British Ferguson Rifle

See also: Patrick Ferguson

The Ferguson rifle was most likely the first breech loading rifle to be adopted by any organized military force. It was a .65 (.648 true) caliber rifle used by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War at the end of the 1770s. Its superior firepower was unappreciated at the time because it was outside the paradigm of armed lines of men standing face to face. Later events, when rifles of similar firepower were adopted, accompanied a change of tactics and abandonment of lines of troops standing face to face hammering it out against one another—a technological need given the need to stand when reloading either muskets or rifles. Breech loading allowed cover and concealment to be utilized, but the change in circumstance went unheralded and unappreciated during their brief advent on the field of battle. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Patrick Ferguson (1744–1780), was a British Army officer, rifle-designer, and early advocate of light infantry. ... Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105mm H37 howitzer barrel An interrupted screw style breech plug in the M109 howitzer An animation showing the loading cycle for a large naval breech-loader. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... “Calibre” redirects here. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... This article is about military actions only. ... Events and Trends For more events, see 18th century United States Declaration of Independence ratified by the Continental Congress (July 4, 1776). ...

Details

The breech of the weapon is closed by a rapid pitch tapered screw, and the trigger guard serves as the crank to rotate it. One complete turn dropped the screw low enough to drop a round ball into the exposed breech followed by a slight overcharge of powder which was then sheared to the proper charge by the screw as it closed the breech. Since the weapon was loaded from the breech, rather than from the muzzle, it had an amazingly high rate of fire for its day, and in capable hands fired six to ten rounds per minute. Look up breech in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A trigger guard is a loop surrounding the trigger of a gun and protecting it from accidental discharge. ...

The action was adapted from the earlier 1720 de la Chaumette design by Major Patrick Ferguson (1744-1780), who redesigned it around 1770. He received an English Patent in December of 1776 (number 1139) on details of the design. Patrick Ferguson (1744–1780), was a British Army officer, rifle-designer, and early advocate of light infantry. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ...

Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured by four British gun firms, Durs Egg being the most notable, and issued to Ferguson's unit when its members were drawn from numerous light infantry units in General Howe's army. The only large battle in which the rifles were used was the Battle of Brandywine, in which Ferguson was wounded. While he recuperated, his unit was subsequently disbanded. It was disbanded because the unit, Ferguson's Rifle Corps, was running out of officers and men, being killed and wounded in action at a greater rate than most units, since, as a light infantry unit with a special role, they were in combat, and on the front lines, more often than most soldiers. The rifle corps, while far ahead of its time, cost Britain more in hard-to-get officers and men than it gained at that time by its demonstrably much greater firepower. Officers of the day were used to thinking in terms of firepower as manpower, not rounds on the enemy per unit of time per soldier, thus it was far ahead of its time. General Howe held no especial bias against rifles other than against their expense, and of the wastage of officers in an army that was forever shorthanded. Durs Egg (1748–1831) was a Swiss-born British gunmaker, noted for his flintlock pistols and for his companys production of the Ferguson rifle. ... Sir William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC (August 10, 1729 – July 12, 1814) was an English General who was Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American Revolutionary War, one of the three Howe brothers. ... Combatants United States Great Britain Commanders George Washington William Howe Strength 10,600 (8,000 present) 17,000 (6,000 present) Casualties 1,200-1,300 casualties 93 killed 488 wounded 6 missing The Battle of Brandywine was a battle of the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought...

Ferguson's men went back to the light infantry units they had originally come from, and his rifles were eventually replaced with the standard Short Land Pattern Musket. The surviving rifles were apparently put in storage in New York. Their subsequent fate is unknown. Short Land Service musket Brown Bess is a nickname of unknown origin for the British Armys Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. ... Muskets and bayonets aboard the frigate Grand Turk. ...

The two main reasons that Ferguson rifles were not used by the rest of the army:

• The gun was difficult and expensive to produce using the small, decentralized gunsmith and subcontractor system in use to supply the Ordnance in early-Industrial Revolution Britain.

• The guns broke down easily in combat, especially in the wood of the stock around the lock mortise. The lock mechanism and breech were larger than the stock could withstand with rough use. There is no military Ferguson left without a horseshoe-shaped iron repair under the lock to hold the stock together where it repeatedly broke around the weak, over-drilled out mortise.

However, despite an unsubstantiated claim that one of the actions was found at the battle site of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, where Ferguson was killed in action, the only piece of a Ferguson ever found in America from a gun used in action is a trigger guard found in excavations of a British army camp in New York City. The only connection the Ferguson rifle has with the Battle of King's Mountain is that Patrick Ferguson was there. Combatants Patriot militia Loyalist militia Commanders William Campbell, John Sevier, Frederick Hambright, Joseph McDowell, Benjamin Cleveland, James Williams†, Isaac Shelby Patrick Ferguson† Strength 900 (+500 nearby) 1,100 (+200 nearby) Casualties 28 killed (including James Williams), 62 wounded 157 killed, 163 wounded, 698 captured (nine of the captured were later... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston(1670-1789) Columbia(1790-present) Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Columbia Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32° 2′ N to 35° 13′ N  - Longitude... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Experience with early modern replicas, made before the proper screw and thread pitch of the breechblock were rediscovered, seemed to indicate that while reloading was rapid, it seemed to be necessary to first lubricate the breech screw (originally with a mixture of beeswax and tallow) or else the (replica) rifle would foul up to the point of needing cleaning after three or four shots. However, through the research efforts of DeWitt Bailey and others, the properly made reproduction Ferguson rifle, made according to Patrick Ferguson's specifications of the 1770s, can fire beyond sixty shots. A breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech at the moment of firing. ... For the rock song by Nirvana, see Beeswax (song). ... Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. ...

The Ferguson Rifle is also a book by Louis L'Amour. It's not about the rifle specifically, but instead a historical fiction story about someone going out west who was given one of the rifles by Ferguson. Cover Louis LAmour book, Showdown at Yellow Butte. ...

See also

• British military rifles
• M1819 Hall rifle (another early breech-loader)
• British Military Flintlock Rifles, 1740-1840, by Bruce N. Canfield, Robert L. Lamoreaux, Edward R. Johnson, De Witt Bailey; ISBN-10: 1931464030

The origins of the modern British military rifles are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. ... The M1819 rifle was a single-shot breech loading rifle formally adopted by the U.S. in 1819. ...

External links

• A page maintained by an owner of a replica Ferguson rifle
• An article on the Ferguson rifle, complete with cut away views of the action
• Fergusson Rifle at Morristown Park Museum (For reference only)
• Ferguson Rifle at website The Price of Freedom {for reference only}