The services of the British troops in the Carolinas, are spoken of in the 'Annual Register' of 1781, in the following terms:--"It is impossible to do justice to the spirit, prudence, and invincible fortitude displayed by the commanders, officers, and soldiers during these dreadful campaigns in the Carolinas. They had not only to contend with men, and those by no means deficient in bravery or enterprise, but they encountered and surmounted difficulties and fatigues from climate and country that would appear insuperable in theory, and incredible in relation. During renewed successions of forced marches, under a burning sun, and in seasons inimical to man, they were frequently, when sinking under excessive fatigue, not only destitute of comforts, but even of necessaries that seemed essential to existence. During the greatest part of the time they were destitute of bread, and the country afforded no vegetables; salt failed; and their only resource was water and the cattle found in the woods. It is a melancholy consideration, that such talent, bravery, and military virtue should have been exercised in vain."
During the summer of this year an attack of the enemy on New York was apprehended, and General Sir Henry Clinton, in a letter to Lord Cornwallis, dated the 11th of June, 1781, requested that some of the troops, and, among others, the remaining officers and men of the SEVENTEENTH Light Dragoons, should be sent back to New York.
Lieut.-General George Preston was removed on the 18th of April, 1782, to the Scots Greys, and was succeeded in the colonelcy of the SEVENTEENTH by General the Honourable Thomas Gage, from the Twenty-second Foot.
His Majesty having been induced to concede the independence of the United States, the war was terminated by a treaty of peace, and in 1783 the SEVENTEENTH Light Dragoons embarked from New York, and returned to Ireland, where the regiment was stationed during the succeeding eleven years.
In 1784 the colour of the clothing was changed from scarlet to blue.
On the 4th of February, 1785, General Gage was removed to the Eleventh Dragoons, and His Majesty conferred the colonelcy of the SEVENTEENTH on Colonel Thomas, Earl of Lincoln, from the half-pay of the Seventy-fifth Foot, which corps was disbanded in 1783.