page_title: Baker rifle
section_title: Use
hierarchical_section_title: Baker rifle / Use
caption_attribution_description: English: Green jacketed English rifleman firing Baker rifle. Plate from Ezekiel Baker's 22 Years Practice and Observations with Rifle Guns, published by him, 1st edition 1803. The 1804 edition has "23 years..."
context_page_description: The Baker rifle was a flintlock rifle used by the rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces.
  The Baker rifle was first produced in 1800 by Ezekiel Baker, a master gunsmith from Whitechapel. The British Army was still issuing the infantry rifle in the 1830s.
context_section_description: During the Napoleonic Wars the Baker was reported to be effective at long range due to its accuracy and dependability under battlefield conditions. In spite of its advantages, the rifle did not replace the standard British musket of the day, the Brown Bess, but was issued officially only to rifle regiments. In practice, however, many regiments, such as the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welch Fusiliers), and others, acquired rifles for use by some in their light companies during the time of the Peninsular War. These units were employed as an addition to the common practice of fielding skirmishers in advance of the main column, who were used to weaken and disrupt the waiting enemy lines (the French also had a light company in each battalion that was trained and employed as skirmishers but these were only issued with muskets). With the advantage of the greater range and accuracy provided by the Baker rifle, the highly trained British skirmishers were able to defeat their French counterparts routinely and in turn disrupt the main French force by sniping at officers and NCOs.
  The rifle was used by what were considered elite units, such as the 5th battalion and rifle companies of the 6th and 7th Battalions of the 60th Regiment of Foot, deployed around the world, and the three battalions of the 95th Regiment of Foot that served under the Duke of Wellington between 1808 and 1814 in the Peninsular War, the War of 1812 (3rd Batt./95th (Rifles), at Battle of New Orleans), and again in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. The two light infantry Battalions of the King's German Legion as well as sharpshooter platoons within the Light Companies of the KGL Line Bns also used the Baker. Each of the Portuguese Caçadores battalions included an Atiradores (sharpshooters) company equipped with the Baker rifle. The rifle was also supplied to or privately purchased by numerous volunteer and militia units; these examples often differ from the regular issue pattern. Some variants were used by cavalry, including the 10th Hussars. The Baker was also used in Canada in the War of 1812. It is recorded that the British Army still issued Baker rifles in 1841, three years after its production had ceased.
  The rifle was used in several countries during the first half of the 19th century; indeed, Mexican forces at the Battle of the Alamo are known to have been carrying Baker rifles, as well as Brown Bess muskets. They were also supplied to the government of Nepal; some of these rifles were released from the stores of the Nepali Army in 2004, but many had deteriorated beyond recovery.
caption: A British rifleman firing a Baker rifle (engraving from an 1803 book by Ezekiel Baker, designer of the rifle)
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