British Legion (American Revolution)
The British Legion was the name given to a British provincial regiment established during the American Revolutionary War and composed of Loyalist American infantry and cavalry. "Legion" was an 18th-century term for a military unit the size of a regiment but consisting of infantry and cavalry, or infantry, cavalry, and artillery, all under one command, to make it more flexible for scouting or irregular operations than a regiment that consisted of infantry or cavalry alone. It was colloquially known as Tarleton's Raiders, after the man who led most of its day-to-day activity, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton.
Read more about British Legion (American Revolution): Formation, The Legion in The Carolinas, The Legion in The Virginia Campaign, The End of The Legion
Famous quotes containing the words british and/or legion:
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)
“I am sometimes told that “Women aint fit to vote. Why, don’t you know that a woman had seven devils in her: and do you suppose a woman is fit to rule the nation?” Seven devils aint no account; a man had a legion in him.”
—Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883)