Rifling
The use of rifled muskets called rifles, changed this. During the American Revolutionary War Americans used muskets. But they also had marksmen who used their Kentucky rifles. The longer barrel was rifled for accuracy at a long range. American riflemen began targeting British officers in battle instead of just individual soldiers. Without their officers giving them every command, the British soldiers could not function as a unit. The British command despised the tactic calling it “unsportsmanlike”. But the Americans continued the practice up to the end of the war.