5th Dragoon Guards


Salamanca


This illustration made in the 1830s, twenty years after the Battle of Salamanca, shows the moment when the 5th Dragoon Guards captured the mace from the French drum-major of the 65th Infantry regiment.  The drum-major, on the right of the picture, is unaccountably in the thick of the fighting dressed as for a parade in Paris, with shiny boots and wild hair barely contained under his gold-laced shako. This mace became a trophy that was retained by the regiment. The uniforms are rather incongruous as they are in review order, not in campaign dress.  They had not received their new helmets by this time but the hats would doubtless be without the plume and their nether-wear should be grey overalls and short boots instead of white leather breeches and jackboots. 

Image from Historical Record of the 5th Dragoon Guards. the Fifth, Or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards
by Richard Cannon (1839)


Regimental details


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