Dragoon Diary: The History of the Third Continental Light Dragoons

by C.F. William Maurer

The Bergen Record reported that the remains of a Revolutionary War cavalry unit were unearthed in River Vale, NJ. This was the Third Continental Light Dragoons, nicknamed, Mrs. Washington's Body Guard. The accompanying text read ...provided bayonet practice for the British in Old Tappan, NY. This has come down to us as the Baylor Massacre of September 28, 1778. Who were the officers and men of the Third Dragoons? Did they play more of a part in the American Revolution than provide bayonet practice? How did, and how could, a massacre take place? A military unit must have a history. Was the massacre the end of the dragoons? What was a Virginia unit doing in Bergen County, New Jersey in the first place? How could a cavalry unit be so surprised and then massacred with almost no shots fired in return? This is not a conventional history, in that there is little attempt to re-write history. History writes itself from letters, diaries, public records and newsprint.

572 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2005

Reviews

[EF · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a month to read this, and it’s a happy coincidence that I finished it just as Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” began airing. The level of detail in Maurer’s exhaustive research shows the day-to-day struggles of Washington and his army (feeding troops and horses, reimbursing locals for confiscated food/crops/livestock, confusion about who in any given town might be Patriots or Loyalists, and the sheer burden of communications moving at extremely slow speed).

Maurer’s focus is on the Third Light Dragoons (Washington’s hand-picked, elite troop of well-connected Virginia gentlemen) but his staggering array of primary sources includes stories from the rank and file, civilians, women, and British soldiers/military leadership, all of which illustrate the logistical complexity of the Revolution, as well as the toll on each colony.

This is a sprawling, 572-page book. It meanders and repeats itself in parts. But the scope of Maurer’s task, which seems to be to chronicle the growth and influence of the Dragoons in large part as the result of extraordinary leadership (not just Washington’s, but that of the soldiers he chose), is colossal. It’s a rewarding read—and I write this as someone who had zero interest in military strategy before picking this book up. Seeing the Continental Army through the eyes of Washington, the Dragoons, and the New Jersey and New York locals who observed them, colorized, in effect, my (limited) knowledge of Revolutionary history and has now made me a somewhat crazed Revolutionary-history nerd. :)