Patrick ferguson
FERGUSON WAS Both A SOLDIER AND AN INVENTOR, AND EXPERIMENTED WITH INNOVATIVE BREECHLOADING RIFLES
Perhaps influenced by the extraordinary accuracy of the American frontier rifle, in the 1770s, Ferguson had begun to experiment with a new type of breech-loading rifle. ordinarily firearms of the day, whether smoothbore muskets or rifles, had to be loaded from the muzzle, and the operator had to stand to do this. A breech-loading rifle promised to be faster to load and could be loaded while prone, leaving the shooter less vulnerable to enemy fire. Also, due to the grooves cut into the inside of the barrel, which imparted a spin to the outgoing bullet, a rifle was much more accurate than a smoothbore musket, which was inaccurate beyond about 70 metres (80 yards).
A Ferguson rifle could be fired six times a minute, an extraordinary boost in firepower. Ferguson received a patent for his new weapon, which was an improvement on a previous breech-loading design, as well as an order for 100 copies by the British Army. Coming to America, he and the small corps of sharpshooters he formed, armed with the Ferguson rifle, saw action on 7 September 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine. There he lost the use of his right arm when he was struck in the elbow by a bullet, and his corps of riflemen was subsequently disbanded. his rifle was never adopted for widespread use by the British Army.
At Brandywine, Ferguson figured in one of the more fascinating ‘what ifs?’ of the American War of Independence. Just a short distance away, Ferguson spotted a senior American officer. he could have readily put at least half a dozen shots into the man, Ferguson knew without doubt, but the officer had his back turned to him, and Ferguson refused to fire. only after the battle did Ferguson learn, he claimed later, that he had none other than General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the rebel Continental Army, at his mercy. There is some doubt as to whether Ferguson actually saw Washington – it may well have been some other American officer on the other side of the field. Nevertheless, it is worth pondering how the outcome of the war might have differed had Washington perished that day.