Wednesday, June 5

Colonel John Innes's Regiment of Dragoons

Apologies for the delay - been much caught up in matters best described as "life" and in addition to that and all it entails, we are also well into the sailing season, so "Sparrow" [clicky] is claiming a fair amount of my time..



Onwards and upwards though, and these guys, the first of the dragoons to join the project, have been finished for some time but posting has been delayed due to the serious lack of information about them.. it would seem that dragoons were not only cheap to recruit but don't warrant much considerations in the histories!

The regiment were also known as  Prince Rupert’s Dragoons but at Edgehill they were commanded by the John Innes mentioned - they were one of the units in the Royalist Oxford Army.


They had a long proud history of service, serving all the way through the army from Edgehill (their first engagement) to their surrender in the west country (at Truro) in 1646 - along the way in addition to edgehill they were also present at First Newbury, Cropredy Bridge, Lostwithiel, Second Newbury and Torrington. I am more than a little interested to know that they were also present at a skirmish very local to me - in January 1644 they were in a little to do at Havant, which is only just up the road from me (I've blogged on that before [clicky])


Not managed to find very much more about Innes - looks like he was born in about 1610, so he was 32 when he commanded at Edgehill..  the indications are that he was a professional soldier, of Scottish extraction. He is on record as commanding an infantry brigade in the Scots army at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 (which included his own regiment), and on the assumption that it is the same man there are records indicating he was still alive (and married to a Jean Campbell with two sons at least, James and Hugh) in 1669, so he survived Dunbar. This was, reputedly, the colonels colour of his regiment at Dunbar..

...what little more I know is summarised here [clicky]


No coat colour is mentioned anywhere, so I went with green, as it happens the only other weargame representation I've seen is in the same colour! Like me he chose it as a change from red and blue...

Figures are Peter Pig 15mm painted May 2019. The dismounted version of the regiment, and a base to represent horse holders, are on the painting sticks as we type..  just need some time..