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The Book Page
From Washington Crossing, David Hackett Ficher, c. 2004.
Among the many different battalions and infantry the Brits landed on Staten Island during the early days of the Revolutionary War, one was a light infantry company.
From page 36:
Every light infantry company wore the badges and facings of its parent regiment, with distinctive short jackets, light equipment, and a small helmet or cap in place of the usual broad-brimmed cocked hat. As emblems of their special role, some companies added jaunty green feathers, which gave the Light Bobs another nickname.
The Green Feathers of 1776 were the ancestors of Green Jackets in the nineteenth century and Green Berets in the twentieth, all highly mobile light troops. British commanders made frequent use of these men, and by 1776 they were already hardened by heavy service in America.From page 37:
In the early 1770s, William Congreve and James Pattison developed a new generation of mobile brass field guns with light but sturdy carriages and interchangeable parts. Some of these weapons, called "grasshoppers," could be moved on pack horses or carried by eight men. They were designed for mobility on American terrain.
Congreve also ran the Royal Powder Factory and developed munitions in great variety: hollow shells with bursting charges, incendiary "carcasses" for use against buildings, canister and grapeshot against infantry, illuminating rounds and smoke shells. From the experience of the American war, Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel would invent in 1784 an exploding shell that still bears his name.
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