The Dashing Dragoons

# Beadle and Adams Dime Novel #98: The Dashing Dragoons

C. Dunning Clark's The Dashing Dragoons; or, The Loyal Scouts is a Revolutionary War adventure serialized in Beadle and Adams's dime novel series. Lieutenant Arthur Verney of the British dragoons arrives at Colonel Fletcher's plantation under Lord Rawdon's authority, searching for the Colonel on treason charges. He encounters Margaret Fletcher, the colonel's educated and defiant daughter, who refuses to betray her father's whereabouts despite his threats of search. During the house inspection, a young horseman named Edwin Forrest approaches across the fields. Verney orders cavalry pursuit, and Forrest flees across hedged terrain with remarkable horsemanship, narrowly eluding capture through difficult country until he seemingly falls into an inescapable trap. The narrative emphasizes sword-and-saddle action and ideological conflict between British occupation forces and American resistance, with romance developing between Verney and Margaret beneath their opposing loyalties.