“My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless.”  This is an excerpt from The Rifleman’s Creed which modern marines have ingrained into their brains. The Rifleman’s Creed says that the most important part of an effective infantry force is the rifles in the hands of the infantrymen no matter when the war is. The Rifleman’s Creed also states that without the rifle, there is no infantryman. Knowing that the rifle is the most important part of the infantryman means that the reliability, strengths, and weaknesses of the rifle are multiplied by however many soldiers are fighting together. During the American Revolution colonial infantrymen were equipped with the American longrifle which is also known as the Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle.  The American longrifle was a fairly basic flintlock rifle with few features modern rifles have. The Minié rifle which was used in the American Civil war had many improvements compared to the primitive American longrifle.  Advancements in rifling, projectiles, cartridges, and firing mechanisms had drastic effects on the infantrymen that wielded them.
	American independence was hard fought and well earned by many American infantrymen. Over the course of six years of bloodshed from both American and British troops, the Kentucky rifle prevailed in the hands of American infantrymen. The American longrifle was one of the first rifles that was not smoothbore and had a rifled barrel. A smoothbore barrel means that the barrel of the gun is completely smooth on the inside and the bullet goes straight out because the bullet has no rotation. A rifled barrel means that the barrel of the gun has small spiraling groove in it. The spiraling groove rotates the bullet, increasing its gyroscopic stability. A more stable bullet means the rifle will have a further range, increased accuracy, and a higher muzzle velocity. Muzzle velocity of a firearm is the velocity at which the bullet exits a firearm. The rifled barrel of the American longrifle did have its drawbacks however, the spiraling grooves collected lead that without frequent cleaning led to a nonoperational rifle.
Originally the American longrifle was a flintlock rifle. A flintlock rifle works by having a piece of flint striking a piece of steel sending sparks into the priming pan of the rifle which ignites the powder. Once percussion caps had become popular many of the American longrifles were changed into percussion cap rifles. The firing mechanism for the percussion cap is remarkably similar to the flintlock and many other flintlock rifles were converted to percussion caps. Instead of flint striking steel, a percussion cap works by having a metal cap fitted over a nipple filled with a compound that is based on a fulminate of mercury. When the trigger is pulled the cap is struck by the hammer which ignites and fires the bullet.