Baker Rifle Sword Bayonets query.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by kronckew

... Was just reading about a 95th Rifleman who shot a french general at 600 yds. with his baker, when he was chided for it being a lucky shot, he reloaded and shot the general's aide who was helping the general.

Certainly a version of this true episode with an exaggerated flavor. The one that mentions Irish Thomas Plunket laying in a supine position and hitting the General at 100 yards sounds more appropriate. In any case Bakers were infinitely more accurate than erratic Brown Besses. At reading the introduction of "The Recollections of Rifleman Harris", this tome a Scot, Bakers were reputed with a 300 yards accuracy.
We can also read in Peninsular War chronicles that the Brits dispensed a couple hundred of those rifles to Portuguese sharp shooters, while Spaniards were not so contemplated.

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