Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
Sorry but I have to call BS on this one….

It is much more likely that it was a political decision on Howe’s part and the disturbance in tactics of the day…

The average infantryman was seen as little more than an animal who did as he was told and one could not allow him to decide when and what to fire at…
That was hyperbole. An exaggeration, if you will, for the sake of humor.
However, as with most early breechloaders, they were rather fragile and tended to break a lot. They were also rather expensive as well.
Its basically the Yamato paradox. You can build one giant battleship or a thousand fighter planes. Or, in this case, 1 rifle or 50 muskets (rough guess, of course).