Rifles and Riflemen at the Battle of Kings MountainUnited States. National Park Service
History
Rifles and Riflemen at the Battle of Kings Mountain
United States. National Park Service
King's Mountain, Battle of, S.C., 1780; Rifles
_The Provincial Regulars are believed to have used this splendid
weapon at Kings Mountain._
_The rifle was ahead of its time and was discarded after his death.
It is now rare._]
Probably no other battle in the Revolution was so picturesque or so
furiously fought as that at Kings Mountain. The very mountain thundered.
Not a regular soldier was in the American ranks. Every man there was
actuated by a spirit of democracy. They fought under leaders of their
own choosing for the right to live in a land governed by men of their
own choice.
With the death of Ferguson, the rifles of his invention, with which
probably 150 of his men were armed, disappeared. Some were broken in the
fight and others were carried off by the victors. One given by Ferguson
to his companion, De Peyster, is today an heirloom in the family of the
latter’s descendants in New York City. It was exhibited by the United
States Government at the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893. A very few are
to be found in museum collections in this country and in England. The
one possessed by the National Park Service was obtained from a dealer in
England through the vigilance of members of the staff of the Colonial
National Historical Park, Virginia, and is now exhibited in the museum
at Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina.
The Kings Mountain museum tells the story of the Revolutionary
backwoodsman and his place in the scheme of Americanism. Here also is
presented the story of the cultural, social, and economic background of
the Kings Mountain patriots, as well as the details of the battle and
its effect on the Revolution as a whole. Here lies the rare opportunity
to preserve for all time significant relics of Colonial and
Revolutionary days and at the same time interpret for a multitude of
visitors the basic elements in the story of the old frontier—a story
which affected most of the Nation during the century that followed the
Revolution.
Our interest here will turn to those intriguing reminders of how our
Colonial ancestors lived—their houses, their tools and implements, their
furniture, their books, and their guns. Because of the significance of
the American rifle in the battle of Kings Mountain, it must be a feature
of any Kings Mountain exhibit. In the Carolinas it was as much a part of
each patriot as was his good right arm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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