Dragoon

Dragoon, a cavalry soldier who is armed with an infantry firearm, and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback. The name was derived from the dragon's head worked upon the muzzles of the short muskets first carried by Marshal Brissac's horsemen in the year 1600. Dragoons were originally intended to act as mounted infantry, and in order to make them more efficient in that capacity, the Russians have recently armed theirs with the long rifle. In the British army, all Cavalry (q.v.) carry Carbines (q.v.), but the name dragoon is given to those regiments which wear helmets only. After the Crimean war, the so-called light dragoons were changed into hussars, leaving three regiments of dragoons, seven of dragoon guards, and the three cuirassed regiments of household troops. Six of these are classified as medium, and the remainder as heavy cavalry, but the men and horses are all big, as compared with those of hussar and lancer regiments. The weights carried by the horses on the march are 19 stone 4 lb. for dragoons, 18 stone 10 lb. for lancers, and 18 stone for hussars. The oldest dragoon regiment is the Scots Greys, established 1683.