private in the 1st Regiment of Foot. According to some accounts, she recognized him while he was trying to pick up a Dutch woman. Welch claimed he had sent her numerous letters, none of which ever reached her. Having found her husband with another woman, she refused to go back to him, preferring to remain a dragoon in the Scots Greys. Despite her anger at having found her husband cheating, the two remained somewhat close. The pair agreed to not reveal her identity, instead pretending to be brothers. The deception worked, with no one in the regiment suspecting her of being a woman, even though she was known as the "pretty dragoon". Welch's life as trooper continued until 1706 and the Battle of Ramillies. There she was again wounded, this time fracturing her skull. When the regimental surgeon treated her, he discovered that Christian Welsh was in fact a woman. The news of the discovery soon spread through the British cavalry brigade. Eventually Lord John Hay, the Scots Greys brigade commander, intervened, having Cavanagh's husband brought from the 1st Regiment of Foot. After hearing the whole story from Cavanagh, he ordered that her pay be continued while she remained under the care of the army. Sutleress Once she was well enough, Cavanagh, now back to being called Mrs Welsh, was formally discharged from the Scots Greys. As part of her discharge, the officers of the Scots Greys paid for a new wardrobe for Mrs Welsh. Some sources have reported that she fought openly as a woman; however, this is unlikely. She was, apparently, carried on strength as a wife and a sutler. After the Battle of Ramillies, there is no evidence that she continued to serve as a dragoon. She was allowed to remain with the army as an official wife on strength with the 1st Foot as a sutleress. Although accounts list her as being a faithful wife, her husband's reputation is the opposite. Even after being reunited with his wife, Richard Welsh continued to see other women. When Cavanagh discovered one of his mistresses was still following the regiment, Cavanagh attacked the woman, cutting off her nose. However, at the Battle of Malplaquet, her husband died. Cavanagh spent much of the day after the battle searching for her husband's body, turning over as many as two hundred bodies before finding him so that she could bury him. After