Editing Sniper (section)

===1701–1800===

Later "sharpshooting" or "sniping" became implemented in shooting terminology.

For example: in the 1752 [[Appin Murder]], Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure was shot in the back near [[Duror]] by an unknown sniper, most likely from within [[Clan Stewart of Appin]], in retaliation for Campbell's role in an early version of the [[Highland Clearances]]; the mass eviction of Stewart clansmen and their replacement by members of [[Clan Campbell]].

Hunting terminology was quickly adapted to warfare by British soldiers. In a 1772 letter, a soldier described enemies firing very accurately:<ref name=JSAHR1925>{{cite journal |date=October–December 1925 | title=Sniping | journal=Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research | volume=4 | issue=18 | pages=213 | jstor=44227525 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44227525 | author1=E. C. B. M. }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=… in erecting our batteries, the people frequently play tricks, by putting a hat with a cockade in it on a spunge staff, which the enemy fire at and often hit, to the diversion of the soldiery, who humorously call it sniping, and watch the flash to return the fire.
}}

On 11 September 1777, during the [[Battle of Brandywine]], British Captain [[Patrick Ferguson]] had a tall, distinguished American officer in his rifle's iron sights. Ferguson did not take the shot, as he considered shooting anyone in the back dishonourable. Only later, did Ferguson learn that [[George Washington]] had been on the battlefield that day.<ref name="Leckie2010">{{cite book|author=Robert Leckie|title=George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGqMbfTl3MQC&pg=PA513|access-date=12 July 2013|date=24 August 2010|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-201536-5|page=513}}</ref>

At the [[Battles of Saratoga]], [[Morgan's Riflemen]] hid in the trees and used early model rifles to shoot senior British officers. Most notably, [[Timothy Murphy (sniper)|Timothy Murphy]] shot and killed General [[Simon Fraser of Balnain]] on 7 October 1777 at a distance of about 400 yards.<ref name="MastHalberstadt2007">{{cite book|author1=Gregory Mast|author2=Hans Halberstadt|title=To Be a Military Sniper|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A64US-2Em2YC&pg=PA18|access-date=12 July 2013|date=January 2007|publisher=Zenith Imprint|isbn=978-0-7603-3002-9|page=18}}</ref><ref name="Rose2008">{{cite book|author=Alexander Rose|title=American Rifle: A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bWaAiSScrRcC&pg=PT46|access-date=12 July 2013|date=21 October 2008|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|location=New York|isbn=978-0-440-33809-3|page=46}}</ref><ref name="Dougan2006">{{cite book|author=Andy Dougan|title=Through the Crosshairs: A History of Snipers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CpJ7fH7I0gkC&pg=PA47|access-date=12 July 2013|date=1 June 2006|publisher=Da Capo Press, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-7867-1773-6|page=47}}</ref>

In early 1800, Colonel [[Coote Manningham]] and Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. [[William Stewart (British Army officer, born 1774)|William Stewart]] of the British Army proposed using what they had learned while leading light infantry to establish a special unit of marksmen. Subsequently raised as the "[[Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)|Experimental Corps of Riflemen]]", they were armed with the formidable [[Baker rifle]] rather than the inaccurate smoothbore muskets used by most troops at that time.<ref name=forming>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenjackets-net.org.uk/rb/forming.htm|title=1800 The Forming of the Regiment|publisher=Green Jackets|access-date=18 June 2016|archive-date=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409202929/http://www.greenjackets-net.org.uk/rb/forming.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Through the combination of a leather wad and tight grooves on the inside of the barrel (rifling), this weapon was far more accurate, though slower to load. On 25 August 1800, three companies, under the command of Stewart, spearheaded an amphibious landing at [[Ferrol, Spain]].