1. A report in the 3 Oct. issue of Dixon & Hunter’s edition of the Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg) says that Thomas Rowland (1744–1814), a captain of the Botetourt County, Va., militia, “last week, in this city, made an experiment of his new method of loading and firing rifles, which shews that rifles may easily be loaded and discharged in as short a time as muskets generally are, with their usual certainty as to aim, and with triple execution in time of action. He shot twelve balls into the compass of a large handkerchief, at the distance of sixty yards, in four discharges of his piece, in the space of 52 seconds. Several of the balls were within six inches of the centre, and but three of the twelve would have missed a man’s body. In another experiment, after firing thirty balls in ten discharges, his rifle appeared as clean and cool in the barrel, though she was not wiped during the experiment, as if she had not been fired more than once. Capt. Rowland’s method is looked upon as a valuable discovery; having rendered that instrument of death, which is already so much dreaded by our enemies, capable of being infinitely more destructive and terrible, and that by a simple and easy operation.” Rowland was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Botetourt County militia in April 1781.