British Army during the Napoleonic Wars for battle service in the Peninsular War. The cross also saw the first use of Medal bars. Following the battle a Waterloo Medal was issued to all soldiers who participated in that engagement. Decades later the Military General Service Medal was awarded to all ranks for service in campaigns during the 1793-1814 period. At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, the "heavy" cavalry were equivalent to dragoons or "medium" cavalry in the French and other armies. They consisted of three regiments of Household Cavalry, seven regiments of Dragoon Guards and six regiments of Dragoons. The Dragoon Guards had been
Battle of Tamatave Cape of Good Hope for the rest of the Napoleonic Wars. In August 1810, the French squadron on Isle de France (now Mauritius) achieved the most significant French naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars, when they captured or destroyed four Royal Navy frigates at the Battle of Grand Port. The battle was fought inside Grand Port, one of the harbours of Isle de France into which the French squadrons, dominant in the Indian Ocean during 1809, had been steadily pushed and blockaded by pressure from a British squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley. The British defeat had a noticeable galvanising effect