DRAGON et DRAGON VOLANT, Fr. some old pieces of artillery were anciently so called. The Dragon was a 40-pounder; the Dragon Volant a 32. But neither the name nor the size of the calibre of either piece is now in use.
DRAGONNER, Fr. According to the French acceptation of the term, is to attack any person in a rude and violent manner; to take any thing by force; to adopt prompt and vigorous measures; and to bring those people to reason by hard blows, who could not be persuaded by fair words.
DRAGOONS, in military affairs, are a kind of horsemen, or cavalry, who serve both on horseback, and foot; being always ready on every emergency, as being able to keep pace with the horse, and to do infantry duty. In battle, or on attacks, they generally fight sword in hand after the first fire. In the field they encamp on the right and left of the lines. They are divided into brigades, regiments, and squadrons. Their martial music is the clarion or trumpet. The first regiment of dragoons in England was raised in 1681, and called the royal regiment of dragoons of North Britain. This name is derived from the Latin word Draconarii, used amongst the Romans. The standard of the Roman cavalry bore as its device a dragon; as that of the infantry bore an eagle.
To Dragoon, is to persecute by abandoning a place to the rage of the soldiery.
DRAG-ropes. See [Ropes]. See [Bricole].
DRAIN or Drein, in the military art, is a trench made to draw water out of a ditch, which is afterwards filled, with hurdles and earth, or with fascines, or bundles of rushes and planks, to facilitate the passage over the mud. See [Trench].
DRAKE, a small piece of artillery.
DRAUGHT, a plan or delineation of any place; a body of troops selected from others.
To Draught, to draw forces from one brigade, &c. to complete another; to select a proportion from brigades, regiments, or companies for any particular service.
Draught-hooks, in a gun-carriage, are fixed to the transom-bolts on the cheeks of artillery carriages, near the trunnion holes and trails: they are used to draw the guns backwards and forwards by men with drag ropes fixed to those hooks.