A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)

A History of the 17th Lancers
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Walker & Burstall Ph. Sc.
John Hale
First Colonel of the 17 th Light Dragoons .
HON. J. W. FORTESCUE
London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1895
All rights reserved
To the Memory OF MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES WOLFE WHO FELL GLORIOUSLY IN THE MOMENT OF VICTORY ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM BEFORE QUEBEC 13TH SEPTEMBER 1759 THIS HISTORY OF THE REGIMENT RAISED IN HIS HONOUR BY HIS COMRADE IN ARMS JOHN HALE IS PROUDLY AND REVERENTLY INSCRIBED
This history has been compiled at the request of the Colonel and Officers of the Seventeenth Lancers.
The materials in possession of the Regiment are unfortunately very scanty, being in fact little more than the manuscript of the short, and not very accurate summary drawn up nearly sixty years ago for Cannon’s Historical Records of the British Army . The loss of the regimental papers by shipwreck in 1797 accounts for the absence of all documents previous to that year, as also, I take it, for the neglect to preserve any sufficient records during many subsequent decades. I have therefore been forced to seek information almost exclusively from external sources.
For the American War I have relied principally on the original despatches and papers, numerous enough, in the Record Office, Tarleton’s Memoirs , and Stedman’s History of the American War ,—the last named being especially valuable for the excellence of its maps and plans. I have also, setting aside minor works, derived much information from the two volumes of the Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy compiled by Mr. B. Stevenson; and from Clinton’s original pamphlets, with manuscript additions in his own hand, which are preserved in the library at Dropmore.