"How did dismounted dragoons fight?" Topic

I'm getting a unit of dismounted dragoons ready for my SYW French.
I'm wondering exactly how such a unit fought historically.
Did the entire unit (minus horse holders) fight dismounted or did they leave a mounted cadre?
Those on foot; in skirmish order? Loose or closed files? How many ranks deep?
Did they bring their standard with them or leave it with the horse holders?
Any opinions gratefully accepted.

Badly?

In the SYW? I believe the French ones fought mainly as mounted cavalry and fought dismounted only in emergencies, to seize some vital point and then only as skirmishers.

Didn't their big boots trip them up ??

Mainly WAS references, but it would not have changed a lot by the SYW.
French dragoons were still:
- a kind of light troops used to scout, screen and flank guard the army, and to carry out raids (partis) in enemy lands (one of their traditional songs YouTube link takes pride from 'burning down Coblenz and pillaging the Palatinate') -at Fontenoy the only dragoons present were at the extreme right of the French line behind Antoing, in the same way as the Grassin were holding the bois de Barry at the extreme left;

- expected to fight dismounted whenever necessary -not only to fight, actually: one of their saddle pistols was replaced with a tool -pick, ax, billhook…- so that they can act as advanced pioneers, clearing the way to the army.
For that reason, they wore soft buckled bottines (leather gaiters, basically) instead of heavy cavalry boots.
French dragoons turned to 'real' line cavalry later, with trumpets instead of drums, and heavy boots, but I'm sure the change occured after the SYW -maybe when light squadrons of chasseurs a cheval were attached to their regiments?

In these Memoires pfef.free.fr/Anc_Reg/Divers.htm a French officer describes some dragons -less than a whole regiment, part of a mixed 'strike force' of converged grenadiers, piquets and dragoons, dismounting to engage in a firefight with 'Croats'. In this case, they were clearly, if not in a 'napoleonic' skirmish line, at least in loose order; and left only horse holders behind, to put as many muskets as possible in action.

on foot…

;-0

From my reading dragoons – if dismounted – would fight in same formations as infanterie. This being the general rule. In battle, that'll be close order. The only 7YW examples AFAIK are the French dragoon brigade at Hastenbeck, all dismounted (but did not exchange fire, I believe), and d'Apchon dragoons at Lutterberg 1758 also said to have dismounted prior to the advance on the Allied positions. That's the only 2 occaisons of dismounted dragoons employed in battle I know of. All others belong into the fight for posts sort of engagements, which often took place in more cut terrain, thus, more often in other then close order formations. Skirmishing order in wargamers terms should serve good enough for description. An example would be the Prussian hussars and dragoons of Frederic's avantgarde storming the village of Borne, as part of the initial morning moves at the battle of Leuthen 5 Dec. 1757. Though, I don't know if all rules allow infantry in skirmish formation to attack/assault. Mine don't, so special rules would be required here.

Dismounted?
-Kle.

"Take and hold until relieved" seems to have been their main tactical role – it's not a coincidence that one of the elite recon units of the modern French army is the "13e Dragons Parachutistes"
link

- Closer to the topic, 18th C. French dragoons were trained in infantry close-order drill, even if in practice, their formation might have to conform to whatever terrain feature they were assaulting or defending, with individual platoons firing as required. I understand the horse holders could be left quite a way to the rear – once dismounted and "going in", dragoons would not normally have expected to remount until the fighting ended.

Rearguard duties would be an exception of course, in which one might imagine the command cadre remaining mounted, the better to survey the situation, and perhaps keeping a squadron mounted for counterattacks? Not that I'm aware of a historical precedent, but this could be an interesting scenario…

Didn't two Russian dragoon regiments fight dismounted at Borodino? Shortage of horses, if I recall correctly. I even have some dismounted 15mm figs for them, I think by Jacobite Miniatures.

@ Musketier
Just so; some of these possibilities have occurred to me.

However, I think I'd need to be careful not to turm SYW dragoons into something they're not, such as C19th mounted rifles.

- Indeed not, but then musketry penalties and serious limitations to remounting might see to that?

I'd see them as a one-shot weapon to seize a wood or village ahead of the main army. Unless reinforced, they'd exhaust their ammunition and staying power fairly quickly.

Speaking of which, does anyone make good 28mm dismounted French dragoons circa 1805?

Cerdic +1

During the 1st half of the 18th C., *French* dragoons (it was certainly different in countries were dragoons were already 'real', if often second-rate, cavalry -with heavy cavalry boots, e.g.) were supposed to be cheap, expendable 'jacks of all trades' able to act as close-order cavalry at least for 'secondary' missions, as light horse and as mounted infantry!
Of course they were not supermen, not even 'elite' troops, so they could not be good in all specialities, on the contrary had to be underaverage in some. Since by SYW times they were well advanced in their transition from mounted infantry to cavalry (if less so than the Household Mousquetaires), in wargame terms I'd have them, when dismounted, 'poor' infantry with regard to *shooting* (shorter musket, less training..) only. With WRG 1685-1835 rules I'd obtain this simply by counting them with matchlocks instead of firelock muskets!
As for dismounting, with 'The War Game'-scale 'big battalions' I'd have 2 32-figs mounted regiments giving 1 48-fig composite infantry battalion and 16 horse holders. If horses remain on the tabletop, they should be moved slowly and clumsily only, be easily panicked, and remounting would take a rather long time -probably better to leave the horses off-table! .

When French dragoons had turned to 'line' cavalry (deemed just below cuirassiers with regard to 'weight'), their 'mounted infantry' origin was not forgotten: when whole regiments of cavalry had to be dismounted (for lack of horses e.g.), dragoons were dismounted first, in some Napoleonic years for instance. And in 1939 the 'mounted infantrymen' (carried in half-tracks) of French mechanized cavalry divisions were Dragons…
During the 18th C., when whole regiments were dismounted long enough before a pitched battle, I wonder if the horses were not left in the army park, without horse holders, allowing all men to be sent to the fight?

Thank you everybody for your knowledge and your wit (:on foot": : I'm still smiling)

In the time of Diaponics they scouted ahead of a main force. Fired a warning volley if they met the foe. Withdrew and charged to their destruction in the line of battle.

Hope that helps!

Its all subjective

Looking through some other books today, I found a booklet for the Exercise for the Foot… with the differences to be observed in the Dragoon Exercise 1757 By Order Of H.R.H. Prince William Augustus Duke of Cumberland etc., etc. that shows the dragoons using the same drill as the foot but with some minor differences in handling their flintlocks and minor positioning changes.

In the WAS, the Spanish in North Italy had several dismounted regiments of dragoons (due to lack of horses and/or fodder) that fought the same as the line infantry.

P.S. re big boots, French dragoons wore leather gaiters rather than boots in the mid-18th Century.