Dragoon Weapons

The Musket

The primary arm of dragoons was the musket. This was a muzzle-loading, smooth-barrelled gun with a barrel up to 5 feet in length, although dragoons were issued with shorter muskets of about 29”-32” barrel length for ease of carrying and use on horseback. For the same reason, some dragoons were issued with carbines instead of muskets, although this was less common. Carried slung across the back when riding, dragoon muskets tended to be flintlocks, although some matchlocks were used. Flintlocks are fired by means of a spring holding back a hammer onto which was fixed a piece of flint. On pulling the trigger, the hammer is released and the flint hits a piece of metal called a ‘frizzen’. The flint has two action on the frizzen: firstly it produces a shower of sparks and, secondly, it pushes back the frizzen, which is attached to the pan cover, thus opening the pan and allowing the sparks to ignite the priming charge. Matchlocks, on the other hand, are of an older style and use a piece of burning slowmatch as the form of ignition. The match is placed into a holder known as a serpent, and when the trigger is pulled, the match is lowered into the priming pan. As a matchlock necessitates using a lit match, flintlocks (normally of the variety known as doglocks) were favoured for guarding artillery and powder, and also on horseback. Dragoons generally used their muskets or carbines when fighting dismounted, but most authorities of the time also recommended that dragoons be taught to fire from horseback, and there are recorded instances of this happening (including one in the original Waller’s Dragoons).

The Sword

The secondary weapon of dragoons was the sword. The swords of dragoons tended to be of a very simple design: a short blade with a simple, plain guard and knucklebow. The swords were generally used dismounted, and so dragoons did not need the long reach of the cavalry swords, although there are examples of dragoons fighting alongside cavalry, such as Okey’s Dragoons at the Battle of Naseby. The sword was generally carried on a baldrick, or cross-belt over the right shoulder. The example shown left, however, is carried on a sword belt.