At the time of his death of old age in March, 1693 Major Nathan Gold, the founder of Gold's Dragoons, was believed to be the richest man in Fairfield County. He had a long and productive life as a soldier, judge, merchant and politician - yet no town or road is named after him, nor is a portrait believed to exist. In one final irony, he was the founding settler of Redding, CT, in 1667, but the settlement was named after the Rev. Read instead. Today Nathan Gold is remembered only for raising a small troop of dragoons in Fairfield County in 1660. Two years later the troop was entered into the colonial militia, under the seal of King Charles II with the adoption of the Connecticut Colony Charter, to which Nathan Gold was a signatory. Their mission was to protect against Dutch encroachment from the west and Pequot Indian warriors on the Connecticut frontier - in those days not too many miles from the coast of Long Island sound.

As was customary, the troop was named after the officer who raised it. All adult males were liable for home defense at the time but a mounted unit had its own prestige and Nathan Gold would have financed part of the expenses, appointed ensigns and sergeants, determined styles of uniforms and type of weapons to be carried. Far from a sleepy home guard, Gold led his dragoons in two colonial conflicts; King Philip's War against the Wampanoag sachem Metacom in New England (1675-1676) and also King William's War (1689-1697) against the French and their Indian allies along the borders of New England and New France. In King William's War, the troop would serve as far north as Schenectady in 1690 to avenge the massacre of English settlers and took an active part in the Quebec expedition later that year. 

We should not think of the Gold’s Dragoons of 1660 as heavy cavalry in the 18th- or 19th-century sense. They were essentially mounted infantry using horses to transport a man to a conflict where he would fight on foot. Scorned by the true cavalry as not being able to defeat an enemy by the shock tactic of the headlong charge, dragoons were perfect for the Indian frontier. They operated in wooded areas ideal for ambush, where the fighting axe of the present day Gold’s Dragoons guidon and mess dress collar dog was a better weapon for close quarter battle than any lance or saber. By order of the Connecticut Council to Major Gold, dated November 22, 1675, the first ten troopers of Gold's Dragoons were ordered to hang “hatchets” from their belts, rather than swords.

The illustration shows a typical British or colonial dragoon troop dismounting and forming a skirmishing line. These tactics would have been equally effective against the Dutch, French or local Pequots of the period. The troopers carry long barreled muzzle-loading infantry muskets slung from the right shoulder. Just too early for true flintlock ignition, the weapons would have been snaphaunces, but were a great improvement over the matchlock of fifty years earlier which required a "worm" or slow match, usually carried between the fingers of the right hand. From their cross belts hang the wooden cartridges containing fresh charges. Only officers could afford the wheellock pistol that could be discharged from the saddle, so dragoons always fought dismounted.

Nathan Gold died aged 67 years, quite an old man by the standards of the time. He had led his troopers through two wars and enjoyed a successful political career. His son was later appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Connecticut and the troop may have fought in the Revolution as militia under Nathan Gold's great-grandson, Col. Abraham Gould (the family used both spellings), who was killed at the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777, but we have not been able to confirm this. If it is true, Gold’s Dragoons then disappears from public record for almost 150 years. A descendant of Nathan Gold was the 19th-century financier Jay Gould, who had no connection with the troop.