O.K. got your attention :)
this got me too ;)
Its good stuff
I wonder if Clayton E. Cramer has been to a Appleseed (maybe so)
From NRA 1st freedom magazine January 2009
My favorite quote is from a letter to William Bradford from James Madison 1775
"The Strength of this Colony will be chiefly in the rifle-men of the Upland Counties of whom we will have great numbers"
read the rest attached sorry about the scan I could not find it as a download
Excellent job! ;D
Guess I'll have to subscribe to that mag also.
Great Article!
I like how they worked Samuel Whittamore into the ending.
Outstanding article. Good illustration of the power of perseverance and skill at arms.
Most excellent!
I can hardly wait to get my next NRA issue.
Thanks to the marksmanship skills taught in Appleseed, and today's modern equipment . . . American rifle marksmanship is alive and well! The Founders would be proud.
In this article they talk about specific companies and regiments having exceptional marksmanship. This is something newsworthy. The British General speaks of the one particular company agains his lines, but no mention of the others. I have no doubt that there were many fine marksmen, especially along the frontier where the use of firearms made the difference between eating and not eating. No mention is made of crack rifle companies being fielded from the cities or heavily populated areas along the sea coast. I think that this translates into "A nation of riflemen" that is probably in proportion to the quote of Hericletus below. I am not sure if the rifleman is the ONE or if the top ten are all riflemen.
"Of every one-hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there. Eighty are nothing but targets. Nine are real fighters. We are lucky to have them, they make the battle. AH, BUT THE ONE! One of them is a WARRIOR and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus c. 500 B.C.
If this proportion of riflemen-vs-townsmen was translated to todays population I wonder how it would compare? When you took the riflemen of the Appleseed Project and others who shoot well from practical use or some sort of training and put them against today's population how would the two compare?
short read on how the arrival of companies of rifleman from the frontier counties of PA, MD and VA delayed a British effort to break out of the Colonial Army's siege of Boston. Effective use of psychological warfare based on feats of skilled shooting unmatched in New England until the arrival of the riflemen and use of their stealth and physical conditioning as well as their marksmanship.
Two of the rifleman companies marched 550 miles (in 22 days) and 600 miles (in 21 days). Think about that. Right at 30 miles per day carrying everything they needed back in a time when there weren't many good roads spanning the countryside.
They scared the snot out of the British as word of their appearance, actions and skills spread throught the countryside by word of mouth as well as being printed in the newspapers:
"Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of 130 active, brave young fellows...With their rifles in their hands they assume a kind of omnipotence over their enemies...Two brothers in the company took a piece of board, five inches broad, and seven inches long, with a bit of white paper, about the size of a dollar, nailed to the center, and while one of them supported this board perpendicularly between his knees, the other at the distance of upwards of sixty yards, and without any kind of rest, shot eight bullets successively through the board, and spared a brother's thighs! Another of the company held a barrel stave perpendicularly in his hand, with one edge close to his side, while one of his comrades, at the same distance, and in the manner before mentioned, shot several bullets through it, without any apprehensions of danger on either side. The spectators appearing to be amazed at these feats, were told that there were upwards of fifty persons in the company who could do the same thing; and there was not one who could not plug 19 bullets out of 20 (as they termed it) within an inch of the head of a ten penny nail; in short, to evince the confidence they possessed in their dexterity at these kinds of arms, some of them proposed to stand with apples on their heads, while others at the same distance undertook to shoot them off; but the people, who saw the other experiments, declined to be witnesses of this. At night a great fire was kindled round a pole planted in the courthouse square, where the company with the Captain at their head, all naked to the waist and painted like savages (except the Captain, who was in an Indian shirt), indulged a vast concourse of the inhabitants with a perfect exhibition of a war dance, and all the manoevures [sic] of Indians holding council, going to war, circumventing their enemies, by defiles, ambuscades, attacking, scalping, etc. It is said by those who are judges, that no representation could possibly come nearer the original. The Captain's agility and expertness, in particular, in these exhibitions, astonished every beholder. This morning they will set out on their march to Cambridge."18 On August 9th these riflemen arrived in Cambridge."
http://www.americanrevolution.org/riflemen.html
I think it was "Mad" Anthony Wayne who wanted the rifles withdrawn and muskets issued in their place.
One of the reasons was the Pennsylvania rifle was a very poor bayonet mount. Tactics of the day generally called for one volley to be fired and then quick follow up with the bayonet.
Smoothbore muskets were also generally quicker to load than rifles.
This is not to say that rifle-armed Americans didn't do a lot of damage to the British forces. Morgan's riflemen certainly did so at Freeman's Farm.
Good read.
Quote from: ACP230 on December 23, 2008, 11:26:54 PM
This is not to say that rifle-armed Americans didn't do a lot of damage to the British forces. Morgan's riflemen certainly did so at Freeman's Farm.
Tim Murphy!
Another man who knew what he was about.
I need to find it again but somewhere I have a followup to all those "hill billies" who grabbed their rifles and gear and took off to New England looking for a fight.
They were shooting the English sentries from unbelievable distances, sneaking up on the sentries and either killing them with a knife or kidnapping them and when they couldn't fight the English they were drinking and fighting with each other.
The folks in charge up there didn't know how to use them or control them and when they finally left and went home they were glad to see them go. But while they were there the put the FEAR into the English troops who would not go out on patrols day or night. Those guys had a lot to do with shutting the English up inside Boston.
Old Dog, totally right.
The folks that lived up here that lived way back in the sticks, didn't get involved in the fighting around Boston.
They got involved in the fighting in the Lake Champlain/Lake George/Upper Hudson River valley area.
This months issue of the NRA's America's First Freedom magazine has an article by Clayton E. Cramer on the veracity of the claims of marksmanship for the Revolutionary War minutemen. Comes to the conclusion that they were generally 4 MOA men. Duh!
Shame it didn't mention Appleseed for trying to preserve the tradition. I'm going to write a letter to the editor about it, why don't we all join in.
Maybe we could even persuade Clayton to come back and continue the fight here in California... having departed a few years ago from California to Idaho... but he's a good man on the right side who continues the fight.
Happy New Year
V
It's possible someone at the NRA has noticed Appleseed, and this is the first trickle of "more later" - who knows? @)
sure sounds like it
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=4988.0;topicseen
Cramer is currently unemployed and lives near Boise, ID. Fred should offer him a free Appleseed event in southern ID.
FWIW, I contacted Cramer by phone about this time, and he expressed NO interest in Appleseed, free or not... :(