The Thirteen Colonies had had mounted militia long before the revolution, but when Congress first created the Continental Army in June 1775, no cavalry was initially included, and any mounted troops had to be supplied by the states or independent companies. Cavalry was expensive and a drain on very limited resources, but their worth soon became apparent to George Washington, the commander in chief, and over the next few years several regiments of light dragoons were raised. Their main roles were reconnaissance, patrolling, carrying messages and acting as escort for senior officers, but on occasion they could play an important part in military actions too, as for example at Cowpens in 1781.

Every account of the Continental Army speaks of the great difficulty in obtaining supplies, and the enormous hardships suffered by the men as a result, and this applied particularly to the cavalry, which had to sustain both man and horse. As a result, it was virtually impossible to get every man in a regiment dressed and equipped as per the official regulations, and often such units presented a very ragtag appearance with men dressed in all manner of items and armed with a huge range of sometimes very primitive weapons. Film-makers and some gamers like to imagine ranks of neatly and uniformly dressed troopers, but to portray the reality would require several sets to cover all the variations, so this set concentrates instead on what the cavalry should have looked like, even if that was not often achieved. All the men wear a jockey-style helmet that was typical of light dragoons of the day, with comb, horsehair crest and turban. The coat with turnbacks and lapels was also typical of the period, although a couple wear instead what looks like an open-fronted hunting shirt, which was very practical, and often served when no better uniform was available. It could also be worn to protect the uniform coat while on campaign, and in one case was worn to cover the red coats of one unit! All the mounted men have suitable riding boots, and those on foot are correctly wearing shoes and stockings instead. Everything about the costume of these men is correct as per regulations, though not all units dressed this way, and in any case this represents an ideal not often achieved, especially in the early years.

The only item of kit on the mounted men is the ammunition pouch on the front of their waist belt. This too is part of the ideal appearance, although we thought the examples here rather too tall and square – the box artwork shows a more accurate version which these figures do not have. Every man has this pouch because every man has a carbine or musketoon. In reality this was very far from the case, and indeed such weapons were quite rare, even after other weapons like infantry muskets were often substituted. A more common weapon, and in some opinions the more useful, was the sword, which every man here has. These too could vary greatly, but those on these figures look fine. One man lacks a scabbard for his sword, but this is known to have happened, so is accurate. Both the dismounted men also carry a water bottle of typical design, but this is the full extent of the kit on show.

The three horse poses in the set offer us animals walking, trotting and galloping, and given the limitations of the production process, all these are pretty good. Given the usual roles of such cavalry, having walking and trotting horses is good to see, although a standing pose would also have been very welcome. The animals all have a brace of pistols forward of the saddle, which is fine if not necessarily always achieved, and the saddles and saddle bags all look authentic, though we would have liked to have seen some saddles in the American style, with the squared outer skirts, as well as the British style seen here. Each horse also has a rolled coat or blanket at the back of the saddle, and all the usual harness, which looks good. A common problem with resources was a lack of horses, so we particularly liked seeing some dragoons without a mount. These could of course simply be operating dismounted, with a horse somewhere nearby, but it is always useful to have dismounted cavalry, particularly dragoons.

The two dismounted dragoons are using their firearms, which is a useful battle pose. The five mounted men have a much more sedate air to them, and so are apparently not actively engaged in any fighting. Three have their sword drawn, but do not seem to be engaging an opponent, while a fourth holds a pistol at the ready and the last rests his carbine on his thigh. Those that like combat poses will be disappointed by the lack of action here, but these are perfectly common poses for the types of work the dragoons usually performed, so we thought they were all quite well done.

The general proportions of these men is very good, but the detail is quite ‘soft’. By this we mean there is not the sharply-defined detail we see on some figures, although it is mostly there. The helmets in particular are a challenge for a two-piece mould, and HaT have done a decent job without resorting to the common side-on approach some manufacturers take. Nevertheless these are not what you would call beautiful, but certainly good enough for most tastes. We have described the plastic as ‘medium’, but in truth it is on the soft side of medium, and because the extremities like weapons are exactly as thin as they should be, there is some tendency for them to be bent, as can be seen above. On the plus side, however, we found almost no flash, although the two dismounted figures seem to have been slightly misaligned on the mould. The riders all fit their horses comfortably, but will need gluing to stay in position. The horses themselves have pretty good bases, which makes them nice and stable.

As we have said, the appearance of these men is an ideal, and often not achieved in reality, but for many modellers this is no bad thing and they will like this set. We were surprised that none of the mounted men have spurs on their boots, but otherwise this is a decent array of mounted and dismounted dragoons that fills a gaping hole in the range of figures for this conflict, and not before time.