Captain Patrick Ferguson of the British Army had a tall, distinguished American officer in his early sniper rifle's sights. Nobility got the best of him and did not shoot since the American soldier had his back turned. Ferguson later learned that Washington was on the battlefield that day, and he had the chance to take him out.
That being said, it's not even certain that Ferguson would have hit Washington. Though barrel rifling was invented at the end of the fifteenth century, it was only used in large cannons. Rifling uses grooves in the barrel of a firearm to spin a bullet, making it more accurate over a long distance.
The first rifled barrels were used by the British "Green Jackets" during the Napoleonic Wars. The was called the Baker rifle and used a combination of a leather wad and grooves for acuracy, but a pain in the butt to load.
