British Light Infantry in the 18th Century

The raising of the 5th Battalion the 60th virtually introduced a new arm into the British Army. Hitherto there had been infantry of the line, grenadiers and light infantry. The infantry of the line, formed, as it were, the recruiting districts of the flank companies, that is the light and the grenadier companies, sending its more agile men to the former, and its better drilled, for close order fighting, to the latter. The firelock of the light infantry, usually called a fusil, was of a lighter make than that used by the infantry of the line, but its range was no greater. The introduction of riflemen now added a type of sharpshooter to the light infantry itself, for the rifle with which they were armed did not permit of them acting as light infantry to the line.

In reviewing this question it must first be remembered that in the attack the object of light infantry is to demoralise the enemy's ranks by fire so that an assault with the arme blanche is rendered possible. To carry this out, rapidity of fire, at close range, is a great deal more important than accuracy of fire at long, because it is necessary to approach as near to the enemy's position as possible so that the assaulting column may not have much above a hundred yards to charge over between the last burst of fire from its light infantry and the time it closes with the enemy in the hand-to-hand struggle.

Now, for the light infantry to advance as near as this to the enemy, meant that they must first approach to within a hundred yards of them; secondly, it meant that superiority of fire must be gained at this range, in other words, that not only the marksmanship of the attacker, but rapidity of loading must be greater than the marksmanship and rapidity of loading of the enemy. Seldom has marksmanship alone been able to produce the necessarily demoralising effect. The rifle was certainly far more accurate than the firelock; but as the loading of it, especially after having fired from ten to twenty rounds, was both difficult and slow, it never, during the Napoleonic Wars, came into general use as a weapon suitable for light infantry. In place, picked men and a few picked companies and corps were armed with it, more for sharpshooting purposes than for preparing the way for the act of decision. In 1804, Robert Jackson rightly draws a distinct line between riflemen and light infantry, notwithstanding the fact that their training was the same. He says: “Rifle or marksmen form the first part of a regiment. They are useful on various occasions, especially in sieges and for the attack and defence of advanced posts or picquets. . . . They are, or they may be, employed to feel the pulse of the enemy, to cover those who reconnoitre positions, to harass and annoy, and occasionally to impede, the progress of lines of columns in their advance to the scene of action. . . ."

"The Light Infantry presents a closer combat than the Riflemen. It occasionally meets the enemy with main force, though applied in a desultory and irregular manner. . . . The mode of action, among the light class of troops, appears to be irregular; but it has its own rule of order. It advances, retreats, occupies positions rapidly, maintains them for a given time and given purpose. In short, it meets all the irregular presentations of the enemy, in so far that the Battalion, which possesses the great mechanical power of war, is allowed to approach to its just point of attack without annoyance, and without the necessity of accelerating its movements - a cause which produces agitation in the frame of the individual, disturbs the steadiness of the hand, and necessarily diminishes the certainty of the direction of the missile force." "A View of the Formation, Discipline and Economy of Armies," p. 267. Robert Jackson.

Sir William Howe, it may be remembered, during the American War, took away the breechloading rifles from Ferguson's rifle corps, and rearmed it with the fusil. This probably was done more through prejudice to rifles generally than to Ferguson's rifle in particular, for from all accounts it appears to have been an admirable weapon. Ferguson himself stated that he could fire five aimed shots a minute with it, and, being a breechloader, the accumulation of fouling in the grooves did not interfere with the loading.

In 1793, the French light infantry were partially armed with the rifle, but, once Bonaparte gained control of the French Army, he had all rifles withdrawn, apparently on account of the length of time it took to load them. In 1808, Colonel Beaufoy in his "Scloppetaria" wrote: "A musket will fire three shots to one from a rifle, as generally used"; and this was a consideration of utmost importance when the fire fight took place at very close range, consequently speed in loading was of greater importance than either range or extreme accuracy of fire. We shall see that, in 1800, Cornwallis, when Viceroy of Ireland, held a similar opinion, namely, that the rifle, taking it all in all, was not so well adapted to light infantry as the firelock or fusil.

