Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Pattern 1800 Infantry Rifle, better known as the Baker rifle, was a flintlock rifle designed by English gunsmith Ezekiel Baker and used by the British Armed Forces from 1801 to 1837. First seeing action during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , it was the first British-made firearm to be issued as a service rifle to all soldiers ...
The Baker rifle was a muzzle-loading flintlock weapon used by the British Army in the Napoleonic Wars, notably by the 95th Rifles and the 5th Battalion, 60th Regiment of Foot. This rifle was an accurate weapon for its day, with reported kills being made at 100 to 300 yards (90 to 270 m) away.
One success of the British 95th Rifles was picking off French general Auguste François-Marie de Colbert-Chabanais in 1809 during the Peninsular War. The British themselves were to lose General Robert Ross, himself a veteran of the Peninsular War, to American long range rifle fire in 1814. Rifles were also utilised in smaller numbers by Jäger ...
The British Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the numbers had vastly increased. At its peak, in 1813, the regular army ...
The unique skills of the 95th were considered too valuable to lose so the 95th, having seen distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars, was taken out of line of the British Army and became the "Rifle Brigade" on 23 February 1816 (the number was reassigned eight years later to the newly formed county regiment of the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment ...
Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) - formed in 1800 as the Experimental Corps of Rifles, renamed the 95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles) in 1803. 2nd Battalion raised in 1805. 3rd Battalion raised in 1809. 96th Regiment of Foot-100th (Prince Regent's County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot - 1 Battalion raised in Ireland in 1804. Transferred to ...
One hypothesis is that the "Brown Bess" was named after Elizabeth I of England, but this lacks support.Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries, traces the name to at least the 1760s, and his research suggests the name was adopted from slang for a mistress, prostitute, or lowly woman who also appear in period sources referred to as "Brown Bess".
The factory was set up because of disappointment with the poor quality and high cost of the existing British weapons used in the Napoleonic Wars. At this time in Britain, individual components were made mainly in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham by a number of independent manufacturers and then hand-assembled to produce muskets.