Ferguson rifle

Uncommon card · No. 135949

The Ferguson rifle is a breech-loading rifle manufactured between 1776 and 1777. Designed by Major Patrick Ferguson and the armourer John Cooper in 1774, the rifle fired a standard British carbine ball of .615" calibre and was one of the first breech-loading rifles to see military service. Adopted by the British army for use in the American Revolutionary War, approximately 100 rifles were produced and distributed to a newly-formed experimental light infantry unit, Ferguson's Corps of Riflemen, when it was raised in Spring 1777. The new unit fought in the Philadelphia campaign, including at the Battle of Brandywine, before being disbanded the day after the battle on 12 September 1777, with the rifles being put into storage. The rifle, which was possibly used at the 1780 siege of Charleston, ultimately did not see mass adoption despite its vastly superior firepower due to being too expensive and time-consuming to produce along with being prone to becoming damaged while being difficult to...

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