THE RIFLE

The rifle was by no means a new invention, in fact, it is very nearly as old as the musket itself; for rifle barrels were invented somewhere between the years 1475 and 1525, their invention being attributed to various gunsmiths such as Gaspard Kollner of Vienna, and Augustus Kotter of Nuremburg. Rifles were used for sporting purposes during the latter half of the sixteenth century, and were employed as a military weapon during the Thirty Years' War by the Elector of Bavaria and by Louis XIII. In 1680, according to Hans Busk, each troop of the British Household Cavalry was supplied with eight rifled carbines. The rifle barrel of this early period usually possessed seven grooves, which, on account of the crudeness of the powder, soon got so silted up with fouling that the greatest difficulty was experienced in loading. This slowness in loading during the War of the American Independence had been noted by a Colonel von Heeringen who commanded a Hessian regiment. He writes: "The enemy had almost impenetrable thickets, lines of abattis, and redoubts in front of them. The riflemen were mostly spitted to the trees with bayonets. These frightful people deserve pity rather than fear. It always takes them a quarter of an hour to load, and meanwhile they feel our balls and bayonets." "The Hessians," p. 65. Edward J. Lowell.

Nevertheless, in spite of this slowness, its accuracy, when compared to that of the firelock, was undoubted, and often proved of the greatest value. At Bunker Hill it will be remembered the American riflemen picked off eighty officers out of the British force, which, all told, was only two thousand strong.

BENJAMIN ROBINS

In 1742, Benjamin Robins in his "New Principles of Gunnery" made a remarkable prophecy as to the eventual adoption of the rifle, which, however, did not take place until a hundred years after his day. He says: ". . . Whatever State shall thoroughly comprehend the nature and advantage of rifled barrel pieces, and having facilitated and completed their construction, shall introduce into their armies their general use, with a dexterity in the management of them, will by this means acquire a superiority which will almost equal anything that has been done at any time by the particular excellence of any one kind of arms, and will perhaps fall but little short of the wonderful effect which histories relate to have been formerly produced by the first inventors of firearms."

Considering the primitive state in which firearms were in, in 1742, Robins must have been a man of extraordinary foresight, for not only did he predict that the rifle would become the future weapon for infantry, but also that it would be developed into a breechloadIng weapon.

In his day there were two methods of loading the rifle: By using a bullet slightly larger than the bore and forcing it down the rifle by aid of a ramrod and mallet. By ramming a greased patch upon which the bullet was placed down the barrel; the greased patch keeping back the gases which slightly compressed the bullet into the grooves and so caused it to rotate as it left the muzzle.

"As both these methods of charging at the mouth take up a good deal of time," writes Robins, "rifled barrels, which have been made in England . . . are contrived to be charged at the breech . . . and the powder and bullet are put in through the side of the barrel by an opening which, when the piece is loaded, is filled up with a screw" (The Ferguson rifle was on this pattern.) . . . "And perhaps somewhat of this kind, though not in the manner now practised, would be of all others the most perfect method for the construction of these sorts of barrels. . . ."

As the great difficulty with a rifled barrel was to overcome the fouling, so the great difficulty with the early breechloader was to make the breech gas tight. This difficulty was so great that as late as 1858 we find Greener writing: "Striving to produce perfect breechloading cannon is like striving to square a circle." See "The Book of the Rifle," p. 64. Hon. T. F. Freemantle. Breechloading firearms were known in England as early as the reign of Henry VIII. We may well wonder what Greener would think of the modem quick-firing piece manufactured a little more than half a century after his day.

By the end of the eighteenth century a certain amount of progress had been made in the manufacture of rifles, weapons which had been used with such deadly effect during the American War. "The English Military Library." No. XXIX, February, 1801. Vol. II.

In 1800, when it was proposed to raise an experimental rifle corps, a board was assembled at Woolwich on February 4th, and selected for it, from out of many foreign makes, one manufactured by Mr. Ezekiel Baker of London; this rifle was called the Baker rifle. Its weight was nine and a half pounds, its maximum rate of loading was one round per minute, its range three hundred yards, and twenty of its bullets went to the pound. "Rifle Brigade Chronicle, 1900," p. 44. Though in range this rifle seems to have been distinctly inferior to many the Americans used in 1775-81, its loading was, apparently, quicker.

The Baker rifle was not superseded until 1838 when it was replaced by the Brunswick rifle with a range of 300 yards; with this rifle a belted ball was used. In 1839, the needle-gun was invented, but not adopted by the Prussians until 1848. The Brunswick rifle was soon superseded by the Lancaster rifle with, a range of 900 yards; the Lancaster, in 1850-51, by the Minie which was sighted to 1,000 yards. At about this time General Jacobs, of Jacobabad fame, invented a rifle which carried 2,000 yards. The Minie, in 1854-5, was replaced by the Enfield rifle. All these rifles, except the needle-gun, which had a low range, were muzzleloaders. In 1866, the French Army adopted the Chassepot, and a year later the English the Snider, both breechloaders. In 1871, the Snider was replaced by the Martini-Henry, the last type of single-loading breechloader issued.