dragoon pistols

[joseph mcdonough]

just a quick question was the dragoons nammed for the pistol or was the pistol named for the soldier

thanks

ps. some pics please

 

[Norskie]

To the best of my knowledge, the cavalry name 'dragoon' came first. Semantically related to 'dragon'. Sort of a psychological warfare trick. The pistol came later.

 

[Coot]

One meaning of "Dragon" is "a short musket carried by a mounted infantryman in the 16th & 17th centuries". Perhaps "Dragoon" then came about to mean the carrier of the "Dragon" & later "Dragoon" was used as both noun (as in mounted infantryman) and adjective (as in type of pistol). :hmm:

 

[Wes/Tex]

If you mean the Colt's "Dragoon" revolver, the gun came out in 1848 but the Regiment of Dragoons was activated in 1833.

 

[davidthered]

There have been Dragoon units way earlier than that, at least 17th and 18th Centuries.
Consider Bannistar Tarleton in the Rev War, the British Legion were know as Dragoons.

 

Dragoons are mounted infantry, ie. soldiers who travel on horsback but fight on foot. The term has been around since the mid 1600s at least. Until the Mexican War, the U.S. Army's mounted troops were called dragoons. Therefore, the answer to your question is most likely the pistol was named for the soldiers.

 

[the priest]

During the 17th and early 18th centuries a dragoon was traditionally a soldier trained to fight on foot, but transport himself on horseback. In other words, he moved as cavalry but fought as infantry. The name derives from the dragoon's primary weapon, a carbine or short musket called the dragon. Sometimes, dragon carbines are said to have been so-called because they "breathed fire" ”” a reference to the smoke they emitted when fired.

Dragoon troops morphed from there.

There have been at least three 'pistols' called or nicknamed Dragoons,....the percusion 1st through 3rd Model Colt Dragoons being the latest, the long barrelled single shot horse pistol being the first that I'm aware of.

 

From Douglas West:
Currently, the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] has dragoon listed as originating in 1604. However, several historical books talk about dragoons or dragoon-like soldiers from about 1540 onward. I find it hard to believe that a new type of soldier could have been existent for 30 to 40 years before having a label applied to him. Can you shed some light on this?

This type of soldier was known as a dragoon because the carbine he carried looked as though it breathed smoke and fire like a dragon. Dragoon is, in fact, a form of the word dragon (it was borrowed from French dragon 'carbine or musket' which itself came from the Old French word for 'fire-breathing serpent'). I suspect that it simply took some time for this metaphorical sense to arise and be recorded in writing with regard to this kind of soldier, hence the 60+ years between appearance of such soldiers and the recording of the word.