A rendering of the 4th Dragoon Red Coats from The Company of Military Historians
| V08P053 | THE DANGER OF RED UNIFORMS | [May 1777] |
To COLONEL STEPHEN MOYLAN
| Head Quarters, Morris Town, | |
| May 12, 1777 | |
| Dear Sir: |
A party of your Regiment arrived here Yesterday with an
escort of Money.
Their appearance has convinced me fully of the danger which
I always
apprehended from the similiarity of their Uniform to that of the
British
Horse, and the Officer who commands the party, tells me, that the
people
were exceedingly alarmed upon theRoad, and had they been travelling
thro'
a part of the Country, where it might havebeen supposed the Enemy's
Horse
would be foraging or Scouting, they would in allprobability have been
fired
upon. The inconvenience will increase, when your Regiment joins the
Army.
Your patroles will be in constant danger from our own Scouting
Parties
and whenever there is occasion to dispatch a party into the
Country,
they will alarm the Inhabitants.
I therefore desire that you
will immediately fall upon means for having
the colourof the Coats changed,
which may be done by dipping into that
kind of dye that is most proper to put
upon Red.
I care not what it is, so that the present Colour be
changed.
I am etc. 92 from the Varick Transcripts
at the Library of Congress.
This is the letter that put the 4th Dragoons in the History Books.
(IVLD)
Return to the GW Papers Index.
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