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Who here knows who Daniel Morgan is? Raise your hand...ok, so not very many of you. That's ok. We're going to take a minute to talk to you about one of the most underrated commanders during the Revolutionary War. Daniel Morgan was born in New Jersey but moved to Virginia at the beginning of his adult life. That's where we pick up with dastardly Dan himself.
What made Daniel so damn special? Well, Daniel was a firm believer in the effectiveness of rifles as a force multiplier. Normal infantry of the day utilized smoothbore muskets whose accuracy was...questionable to say the least. That's why the big lines of troops formed up and fired volleys into each other's lines. Accuracy by volume. However, Morgan's Rifles, as they were named, were much more precise.Daniel demanded excellence from his shooters and only the best were allowed in his unit. The marksmanship test, shoot a 7-inch target at two hundred and fifty paces, and you only got one chance. Why? Because in war, we know that it is not the noise of our burst nor the smoke we make, but the hits that count. Daniel Morgan knew this and ensured that his sharpshooters would hit on their first shot. Morgan's rifles proved to be a force of reckoning against the British. The new tactics that Daniel Morgan and his sharpshooters pioneered were unheard of in that time period. They wreaked havoc on British troops, firing on them from distances that prevented the British from retaliating. The struck with impunity and made officers and enlisted fear for their lives.
As his success grew so did the unit and Morgan trained more and more sharpshooters or rifleman. With the high standards Morgan imposed on his men, we're pretty sure they qualify as the first special operations unit (aside from Marines) in the United States. We'll drink a beer to Daniel Morgan and his elite sharpshooters tonight.Read more stories of American Grit here:
