[TheThirdRuffian]

I am sure being on the receiving end sucked rather badly, but it is mechanically an unremarkable rifle.

[Hiddigeigei]

George Hanger fought with German Jagers against the French at the Battle of Minden in 1859 and saw the effectiveness of rifle-armed troops. The jagers used a large-bore rifle that was the state-of-the-art in Europe and the predecessor of the much improved Pennsylvanian (Kentucky) rifle which Hanger said was the best in the world. These American rifles so impressed some of the British officers that one, Major Patrick Ferguson, invented a breech loading rifle and proposed its use in units of the British army. Perhaps unfortunately, Major Ferguson was killed by American militia riflemen at Kings Mountain, who then went on to help defeat Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens.

Washington did complain about certain militia units that showed up poorly armed, but the denigrating of the militias in the Revolutionary War is part of the attack on the Second Amendment by people such as Michael A. Bellesiles in his thoroughly discredited book, Arming America.