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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. First Breech-Loader THE recent announcement that the Smithsonian institution in Washington had acquired the first breech-loading rifle ever used in warfare was an item of particular interest to collectors of old weapons. But it had significance in another field also that of Anglo-American relations, especially at a time when Americans and Britons are united in fighting a common enemy. This rifle was the personal weapon weap-on of Maj. Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Highlanders of the British army. He used it at the Battle of King's Mountain on October 7, 1780, when a force of 900 American frontiersmen fron-tiersmen surrounded his army of more than 1,100 British Provincial troops and Loyalist militia. When the battle ended the Americans had killed and wounded 334 of Ferguson's Fergu-son's force, including the commander command-er himself, and taken the remainder prisoners while suffering a loss of only 28 killed and 62 wounded. There was a time when Ferguson's Fergu-son's name was anathema to many Americans, principally because of his association with the cruel British Brit-ish leader, Tarleton, during the campaigns cam-paigns in the South. But when the passions aroused by fratricidal nature na-ture of the Revolution in that part of the country subsided, there came a more generous attitude toward the memory of the British leaders. One American historian recently asserted assert-ed that keeping alive the hatred of Ferguson's name is unjust to a brave and gallant officer. I Moreover, he cited one letter in I the Ferguson family archives to i show that the major deliberately , spared- the life of George Washington Washing-ton at the Battle of Brandywine, V I1 KINGS MOUNTAIN fe ll Willi WCWMIbOW yfx i , I, si smE or mLiWf : . ' ; J l ttnwniM mm : 1, miiUHXV.l : . : : ! nfMniHttnaoisw f : If FtSW11EDSTTESWSMWC : ' ; I ! at ToKE of Turn tfPRf utam $ . , I ii OfT80S0f FKlESiKWPMS i J e; ; ia b.t,hk f.E : ; v- ijS ) CllliWiOf IHtSHJlSBOtPfflE y Ferguson memorial on the Kings Mountain battlefield. ' when he had it in his power to kill the commander-in-chief of the Continental Con-tinental army. In a letter to relatives rela-tives in England, Ferguson wrote: We had not lain long when a rebel officer, of-ficer, remarkable by a huzzar dress, passed towards our army within 100 yards of our right flank, not perceiving us. He was followed by another dressed in dark green and blue, mounted on a good bay horse, with a remarkable high cocked hat. I ordered three good shots to steal near to them and fire at them, but the idea disgusted me and I recalled the order. The huzzar in returning made a circuit but the other passed within 100 yards of us, upon which I advanced from the wood towards him. Upon my calling he stopped, but after looking at me pro-. ceeded. I again drew his attention and made signs to him to stop, levzling my piece at him, but he slowly continued his way. As I was in that distance which in the quickest firing I could have half a dozen balls in or about him before he was out of my reach I had only to determine; but it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual who was acquitting himself very coolly of his duty, so I let him alone. The day after I had been telling this story to some wounded officers who lay in the same room with me. when one of our surgeons who had been dressing the wounded rebel officers came in and told us that General Washington was all the morning with the light troops and only attended by a French officer in huzzar dress and he himself dressed and mounted mount-ed in every way as above described. I am not sorry I did not know at the time who It was. So visitors to the Smithsonian who see the Ferguson rifle may reflect upon the fact that had it not been for a British officer who was too honorable to shoot in the back "an unoffending individual who was acquitting ac-quitting himself very coolly of his duty" the American Revolution might have had a different ending and George Washington might never nev-er have become the "Father of His Country"! Significant of the changed attitude toward Ferguson is the inscription on the monument erected during the sesquicentennial celebration of the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1930. It reads: To the memory of Col. Patrick Ferguson. Fergu-son. Seventy-First Regiment, Highland Light Infantry. Born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1744. Killed October 7, 1780. in action at Kings . Mountain while in command of the British troops. A soldier sol-dier of military distinction and of honor. This memorial is from the citizens of the United Status in token of their appreciation ap-preciation of the bonds of friendship and peace between them and the ci' iens of the British Empire. |