British 16th Light Dragoons

I painted up my second regiment of British Light Dragoons, the 16th, which along with the 14th, (my review of these is here) now give me the two regiments prevalent in the early stages of the British involvement on the Peninsular War. I have had them on the field once so far (the battle report can be seen here: March on Porto Part 1, Albergaria) where they were roundly trounced by the French 8me Dragoons. More battle hardened now, they will be back in the Crossing of the Douro scenario we are in the process of playing.

16th Light Dragoons arrive on the battlefield west of Porto in our current game,

Again, as I did with the 14th, I took the time to pin arms and carbines as the fits in this set aren’t great. But I feel the results are worth it and can now happily field four units of British Light Dragoons on my tabletop.

I painted both units of the 16th Regiment, so it ends up being twelve stands in total, which make for a nice showing.

A Bit of History

The regiment was raised in 1759 by Colonel John Burgoyne, the second of Britain’s regiments of light dragoons. 

During the Napoleonic Wars the regiment was sent to Lisbon in 1809 to bolster Wellesley’s meagre allotment of cavalry. The fought at the Second Battle of Porto in May 1809, at Talavera in July of the same year and at the seige of Ciudad Rodrigo in April, 1810. They went on to help form the core of an ever-growing British Portuguese cavalry force, as Wellington eventually burst from the mountainous confines of Portugal and pushed  the French out of northern Spain and drove into southern France.

The 16th went on to fight in the Hundred Days and Waterloo, being the only British cavalry regiment to fight through the Peninsular War and at Waterloo as well.

If you are interested in reading more about the specific involvement of the British cavalry in the Peninsular War, I would direct you to Mark Thomas Gerges book, Command and Control in the Peninsula: The Role of the British Cavalry 1808-1814 which is available as a free download from Florida State University here: https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:182486/datastream/PDF/view

Here are a few more photos of the unit...

Trooper stand front and back.

Three views of the first unit's command stand.

Three views of the second unit's command stand.