2nd Continental Dragoons

The 2nd regiment of Continental Light Dragoons was commissioned by Congress in December 1776, with Colonel Elisha Sheldon in command (the regiment was also known as "Sheldon's Horse") and with men recruited largely from Connecticut at first, and then New Jersey and Massachusetts.  The regiment rarely acted a whole, and instead elements and/or troops were allocated to various duties as required.  In addition to carrying out reconnaisance, patrolling, supply-raiding and courier activities, the regiment was present at many of the larger battles of the war: Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Saratoga, Whitemarsh and Yorktown.  At the end of the Saratoga campaign, the 2nd escorted General Burgoyne to Boston after his surrender.  In 1781 the regiment was re-organised along "legion" lines, so it combined mounted troops with dismounted infantry.  George Washington's chief of intelligence, Benjamin Tallmadge, was an officer in the 2nd Dragoons.

These are more figures from the Eureka Continental Dragoons range.  I've been painting a lot of the "ragged" figures as militia, Legions and other irregular troops recently (see here for all previous American cavalry posts), but you can of course use the non-ragged, "uniformed" figures as Continental Dragoons themselves.  Since the Eureka cavalry were released the Perries came out with their own American cavalry, and they have made specific figures for each of the 4 Continental Dragoon regiments.  I don't have any of those yet, but will probably use the Perry 1st and 4th Dragoons figures.  In the meantime, however, I'm more than happy to continue with the Eureka range.  So these are all the smarter Eureka figures in uniform coats with brass helmets.  The 2nd Dragoons appear to have worn dark blue coats faced white or buff and brown/buff breeches.   I wasn't entirely sure whether to paint the helmets brass or black; I went for the former because it looked better.  Also, I decided not to reverse the coat of the trumpeter.  I'd already decided to put him on a white horse and I thought that reversing the coat would make him look a bit too...white.  In the published "British Grenadier!" scenarios, the 2nd Dragoons appear only in the Whitemarsh scenario, as a 4-figure unit.  I thought I'd paint up 6 as I like to have cavalry units of at least 6 figures even where that's a bit more than the scenarios require.  The rather fancy flag is by Adolfo Ramos.  The 2nd had a blue regimental flag, as shown here, and then a separate flag for each squadron (coloured green, red and white).  The central device, repeated on all of the flags, depicts ten bolts of lightning emanating outwards from a winged thundercloud. The Latin motto underneath is thought to be an appreviated form of "Patria Concita Fulminent Nati", which roughly translates as "the fatherland exhorts its sons to strike like lightning".  The regiment had a further national flag that was captured by Tarleton in 1779.

There is an excellent website of the re-enacted 2nd Dragoons here.  This site is top class and really worth a look - it even has a Powerpoint presentation!  It was the source of much of the information in this post, particularly on the flag.  Next up will be more Eureka cavalry, but this time painted as loyalists.  

6 figures.  Painted September 2015.  Flag by Adolfo Ramos.