The post occupied by the regiment in front of New York was held for the purpose of clearing the country of the hostile parties, and keeping the roads clear to enable the supplies of the army to be brought in, and skirmishes occurred almost daily.
Serjeant THOMAS TUCKER, of the SEVENTEENTH Light Dragoons, traversing the country with twelve men, came suddenly upon a small American fort, when he leapt into it and made the garrison prisoners. TUCKER accompanied the regiment from England as a volunteer; he evinced signal bravery on all occasions, and was rewarded, on the 10th of April, 1779, with a commission of cornet in the regiment: he proved an efficient officer.
In the winter, when the French fleet and land forces, after having been repulsed at Rhode Island and Savannah, withdrew from the American coast, General Sir Henry Clinton fitted out an expedition against South Carolina, where the mildness of the climate, the richness of the country, its vicinity to Georgia, and its distance from the position occupied by the American army under General Washington, pointed out the advantage and facility of conquest. A detachment of the SEVENTEENTH Light Dragoons, attached to Tarleton's legion, formed part of the force employed on this enterprise. The fleet sailed towards the end of December, but was dispersed by strong gales of wind, and the tempestuous weather occasioned the death of nearly all the horses. The transports in which the SEVENTEENTH and Tarleton's legion were embarked, took refuge from the tempest in the harbour of Tybee, an island near the coast of Georgia, from whence the officers and soldiers proceeded in boats to the island of Port Royal, where a number of horses of an inferior description were procured.
The SEVENTEENTH and Tarleton's legion were quartered at Beaufort, from whence they proceeded to join Brigadier-General Patterson, who was proceeding from Savannah, with a body of infantry, to reinforce the expedition under Sir Henry Clinton, who had undertaken the siege of Charlestown. The inhabitants of the country through which the detachment had to travel having heard of the loss of the cavalry horses at sea, many of them equipped themselves as cavaliers, to confine the British to the line of march, and prevent them collecting horses in the country. Some of these cavaliers insulted the front of the column, but were overthrown by a charge of the dragoons, and the SEVENTEENTH took some prisoners and a number of horses, without any loss on their part; but in the neighbourhood of Rantol's bridge the Americans captured an officer and several foot soldiers.