On the 17th of January the Inniskilling dragoons halted at Campen in Overyssel; on the 26th they were at Steenwyk in the same province, and continuing this harassing march, they passed the confines of Holland, and arrived on the 10th of February at the banks of the Ems, a river of Westphalia. They were to have halted at Warmer, but a thaw occasioned them to prosecute their journey and pass the river on the ice. Continuing the march on the following day, the country for a considerable distance was under water, and several horses which had become exhausted, were lost in the inundations.
The frost returning, the Sixth dragoons countermarched, repassed the Ems on the ice on the 20th of February, and on the 20th skirmished with the van of the French army. Several manœuvres followed, and on the 3rd of March a party of French failed in an attempt to pass the Ems. On the following day the Inniskilling dragoons had to traverse a small river on the ice at a point which was commanded by the enemy's cannon; but the regiment, being favoured by a very thick fog, passed unperceived by the French.
1796
1797
Hostilities terminated in this quarter soon afterwards; in May the regiment went into cantonments in villages near the banks of the Weser, one of the principal rivers in Germany; and in July it encamped near Delmenhorst, the chief town of a district of that name in Westphalia, seven miles south-west of Bremen. On the breaking up of the camp, the Sixth dragoons marched through Bremen into cantonments on the right bank of the Weser until November, when they embarked for England, but were detained in the river several weeks by contrary winds. They landed at Yarmouth and South Shields about Christmas; in January, 1796, they marched to Norwich, and in September following to Ipswich, where they passed the succeeding winter. In the autumn of 1797 they proceeded to Romford.
General Johnston died on the 13th of December, 1797, and was interred in great state in Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded in the colonelcy by George, Earl of Pembroke, K.G., who commanded the regiment during the succeeding thirty years.
1798
1799
1800
1801
Leaving Romford in June, 1798, the regiment proceeded to Windsor, and encamped in the forest, where a numerous body of troops was assembled, and exercised in the presence of King George III. and the royal family. His Majesty reviewed the regiment; and it afterwards proceeded into cantonments, the head-quarters being at Uxbridge. In December, 1799, it marched to Birmingham; in August, 1800, to Bristol; and in June, 1801, to Exeter.
1802
The successes of the British forces in Egypt and the West Indies, were followed by a treaty of peace, in 1802, when the establishment of the Sixth dragoons was reduced to eight troops, and the total number of officers and men to five hundred and fifty-three. In October the head-quarters were removed to Nottingham.