Patrick Ferguson
BIRTH
Jun 4, 1744
Aberdeenshire, Scotland
DEATH
October 7, 1780
Kings Mountain, South Carolina
FAMILY
##
Ferguson, Patrick
(1744-1780)
Patrick Ferguson was a Scottish officer in the British Army, an early advocate of light infantry and the designer of the Ferguson rifle. He is best known for his service in the 1780 military campaign of Charles Cornwallisduring the American Revolutionary War in the Carolinas, in which he played a great effort in recruiting American Loyalists to serve in his militia against the Patriots.
2
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Kings Mountain National Military Park | 2625 Park Rd, Blacksburg, SC 29702 | MUSEUM | ||
Patrick Ferguson Camp Marker | 214 NC-226, Grover, NC 28073 | MARKER |
DIED:
Kings Mountain, South Carolina
Oct 7, 1780
Patrick Ferguson was born at Pitfour in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Through his parents, he knew a number of major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, including philosopher and historian David Hume, on whose recommendation he read Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa when he was fifteen, and the dramatist John Home.
In 1777, Ferguson went to the colonies to serve in the American War of Independence; commanding an experimental rifle corps equipped with his new rifle. However, after initial success, he was shot through the right elbow joint at the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777 in Pennsylvania. Shortly before, he had had the chance to shoot a prominent American officer, accompanied by another in distinctive hussar dress, but decided not to do so, as the man had his back to him and was unaware of Ferguson's presence.
Ultimately, his activities and military actions led to a Patriot militiaforce mustered to put an end to his force of Loyalists, and he was killed in the Battle of Kings Mountain, at the border between the colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina. Leading a group of Loyalists whom he had recruited, he was the only regular army officer participating on either side of the conflict. The victorious Patriot forces desecrated his body in the aftermath of the battle.