Danny

I think some of the confusion here in these orders and references is the term "long range arms". We now days tend to think of "long range arms" as being "Sniper rifles" such as the Whitworth or Bench rifle. However, as Tom Ezell eluded to in a comment below, even the famed Whitworth rifle was not a true "Sniper rifle". It was in fact a standard military rifle that had an unusual rifling system. Which gave it greater accuracy that the standard military rifle such as the Enfield and Springfield.

But, in the military jargon of the day any rifle musket was considered a "long range" Rifle, because they had the ability to be effective from 500 to 900 yards, as opposed to the 1842 pattern smoothbore muskets which were only effective to 100 yards. To use these rifles effectively at 500 plus yards required training beyond the standard military style of instruction of standing shoulder to shoulder in two ranks and simply loading and firing in volley as the napoleanic soldiers of both side had been taught.

Even when employed in this standard military manner the rifle musket forced the battlelines to be at least 300 yards apart. But, This type of standardized training did not take full advantage of these weapons innovations.

So when these orders are talking about "They will be particularly instructed and armed with long range arms" they are talking about arming and training these soldiers so that they will be able to make the fullest advantages of the special abilities of the rifled musket.

This specialized training would be most effective when employeed as skirmishers where the shooters were not so constricted by strict military formations and manuvers. Second accurate long range firepower from a group of well trained men several hundred yards in advance of the main line of your troops, would force the enemy to be further back from your main battleline. And if he advanced he would have a longer distance to cover before he could engage you and that would allow you a longer period of time to direct your artillery on him.

So this term "long range arms" is not talking about specialized weapony dedicated to the single purpose of sniping. And Naturally, of all the military weapons in the south, the English weapons had the best riflings in their guns.