Scottish British Army Major Patrick Ferguson was present at the Battle of Brandywine, leading the elite skirmishers of the German Brigadier Knupfhausen's force at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777.
This company was elite not only because its men were well trained, but because they were armed with the first breech-loading rifle in history, which Ferguson himself had invented.
This rifle was based on the mechanism invented by the Frenchman Isaac de la Sommet in 1720, which Ferguson improved. Unfortunately the weapon he devised was very expensive (it cost four times as much as a Brown Bess musket) and difficult to manufacture, so only 200 were produced and given to the elite sniper company to test.
It is worth noting that four gunsmith workshops, working in parallel, managed to manufacture, in a period of 6 months, only 100 rifles.
The rifle weighed 3.5 kg and had a caliber of 0.615 in (16.51 mm). It could fire 7 rounds per minute with the 15.56mm round. In the hands of an experienced soldier, however, it could put up to 10. It had a screw bolt and a tilt scope for shots up to 300 yards (about 275 m).
The gun was capable of rapid fire, but the screw mechanism of the breech often required lubrication or was rendered useless by gunpowder residue. A rifle of the type now made, according to the instructions left by Ferguson, fired, in tests, 60 consecutive shots, in a few minutes, without needing lubrication, or getting jammed.
Ferguson himself was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. After his recovery he carried out a number of "crude" missions, gaining contacts with the colonists loyal to the crown, whom he organized against the rebels. He was later assigned to the 71st SP. He was killed fighting, in 1780.
Some weapons that fell into American hands and were used in the American Civil War.
