The Baker Rifle, the rifle that defeated Napoleon -By Matthew Dye
The Pattern 1800 Infantry Rifle, also known as, the Baker Rifle was created in 1799 by Ezekiel Baker,a master gunsmith from Whitechapel, England. The rifle was designed to be soldier-proof, effective, dependable, and easy to produce and has the honor to be the first military made rifle. It was put into mass production in 1800 and by 1801 it was taking lives on the battlefields all across the world. The Baker Rifle has a long and illustrious career serving in many battles and skirmishes through the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, the American Indian Wars and the Texas Revolution.
The Baker rifle was the first rifle to be designed as military weapon, up to this time the few troops that used them used hunting rifles, such troops were the German Jägers and the Rogers Rangers, all other weapons at the time were smoothbore muskets or carbines. Up to this time rifles were looked as something for civilized gentlemen and hunters to own because of the cost of production and slow reload speed. Although this mindset was very common among officers, the American Revolution showed the British the damage a group of trained soldiers could do with rifles, and created the Experimental Corps of Rifleman, designated as skirmisher units, to help stop the marching feet of Emperor Napoleon's army across Europe.
Although the Baker Rifle had several different variations to them and produced by 20 different gunsmiths under the Tower of London program. some of the variations were shorter or had minor changes to the lock and grip or like the East India variant didn't have a butt-trap compartment. The Baker Rifle is a muzzle loading rifle weighing in at 9 pounds with a browned camouflaged barrel, that features 7 rectangular grooves measuring the length of the 30in barrel. The overall length the firearm is 43.75in., 12 inches shorter than standard issued Brown Bess. The trigger guard had an elegant brass scroll to help ensure a sturdy grip. The lock, the firing mechanism, also called dog head, which held the flint, is the same sturdy swan-neck cock style found on the Brown Bess musket. The stock of the Baker Rifle was made from English Walnut that extended the length of the barrel. The barrel was held into place by 3 flat captive wedges. The butt of the rifle featured a raised cheek-piece on the left-hand side and had a butt-trap covered with a 4.5inch brass cover that contained a single or double compartment that carried cleaning supplies and/or patches.
The ramrod housing was slit into the stock and secured with two brass holders to hold the steel ramrod. At the end of the barrel, there was a metal lock bar that would accommodate a single edge 24-inch sword bayonet. Some other interesting features of the Baker Rifle is that it featured a rear sight that consists of a block situated 7 inches forward of the breach and cut with a V notch and the front sight was made from an iron blade on a thin rectangular base that could be used to aim up to 200 yards. The ammunition of the Baker Rifle was a 0.625 lead ball, also known as carbine bore and fine powder. usually, riflemen would carry two different types of powder, depending on the needs of the rifleman, in different powder horns this was later to be replaced with a cartridge system.
What made the Baker Rifle so deadly was that the patch would grip the grooves and spin the bullet allowing the bullet to be accurate up to 150-200 yards if not more, compared to standard musket of the time being only accurate up to 75 yards. The usual procedure for riflemen of the time was to work in twos, one to load and the other to shot. The Riflemen would deploy into combat ahead of the main force to take strategic positions and snip the officers, NCOs, drummers, cannoneers and causing general chaos at oncoming combatants and other skirmishers. Another advantage of the Baker Rifle is how short the gun was, at least for infantry units of the time, that a rifleman could use the terrain to their advantage to get better shots of valuable targets. The Rifle could also be used in standard formation when needed, they simply just wouldn't use the patch and just load the powder and bullet.
Although the Baker Rifle was a terrifying weapon it did have its downfalls, one of the biggest ones is that it was slow to reload. The average British soldier could load and fire 3 rounds per minute and have a study rate of volley while in formation. Where the Baker could load and fire at 2 rounds per minute and it would be a shoot at will, this is the main reason why Napoleon himself despised the rifle and refused to arm his soldiers with them. Another drawback of the rifle was that after 20 or so shots the grooves would get mucked up and would lose accuracy and be harder to reload, some soldiers would use water or urine to wash out the powder residue.
Although the Baker had several downfalls, the overall damage it caused on the battlefields of the past was a large advantage. In my opinion the Baker Rifle helped defeat Napoleon by taking out key officers, damaging moral of the French Troop and causing the disruption of communication by taking out the drummers. The rifle wasn't only deadly in the hands of trained riflemen of both the British rifles and Portuguese Caçadores, it was also given to the Spanish guerrilla's to harass the occupying French troops causing more moral issues and loss of much needed information. To demonstrate the accuracy of the Baker Rifle in capable hands was when Rifleman Thomas Plunkett, 1 st Battalion 95 th Rifles, shot French General Colbert in the head at what most records estimate at 600 yards, during the retreat of Corunna, during the Battle of Cacabelos, in 1809. Who knows what other damage has been done with this rifle and how it changed the outcome of Peninsular wars and victories it made for British that help start rise of the British empire.
The Baker rifle was finally retired and production ceased in 1838 but some records show that some British troops still used the rifle up to 1841. This rifle had the longest serving life of any other rifle in British history, it saw conflicts in Waterloo, Ireland, the West Indies, South Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Nepal, New Orleans, and the Alamo. The Pattern 1800 Infantry Rifle lead the way for the rest of the world to standardize the rifle, without the Baker we wouldn't have modern day rifles and Napoleon may have been able to create a French Empire instead of the English.
Refernces
The Baker Rifle
Eric W. Edwards
Pitt Rivers Museum Library Assistant http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-baker-rifle.html
Military History Magazine
The Accurate and Deadly Baker Rifle
Arnold Blumberg http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/the-accurate-and-deadly-baker-rifle