Westholme Publishing, LLC

904 Edgewood Road

Yardley, Pennsylvania 19067

Visit our Web site at www.westholmepublishing.com

ISBN: 978-1-59416-544-3 (electronic)

Also available in hardback.

Produced in the United States of America.

Contents

Gregory J. W. Urwin

Lee F. McGee

John M. Hutchins

Donald J. Gara

Scott A. Miskimon

Michael C. Scoggins

Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard

Charles F. Price

Jim Piecuch

Foreword

Jim Piecuch

The role of cavalry in the American Revolution has received relatively little attention in histories of that conflict. A few cavalry commanders, most notably Henry Light-Horse Harry Lee and William Washington on the American side, and Banastre Tarleton of the British Army, have gained considerable renown, but other officers and cavalry actions have often been ignored or given only brief notice. The lack of attention accorded to cavalry operations is unfortunate, because the cavalry of both armies played an important part in the War for Independence.

This volume is an effort to fill some of the gaps in the story. It is not meant to be a comprehensive study of cavalry operations and commanders but rather is intended to highlight various aspects of cavalrys role in the struggle, with a focus on individuals, units, battles, and aspects of cavalry doctrine that have heretofore been overlooked. The essays cover the American and British perspectives as well as the broad geographic area in which the cavalry fought. Readers with an interest in military history in general, the cavalry arm in particular, or with a more specific interest in the American Revolution, along with researchers and academic historians, will find the essays useful as both a source of information and a starting point for further exploration of the topic.

When the American Revolution began in Massachusetts in 1775, neither the American commander-in-chief, Gen. George Washington, nor his British counterparts expected cavalry to be of much use. Under the circumstances prevailing during the siege of Boston, the first campaign of the war, neither side could employ cavalry effectively. Washington believed that mounted troops would be of little value in the hilly New England terrain, pocked with woodlots and crisscrossed by seemingly endless stone walls and fences. Such features were hardly conducive to the use of mounted troops. The British did dispatch two cavalry regiments to America in 1776, the 16th and 17th Regiments of Light Dragoons, and these troops proved useful in the New York campaign. As a result, Washington and the Continental Congress decided in late 1776 that the Continental Army needed its own mounted arm, and eventually four regiments of Continental Light Dragoons were formed, along with additional units of Continental mounted troops assigned to legions, a term designating a combined force of light infantry and cavalry. The most famous Continental legion was that of Virginian Henry Lee, and was commonly known as Lees Legion. Two other legions, those of Count Casimir Pulaski and Charles Armand Tuffin, Marquis de la Rouerie, were also created; the remnants of Pulaskis Legion, decimated at Savannah, Georgia, in October 1779, were subsequently incorporated into Armands Legion.

The British created two legions of their own from American loyalists recruited in the northern states. One, the Queens Rangers, was led by Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, and the other, the British Legion, was commanded by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. During the campaign in the South later in the war, the British made efforts to increase the strength of their cavalry by partially mounting two other loyalist regiments, the New York Volunteers and South Carolina Royalists, and creating a cavalry unit of former slaves. Both sides augmented their regular cavalry forces with mounted militia, while several states organized their own cavalry units.

In the northern theater, cavalrys role consisted primarily of scouting, skirmishing, and raiding. These operations frequently resulted in fairly large clashes between the cavalry of the rival armies, and regular troops as well as militia often took part in such actions. In the southern theater, the open terrain and scattered nature of settlement increased the value of cavalry. Besides carrying out the same duties that mounted troops performed in the North, the cavalry in the South played a large and sometimes decisive part in major infantry battles. On August 16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina, American infantry forces under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates and Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwalliss British foot soldiers were locked in combat, with neither side able to gain a decisive edge. Cornwallis broke the stalemate by ordering Tarletons cavalry to charge through a gap in the American line, a deadly blow that routed the Continental troops. Five months later at the Battle of Cowpens, Lt. Col. William Washingtons Continental Light Dragoons prevented Tarletons cavalry from outflanking the American infantry, leading to an overwhelming Patriot victory. At Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, on March 15, 1781, William Washington and Tarleton were again in action, engaged not against each other but against enemy infantry, and both performed successfully on different parts of the battlefield. Afterward, Washington marched south and participated in the American campaign in South Carolina, as did Henry Lee and his legion, while Tarleton headed northward with Cornwallis to Virginia. In early June 1781 Tarleton nearly captured Thomas Jefferson in a raid on Charlottesville, but in the end it was Tarleton who was captured, along with Cornwallis, at Yorktown when the British Army surrendered to George Washingtons combined French and American force on October 19, 1781.

From reconnaissance to raids to charges on the field of battle, cavalry proved its worth throughout the Revolutionary War. Its value was emphasized by the American and British officers who regularly complained that they did not have enough mounted troops at their disposal.

The importance of cavalry is clear in the quotation from George Washington that provides the subtitle of the first essay, The Continental Light Dragoons, 17761783: There Is No Carrying on the War Without Them, by Gregory J. W. Urwin. The essay discusses the creation of the Continental Armys cavalry arm, and the steps that were taken to organize and provide officers for the mounted units. Urwin also provides an overview of the Continental cavalrys service during the war, from its first engagements in Pennsylvania during the 1777 Philadelphia campaign to the last battles in the South.