Back in 1776, American colonial
patriots were an unlikely bunch to be taking on the greatest military
might of that period in history. They were men (and a few women) who
came from all walks of life: tradesmen, farmers, plantation owners,
mixed in with some veterans of the French and Indian War and French
volunteers who came across the sea to help win the revolution.
Backwoods colonials were among them from Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Maryland and the Carolinas with their long Kentucky rifles. While the
colonial military leadership and their tactics decided the outcome,
the patriots played a substantial role with a few thousand militiamen
against seasoned British troops that outnumbered them as they arrived
by ship to quell the rebellion.
It was after the Lexington-Concord
firefight and three days before the Battle
of Bunker Hill that the Continental Congress authorized and
established ten companies of riflemen on June 14th 1775 as
the Continental Militia and the first national army of what would
become the recognized nation called the United States. They marched
from staging and recruitment points, some marching as far as 700
miles to meet at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A company was formed in Frederick,
Maryland under the command of Captain Michael Cresap who wrote
a letter dated August 1st, 1775 to a friend in
Philadelphia:
.. . I have had the happiness of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable company of perhaps one hundred and thirty men, from the mountains and backwoods, painted like Indians, armed with tomahawks and rifles, dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, and though some of them had traveled near 800 miles from the banks of the Ohio, they seemed to walk light and easy, and not with less spirit than at the first hour of their march. Health and vigor, after what they had undergone, declared them to be intimate with hardship, and familiar with danger....
When the company arrived at Lancaster,
they put on an exhibition of their marksmanship for the local folks.
An eyewitness wrote about the performance in a letter that was
printed in the Pennsylvania
Packet on August 28th:
On Friday evening last arrived here, on their way to the American Camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows, many of whom had been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds... two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper about the size of a dollar nailed in the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at a distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared his brother's thighs....the spectators, amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; that there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 within an inch of the head of a ten-penny nail....
Marksmen were organized into small and
independent units and acted as snipers to pick
off British officers around Boston after the Bunker Hill battle.
Once again, the Pennsylvania
Packet recorded the even on August 14, 1775:
“The express, who was sent by the Congress, is returned here from the Eastward, and says he left the Camp last Saturday; that the riflemen picked off ten men in one day, three of whom were Field-officers, that were reconnoitering ; one of them was killed at a distance of 250 yards, when only half his head was seen.” Such reports caused great indignation when republished in London. The backwoodsmen were called “. .. shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted (rifled) guns, the most fatal widow- and-orphan-makers in the world”.
The
marksmanship of the American militia was aided by the fact that the
Kentucky rifles were grooved with what is called rifling.
The length of the barrel provided a substantial effective range, with
one unit reporting that their snipers had killed three men on a ship
at Charleston ferry at a distance
of a half mile.
The
American long rifle was introduced to the American colonies by
immigrant German gunsmiths who settled in Pennsylvania between 1700
and 1740. Those initial rifles were called the Jaeger
rifle
whose barrel rarely exceeded thirty-six inches in length with a bore
between .65 and .70 of an inch. The rifles used lead balls that were
cast smaller than the bore so they would be forced down the barrel,
filling the grooves that prevented the escape of gases when fired.
Because black powder burned dirty, the grooves would fill with powder
residue after a few shots and make loading difficult until the barrel
was cleaned with a damp swab. The lead balls were also deformed,
which reduced accuracy.
Frontier
fighters and huntsman needed rifles designed to be more accurate. By
1750 the changes made created a precision rifle that matched no
other. The barrel was made longer to 44 inches and sometimes 48
inches, providing more velocity. The bore size was reduced to .40 and
.45 of an inch to save powder and lead. Loading was a bit different
as well. A greased patch of linen or one that was soaked with saliva
was placed over the muzzle and the bullet seated on the patch so when
it was rammed it was tight. The patch helped seal gasses and also
helped clean the barrel as it was fired with the lead ball. This
provided an improvement that led to a more accurate and economical
hunting and fighting firearm. The .45 caliber long rifle could
deliver three times the number of shots from the same amount of
powder that was used in the .75 caliber. The result was remarkable
accuracy at 150 or more yards. The difference between the long rifle
and the smoothbore musket, which the British were using was
remarkable.
Yet,
the smoothbore musket had its own advantages: it could be loaded
faster because paper cartridges were used and the larger caliber was
devastating at closer ranges against troops and cavalry at distances
between 60 to 80 yards from a standing or moving position.
The
British standardized massed formations could be devastating with the
large caliber smoothbore muskets with disciplined and seasoned
troops. American units that tried to stand toe-to-toe with the
British troops did not do so well.
Experienced
American rifleman realizing that the long rifle was slower to load,
would speed up loading by keeping three extra balls between the base
of the fingers on each hand, getting off two or three volleys and
then retreat before the British fell upon them with their bayonets –
falling back to reload and fire again.
Pennsylvania
became the center of firearms manufacturing during the middle to late
1700s, derived from those German gunsmith immigrants. Firearms used
in the American
Revolution and the War
of 1812 were produced there. As firearm technology advanced the
Kentucky long rifle became a thing of the past except among
collectors. Today, there are still hunters, reenactment shooters, and
collectors who use blackpowder rifles like the Kentucky rifle. The
American
Rifleman has become synonymous with the Kentucky
Long Rifle.
Famous frontiersmen like Daniel
Boone
used the Kentucky rifle.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Muzzle Loading Rifle; Walter
M. Cline; WV, 1942
The Treasury of the Gun; Harold L.
Peterson; NY 1972
The Kentucky Rifle; Captain John
G.W. Dillin; 1942
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