"Give your Brit dragoons some zip" Topic

While in the De Witt Museum at Colonial Williams I saw the display of the British contract rifle, which said that some British dragoons also carried these rifles. So, you may want to add a little distance in your dragoons next time they shoot. I'm guessing they were referring to the dismounted element.

The sign also said that more British soldiers carried rifles than Americans. Another interesting fact. I haven't seen much in details on how the rifle armed Brits were used.

Is that the Ferguson breechloader? I've seen a lot of conflicting information on its usage.

Never heard of rifled armed Brits anywhere during the AWI (unless they're referring to Loyalist militias).

The "contract" rifle would be the one manufactured for the Government, not a private project like the Ferguson. The Government rifle, often called the "Tower" model, was issued to a number of men in every mounted troop of Light Dragoons, and a similar number of men in every infantry light company (the number in each case was officially two, but I have seen references to up to 5 men per troop/company receiving them).

The dismounted dragoons received rifled carbines.

I'm not sure how the mounted LD used them, but when the light companies were converged into Light Battalions, all of the rifle-armed men were extracted and formed into a "point" platoon under a subaltern, which led the march along with one of the light companies for musket/bayonet support. This advance guard was usually accompanied by one or more groups of mounted LD (usually a corporal and 3-4 men per group), so possibly the rifle-armed LDs were chosen for this.

The bit about more Crown troops having rifles is quite correct. By mid-war, there was a large formation (500+) of Hesse-Cassel and Anspach-Bayreuth jaeger, including the equivalent of at least two mounted companies; in addition, many small Loyalist formations were being armed exclusively with rifles, or (in the case of well-established units such as the QR) were having small groups of riflemen added to their establishment. Tactically, they were used as a skirmish/scouting screen, especially in heavily wooded areas, whilst in battle they were assigned to pick of officers and gun crews (see the siege of Ft Stanwix and of Charleston, SC).

Meanwhile, wary of the poor discipline of "frontier" types, Washington was inclined to maximise his musket-and-bayonet strength and increasingly left rifles in the hands of militia and a few specialist units. Either in 1778 or 1779, he ordered that rifle-armed men be added to his "ad hoc" light infantry and "picked men" units; most of the rifles were issued from either the central stores, or the regimental stores of PA, MD and VA units, as not enough Continental Line units still had rifle companies.

Great stuff, Super Max.

There was a back note in the the Harris book on Brandywine about possibly Ferguson's rifles being shipped south and used there. Don't recall all the details of that off the top of my head, but it made a reasonable case, IIRC.

I recall the Ferguson rifle was deemed too complicated and fragile for use by line troops and was only for specialists, i.e. Ferguson's small unit.

Very informative. As usual Super Max is a trov of information.

Thank you sir

I recall the Ferguson rifle was deemed too complicated and fragile for use by line troops and was only for specialists, i.e. Ferguson's small unit.

The complicated manufacture limited the number available anyway, but I think many of the initial personnel were recruits (the rest were from two light companies of regiments about to be "drafted" and sent home). Quite possibly this was deliberate as they had less experience of handling a musket and could therefore be taught rifle drill more easily.

From memory, there were two main problems – one was that damp would warp the stock and cause problems with engaging and releasing the breech block. The other was that the amount of wood drilled out of the stock to accommodate the breech block made the stock delicate and susceptible to snapping off.

I believe some of the riflemen are pictured in the Xavier della Gatta painting of the battle of Paoli.

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