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A rifleman (abbr. Rfn) is a soldier in a light infantry unit who carries a long rifled firearm. Although the infantry role had its origin with 16th century hand gunners and 17th-century musketeers and ''streltsy'', the term ''rifleman'' originated in the 18th century. Entire regiments and bodies of troops were armed with the weapon. It later became the term for the archetypal common infantryman. ==History== Units of musketeers originally developed to support units of pikemen. As firearms became more effective, the composition of these pike-and-musket units changed, until the pikemen were supporting the musketeers. The last pike regiments were dissolved by the 1720s as pikes were superseded with the invention of the bayonet, which replaced the pike, and in effect converted the musket into a pike for those situations where it might still be useful, such as following up volleys with a charge, or defending against cavalry. Smooth-bore weapons such as the musket had always been recognised as inaccurate, requiring massed volleys to be effective. Aimed fire, with targets individually chosen and fired upon on the initiative of the soldier, was not possible until the development of rifling in the barrel. This imparted spin to the bullet, greatly increasing the 'trueness' of the trajectory, rather than the randomness of a musket ball that actually 'bounced' down the barrel. Rifles, although deadly accurate, were disadvantaged by being very slow to reload. This meant that the soldiers chosen for this role needed to be resilient, brave and resourceful, as well as being good shots. Trained to act in teams of two, each defending the other while they re-loaded, they were still vulnerable, especially to cavalry, trained as they were to fight in isolated and dispersed groups rather than as a mass that could present a solid wall of bayonets. These factors—the time and expense required in training, the limited number of suitable recruits, and the specialised roles and situations where they were most effective—meant they were highly prized, given special privileges, and 'husbanded' rather than squandered. Such rifle units reached their heyday up to and including the Napoleonic Wars, with the British riflemen (partially derived from units of colonial militia; see Rogers' Rangers or the Royal Americans) truly excelling in the American War of Independence. Regular units of rifles were formed in the British Army in 1800 (the 60th Regiment of Foot and the 95th Regiment of Foot). These were often given the name "light infantry", emphasizing their specialised roles. Starting in the 1840s, with the advent of the Minié ball and the first military breech-loading rifles, the weapon entered the age of industrialised warfare, where it was mass-produced and accessible to all infantrymen. Much faster and simpler to load, able to be reloaded while prone, impossible to be double-loaded after a misfire; the high level of training and highly specialised roles gave way to generality. The term 'rifleman', once used solely as a mark of distinction and pride, became a commonplace description of all infantry, no matter what their actual status was. Nevertheless, the term still retained a certain ''élan'', that is still found today. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rifleman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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