<P> In 1779, Washington ordered the 2nd and 4th Continental Light Dragoons equipped temporarily as infantry, and deployed the 1st and 3rd Continental Light Dragoons and Pulaski's Legion to the South to join local militia cavalry and to oppose the new British strategy for controlling that area . Battle engagements in South Carolina largely seriously attrited the 1st and 3rd Regiments in the spring of 1780, who amalgamated into a single unit . Following the capture of Charleston, South Carolina on 12 May 1780, the remnants tried to regroup and reconstitute in Virginia and North Carolina . In August, 1780, Armand's Legion was with General Gates at the disastrous Battle of Camden . </P> <P> The most significant engagement of the war involving Continental light dragoons was the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781 . Southern theater commander General Nathanael Greene reorganized part of Lee's Legion and elements of the amalgamated 1st and 3rd Light Dragoons in Charlotte and dispatched them on a series of raids against Loyalist forces in western Carolina . The British responded by organizing a large force of dragoons and infantry under British Lt - Col Banastre Tarleton to stop the raids and put down the mobile forces . The dragoons joined the "flying corps" commanded by General Daniel Morgan at Cowpens, charged the advancing lines of Tarlton's infantry at a calculated moment, broke their ranks, and secured a crucial victory . Later, the 3rd Legionary Corps participated in Greene's maneuvers across North Carolina and fought well against Cornwallis's army at Guilford Courthouse . </P> <P> In January 1781, the practice of the dragoons employing both mounted and dismounted troops resulted in their official reconfiguration as Legionary Corps, the mounted dragoons supported by dismounted dragoons armed as infantry, an organization that persisted until the war's end . In 1783, the Continental Army was discharged and the dragoons were released . </P> <P> The first cavalry unit formed by the Congress of the United States of America was a squadron of four troops commanded by Major Michael Rudolph on 5 March 1792 . In 1799, Congress established a provision for mobilization of three cavalry regiments in the event of a war . Equipment for 3,000 men and horses was procured and stored . The Congressional act of 12 April 1808 authorized a standing regiment of light dragoons consisting of eight troops . As war loomed, Congress authorized another regiment of light dragoons on 11 January 1812 . These regiments were respectively known afterwards as the First and Second United States Dragoons . </P>

Nickname given to a 19th century us cavalry man