THE BAKER RIFLE

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even the American Indians, in the adroitness and quickness of firing and loading and in the certainty of hitting the mark, lying upon the back, or belly, and every other possible position of the body. It is not certain that these improvements produced all the effect in real service which had been expected, from those astonishing specimens of them that were displayed in England. Humanity cannot, however, but wish that this barbarous mode of hostility was by universal consent banished from the warfare of all nations. It has been reported that George Washington owed his life at the battle of Germanstown to this gentleman's total ignorance of his person, as he had him sufficiently within reach and view during that action for the purpose.'

In order to meet the skill of the American backwoodsmen in this war, Jagers, were recruited on the Continent and sent over by the British Government to assist the British troops. It was, no doubt, this which suggested the raising of a rifle regiment. The 95th, Rifle Brigade, was raised by Colonel Coote Manningham early in 1800, and careful trials were made of rifles with a view to arming it. Not only the rifles of English gunmakers, but others from America, France, Germany, and Holland, were tried by the Committee which dealt with the subject. One made by Ezekiel Baker, of London (Plate V. fig. 1), was approved by the committee and adopted, and was the arm of the Rifle Brigade until 1837 or 1838. It had a barrel 2 feet 6 inches long, and was rifled with seven grooves making one quarter of a turn in the length of the barrel; the bullets weighed twenty to the pound (615-inch calibre), and the rifle itself 9 lbs. ; it was sighted for 100 yards, and had a folding leaf giving an elevation for 200 yards. It was not an easy rifle to load, as the bullet, though wrapped in a piece of greased rag (a supply of which was carried in a brass box in the stock of the rifle), required some force to make it enter the barrel. For this purpose a small wooden mallet was used to drive the ball into the rifling, in exactly the fashion already quoted from Sir Hugh Plat, and it was then forced home by a heavy ramrod. The mallets were soon found to be inconvenient, and their use was not continued for more than two or three years. The Baker rifle had, of

course, a flint lock, and the rifleman carried a picker to clear the touch-hole, and a little brush to clean the pan. A triangular sword bayonet 17 inches long was carried, and had a spring attachment to the rifle.

The performances of this rifle may be judged from Baker's book, Remarks on Rifle Guns,' which shows that he thought it good work to hit the figure of a man in 20 or 30 shots consecutively at 100 or 200 yards, as shown in Plate III. He does not mention whether the rifle was fired from a rest or in a standing position; probably the latter, for Colonel Beaufoy shows some much better targets of about the same date (Plate IV). The coloured diagrams which Baker gives to illustrate the positions of firing are decidedly curious, and have been several times reproduced in more modern works. Yet we give them again further on, for they are of some historical interest. The Rifle Brigade, armed with the Baker rifle, was found to be such a useful body that a second battalion was raised in 1805, and the regiment formed a prominent part of the famous Light Division in the Peninsular War.

Meanwhile attention continued to be directed to the importance of the rifle in the light of Transatlantic experience. There were many Englishmen who had seen service in America and learnt what a formidable weapon in the hands of a skilled shot a rifle could be. Colonel Hanger, who was one of them, relates an instance bearing on the point. Writing in 1814, having served during the war as a captain in the Hessian Jäger Corps, he says that he never in his life saw better rifles, or rifles better used, than those made in America, and adds that they were chiefly made in Lancaster, and two or three neighbouring towns in that vicinity, in Pennsylvania. Their barrels, he says, weighed about 6 lbs. 2 or 3 oz., and carried a ball not larger that 36 to the pound. This is equivalent to a diameter of a little more than half an inch, a smaller calibre than was used in the military arms of this country until the adoption of the Martini-Henry rifle. Yet Colonel Hanger says that he never saw in America a rifle of larger calibre than has just been mentioned, although he had seen many hundreds. He gives the following account of an incident in the war, showing that the use of the rifle at a

distance of 400 yards was unusual in those days, and taken to be a very important developement in war:-'Colonel, now General Tarleton, and myself, were standing a few yards out of a wood, observing the situation of a part of the enemy which we intended to attack. There was a rivulet in the enemy's front, and a mill on it, to which we stood directly with our horses' heads fronting, observing their motions. It was an absolutely plain field between us and the mill; not so much as a single bush on it. Our orderly-bugler stood behind us about three yards, but with his horse's side to our horses' tails. A rifleman passed over the mill-dam, evidently observing two officers, and laid himself down on his belly; for in such positions, they always lie, to take a good shot at a long distance. He took a deliberate and cool shot at my friend, at me, and the bugle-horn man. Now observe how well this fellow shot. It was in the month of August, and not a breath of wind was stirring. Colonel Tarleton's horse and mine, I am certain, were not anything like two feet apart; for we were in close consultation, how we should attack with our troops, which laid 300 yards in the wood, and could not be perceived by the enemy. A rifle-ball passed between him and me; looking directly to the mill I evidently observed the flash of the powder. I directly said to my friend, I think we had better move, or we shall have two or three of these gentlemen, shortly, amusing themselves at our expence.' The words were hardly out of my mouth when the bugle-horn man behind us, and directly central, jumped off his horse and said, Sir, my horse is shot.' The horse staggered, fell down, and died. He was shot directly behind the fore-leg, near to the heart-at least, where the great blood vessels lie, which lead to the heart. Now, speaking of this rifleman's shooting, nothing could be better; but, from the climate, he had much in his favour. First, at that time of the year, there was not one breath of wind; secondly, the atmosphere is so much clearer than ours, that he can take a more perfect aim.' 'I have passed,' he adds, several times over this ground, and ever observed it with the greatest attention; and I can positively assert that the distance he fired from, at us, was full four hundred yards.'

THE BRUNSWICK RIFLE

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Colonel Hanger proposed to arm English troops with a rifle of new design, suggested by his American experience, having a heavy barrel of small calibre, to enable a bullet to be fired with specially high velocity.

In 1836 the improvements in rifies were thought to justify a change in the arm of the Rifle Brigade, and a Board was assembled at Woolwich to deal with the subject. It was only after trials extending over several weeks that the Brunswick rifle (Plate V., fig. 2) was selected. This rifle had ignition on the percussion principle. Its barrel was 2 feet 6 inches long, and was rifled with two deep rounded grooves, making one complete turn in the length of the barrel; the bore was larger than that of the Baker rifle, carrying a ball twelve or thirteen to the pound, and being 704 inch in calibre, not much smaller than the old Brown Bess.' It weighed nearly two pounds more than the Baker rifle, 11 lbs. 51⁄2 oz., and was sighted to 300 yards. It was considered to make as good shooting at 300 yards as the Baker rifle had made at 200 yards. This was, no doubt, largely due to the more rapid pitch of the spiral. The ball fired from it was what is known as a belted ball, having a raised belt projecting all round it, which fitted the two grooves in the rifle-barrel. To aid the fitting of the belt to the grooves in loading, a notch was cut across the muzzle, which served to guide the belt into the entrance to the grooves. This rifle was fitted with a straight sword in place of the bayonet. As had been the case with the Baker rifle, it was found that loading became very difficult after a few shots, owing to the accumulation of the fouling.

The Brunswick rifle did not hold its own for many years. A Select Committee on Small Arms, 1852, reported as follows in reference to it :-The Brunswick rifle has shown itself to be much inferior in point of range to every other arm hitherto noticed. The loading of this rifle is so difficult that it is a wonder how the rifle regiments have continued to use it so long, the force required to ram down the ball being so great as to render any man's hand unsteady for accurate shooting. Comment is unnecessary.'

Colonel Hanger was an original. He absolutely refused to assume the title of Baron Coleraine, to which he succeeded on his brother's death in 1814.