RANKIN'S LANCERS

A Detroit correspondent of the Milwaukee Daily Wisconsin gives the following account with reference to the Lancers: --

"But the greatest feature of military organizations now going on in this city is Colonel Arthur Rankin's regiment of Lancers. The Colonel is a member of the Canadian Parliament, of great military experience in the British army, a gentleman of high social position and indomitable energy of character. He has been specially commissioned by the Secretary of War to raise, equip, and put in the field as quickly as possible, a regiment of Lancers, 1,600 strong. He has unlimited authority almost in furnishing the equipage and armament, as also in officering the battalion. He is authorized to proceed at once to Europe to purchase whatever cannot be procured here. This will be one of the most splendid regiments on the continent when fully armed and drilled. It will be officered by men of known courage and experience. An officer of the U. S. army remarked to me to-day that he had rather be a private in this regiment of Lancers, under such Colonel as Arthur Rankin, than a First Lieutenant in a volunteer regiment of Infantry. The Lieut. Colonel, J. W. Tilman, of Detroit, is a gentleman of considerable experience, and one of the most prominent business men in that city. The arms of the private consist of a formidable lance about 16 feet long, which is stepped in a strong socket attached to the saddle, a sabre, and a dragoon revolver with 300 yards effective range.

A charge at full gallop of such a brigade upon infantry must be terrible -- irresistible! The soldier, with his revolver in his left hand, his sabre in his right, guiding his lance mainly with his leg, and horse under good training, can deal out death upon the front and each flank at the same time. The recruiting for this regiment is going on rapidly, and it is thought that the quota will be doubled. Volunteers are flocking in rapidly from Canada, as our neighbours are anxious to serve under so well-known and popular an officer as Col. Rankin. H. W. Gunnison, of your city, has been tendered a commission of 1^st Lieutenant in this regiment, with authority to enlist men in Wisconsin. If he accepts, it will furnish the best opportunity for young men of energy of your State who may be desirous of military experience, &c. that has ever been presented. The men if they desire it can furnish their own horses, and will be allowed to pay for the same at the rate of 40 cents per day, or $146 per year! Eight dollars per month, or $96 per year is also allowed for forage for horses when it is not furnished by [the] Government. If not, the Government will furnish horses. The Lancers [will] be the crack regiment of the army.

From: The Globe, October 5, 1861