On the evening of the 25th of April a French corps of about 30,000 men, commanded by Lieut.-General Chapuy, marched out of Cambray, and on the following morning advanced against the British troops. At day-break the enemy formed line, and being concealed by a thick fog, took possession of a village in front of the British position. At length their movements being plainly seen, His Royal Highness detached the Third Dragoon Guards and other cavalry of the right wing, to turn the enemy's left flank; and this movement having been executed, the British squadrons charged with their characteristic gallantry, overthrew the troops of the enemy, and pursued them to the gates of Cambray. In the midst of the conflict the Third Dragoon Guards, ever emulous of glory, were seen carrying destruction and defeat through the enemy's ranks; and in their victorious career, the allies captured thirty-five pieces of cannon, with a number of prisoners, amongst whom was the French commander, Lieut.-General Chapuy, who surrendered his sword to Major Tiddieman, the commanding-officer of the Third Dragoon Guards.
The regiment, however, purchased its laurels with the loss of Captain Pigot, Lieutenant Fellowes, 1 quarter-master, 1 serjeant, 36 private men, and 46 horses killed, besides a great number wounded. His Royal Highness the Duke of York expressed his admiration of its conduct,[53] and inserted the following paragraph in the General Orders issued on this occasion.
'The Austrian Regiment of Cuirassiers of Zetchwitz, the Blues, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Dragoon Guards, the Royals, Archduke Ferdinand's Hussars, and the 16th Light Dragoons, who attacked and defeated the principal column of the enemy on the right, HAVE ALL ACQUIRED IMMORTAL HONOUR TO THEMSELVES.'
After the surrender of Landrécies, the Third Dragoon Guards marched to the vicinity of Tournay, and on the 10th of May were engaged in repulsing the attack of the enemy, whose troops were forced across the Marque, with the loss of thirteen pieces of cannon. The regiment behaved on this occasion with its accustomed gallantry; and sustained a loss of 2 officers, 1 serjeant, and 14 private men, with 25 horses killed; and 2 officers, 2 serjeants, 6 men, and 2 horses wounded.
The allies subsequently sustained several severe losses in actions with the enemy, and the Austrians having resolved to abandon the Netherlands, the Duke of York, who had maintained his position in front of Tournay against all opposition, was obliged to make a corresponding movement. The Third Dragoon Guards shared, in common with the other regiments, the hardships which this event occasioned. In the subsequent retreat through Holland, which was occasioned in a great measure by the defection of the Dutch people, the incessant fatigue, the inclemency of the season, and the difficulty experienced in procuring supplies, reduced the British troops to a most distressing state of ill health, and occasioned the death of hundreds of brave men. At length the Maese and the Waal were frozen; the French, with their cannon and all the matériel of their army, passed these rivers on the ice: some hard fighting occurred, but the British, in their reduced condition, were unable to oppose effectual resistance. The army retired in the midst of a rigorous winter, through a hostile country covered with ice and snow, without necessaries, and without accommodation: consequently numbers perished from want, and others were frozen to death; yet the survivors preserved a firm and undaunted countenance, and defeated the attacks of the pursuing army. 'Such was the fate of as brave a body of men as ever Great Britain sent into the field. Both men and officers behaved themselves throughout the whole of the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, with a spirit that distinguished them wherever they were employed, and that fully corresponded with that idea of British valour, so justly entertained by foreign nations. It was, however, in the last stages of this unsuccessful campaign that their courage appeared with the most lustre. The undesponding perseverance with which they met and surmounted every hardship and obstacle, arising from the various incidents of war, was the more remarkable, that they contended against an enemy in full possession of every advantage occurring from victory, and whom they could only expect to impress with a sense of their valour. Herein they certainly succeeded.'[54]
1795
Having arrived at Bremen, in Lower Saxony, the troops there obtained provision and rest. The infantry embarked for England in April, 1795; but the Third Dragoon Guards, and several other cavalry regiments, remained in Germany until November, when they returned to England.
1799
In the summer of 1799 the regiment was encamped near Swinley, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Payne, and was this year ordered to be mounted on nag-tailed horses.
1800