From 1764 to 1766 he travelled in France and Germany, studying the cavalry tactics and organisation there, and then was appointed to command a troop of the 5th (or Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoons, joining the regiment in Ireland. In 1769 he was an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Townshend. He was promoted to major in the 13th Regiment of Dragoons on 6 November 1772, transferring to the 1st Irish Horse on 26 September 1775. On 15 July 1776 he went back to the 13th (now Light Dragoons) as lieutenant-colonel, a command he would hold for the next fifteen years.
