In the spring of 1797 the establishment was augmented to 703 officers and men, at the same time a second Lieut.-Colonel and a second Major were added to the regiment. In August of this year the Fourth Dragoon Guards encamped on the Curragh of Kildare, together with the 5th, 6th, and 7th Dragoon Guards, and 5th and 9th Dragoons; and these corps were reviewed in September by Lieut.-General Sir David Dundas, who issued very complimentary orders on the occasion. The camp broke up in October, when the regiment marched to Maryborough, with detachments at Mount Mellick and Ballinakill.

During this year some alterations were made in the equipment of the regiment: the large carbines were exchanged for others of a smaller size; and the pair of large pistols for a single pistol; and the saddles were also considerably reduced in size. Lappels to the coats and silver lace on the men's hats were discontinued; and the colour of the waistcoats was changed from buff to white.

1798

In the succeeding year the disaffected in Ireland broke out into open rebellion. Their leaders, having received fresh promises of aid from France, became confident of having their hopes and wishes accomplished, and the 22nd of May, 1798, was appointed for a general rising. The government had taken measures to meet the coming danger; a numerous yeomanry force was embodied; the regular troops were kept in constant readiness for active service; and, information of the designs of the insurgents having been procured, the leaders were seized and imprisoned, and the plan of the rebellion was disorganized. The passions of the misguided peasantry had, however, been wrought into fury and madness by all the motives which bigotry, hope of personal advantage, and thirst for vengeance could inspire, and the rebellion, so long suppressed, broke out with accumulated horrors. During the whole of its continuance the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards were constantly employed in this painful and unnatural warfare.

The regiment, having marched from Maryborough, was detached to the different towns near Dublin, where the rebels were in force. Captain William Smith's troop was stationed at Naas, with a party of fencible cavalry and another of Armagh militia. This town was attacked on the 24th of May by two thousand rebels: their first attempt was upon the county jail, where they were repulsed with great loss; and they then possessed themselves of all the principal avenues to the town, and made a simultaneous attack on the posts occupied by the troops. The wild and disorderly rush of the undisciplined multitude was opposed by the troops with firmness, and after a contest of an hour's duration, the rebels were repulsed with the loss of one-hundred and forty men left dead in the streets. The Fourth Dragoon Guards and fencibles charged several times and slaughtered many of the rebels in the pursuit. The regiment had Quarter Master Rowayne and private Hughes, with eleven horses killed; and ten men and a number of horses wounded. This loss was occasioned by the rebel pikemen.

During the night a party of rebels set fire to the barracks at Prosperous, where one officer and twenty-eight men of the militia perished: a party of the Fourth Dragoon Guards was also surprised in quarters and nearly every man put to death: a few men were taken prisoners and afterwards butchered by the insurgents with the most inhuman cruelty. A party of fencibles was also surprised and murdered at Dunboyne; and the same misfortune befel a party of the Suffolk militia escorting baggage to Kildare. A number of other towns were attacked: in some instances the rebels were successful, in others they were defeated; and on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of May numerous skirmishes occurred, and civil war with all its horrors raged in the heart of Ireland.

A body of rebels attempted to surprise Carlow, which was garrisoned by detachments of the Fourth Dragoon Guards and Ninth Dragoons, with some Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteers, amounting to about 450 men. The rebels assembled nearly 3000 strong on the estate of Sir William Crosbie, Bart., who led them to the attack; and after a sharp conflict they were defeated, with the loss of 500 men killed, and many prisoners, including their leader, who was immediately tried by martial law and hanged.

Numerous encounters occurred in other parts of the country; and on the 30th of May a detachment of the Fourth Dragoon Guards, with a party of fencibles and Antrim militia, proceeding under the command of Colonel Walpole to join Major-General Loftus at Gorey, arrived at a place where the road was low and narrow, with high clay banks on each side crowded with bushes, and beyond them deep trenches, where they were attacked by an ambush of rebels of overwhelming numbers. The cavalry, by repeated charges to the front and right, endeavoured to extricate themselves, but their utmost efforts could not avail against the immense numbers by which they were opposed; and after an unequal fight of an hour's duration, in which their commanding officer, Colonel Walpole, and many men and horses were killed, they were forced to retire, covered by the militia, and had the mortification of losing three guns. About the same date 15,000 rebels took Wexford, and in the beginning of June made an attack upon New Ross, but were repulsed.[19] Enraged at this failure, they murdered, at the instigation of their priests, 241 Protestant prisoners in cold blood, and evinced, in this act, a ferocious cruelty not exceeded by the savage barbarians of the most uncultivated part of the world.

On the 4th of June Captain Sir Richard Steel engaged, with his troop of the Fourth Dragoon Guards, a body of rebels posted at Ovidstown, and the insurgents fought for some time with bravery, but were eventually dispersed with great slaughter. The troop had one serjeant, two rank and file, and three horses killed; with nine men and a number of horses wounded. Captain Sir Richard Steel had his horse killed under him, and was himself severely wounded.

About the same period a body of rebels attacked the first, or Colonel's, troop of this regiment, at Goff's Bridge, when the Dragoon Guards repulsed the furious onsets of their reckless opponents with signal gallantry, and drove back the insurgents with loss.