Baker Rifle

Baker Rifle (1801-1837), Caliber - 0.625 inch (15.9 mm)

Sean Bean holds a Baker at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, for History Channel's documentary Sean Bean On Waterloo (2015). Bean remarked that it was the first time he had handled a genuine Baker (a carefully preserved Napoleonic relic), as all of the weapons he handled in the Sharpe series were replicas.

The Baker Rifle (officially designated the "Infantry Rifle") was a flintlock rifle issued to the Rifle regiments of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was the first standard-issue rifle of the British Army.

History

The Baker was issued to the specialized Rifle brigades of the British Army, who were tasked to act as skirmishers and scouts rather than regular line infantry. The weapon was prized for its long-range accuracy but regarded as slow in reloading (since the rifling of the barrels was ineffective unless the lead balls rammed down the muzzle were first wrapped in leather patches to grip the grooves), so the smooth-bore musket remained the standard-issue weapon for the majority of the Army. For the same reason, Napoleon Bonaparte refused to issue rifles to any units of the French Army.

British rifle units used the Baker in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars and in Canada during the War of 1812. Bakers were also, supposedly, carried by Mexican soldiers at the Battle of the Alamo, and the Nepalese government has recently released stores of Bakers that were previously supplied to its army.

Probably the most famous shot fired by a Baker was by Rifleman Thomas Plunket during the retreat to La Coruna, which flew an unmeasured but incredibly long distance (estimated as much as 800 yards) to kill French General Auguste Colbert (a short while later, just to prove that it wasn't a fluke, Plunket scored another hit on one of Colbert's aides).

The Baker has enjoyed a resurgence of historical and public interest thanks to its extensive use in the Sharpe miniseries, based on the books by Bernard Cornwell.

The Baker Rifle has been used in the following films and television series:

Film

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
Sharpe's Rifles	Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, Michael Mears, Jason Salkey, John Tams, Paul Trussell, Lyndon Davies	Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, and Riflemen Cooper, Harris, Hagman, Tongue, and Perkins		1994
Sharpe's Eagle	Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, Michael Mears, Jason Salkey, John Tams, Paul Trussell, Lyndon Davies	Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, and Riflemen Cooper, Harris, Hagman, Tongue, and Perkins		1994
Sharpe's Company	Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, Michael Mears, Jason Salkey, John Tams, Lyndon Davies	Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, and Riflemen Cooper, Harris, Hagman, and Perkins		1994
Sharpe's Enemy	Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley, Michael Mears, Jason Salkey, John Tams, Lyndon Davies	Richard Sharpe, Patrick Harper, and Riflemen Cooper, Harris, Hagman, and Perkins		1994
The Alamo	Patrick Wilson	Lt. Col. William Travis		2004