UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, J. A. KRUG, Secretary NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, NEWTON B. DRURY, Director Reprinted 1947 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.—Price 15 cents Maj. Patrick Ferguson, British commander at the Battle of Kings Mountain, and inventor of the breechloading rifle bearing his name; from a marble bust....

A Hunting Rifle Victory [1] By Roger W. Young, Historian Branch of History Kings Mountain, the fierce attack of American frontiersmen on October 7, 1780, against Cornwallis’ scouting force under Ferguson, was an unexpected onslaught carried out in the foothills of South Carolina. This sudden uprising of the stalwart Alleghany mountaineers, for the protection of their homes and people from the threat of Tory invasion under British leadership, was relatively isolated in conception and execution fr

At the Battle of Kings Mountain [2] By C. P. Russell, Chief Naturalist Branch of Natural History Progress made on the new museum at Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina, is worthy of record, and the fact that the Service possesses a Ferguson rifle to put into that museum constitutes special note within the record. To the average park visitor “Ferguson rifle” means little or nothing, but to the student of military history mention of that British weapon kindles a flame of interest

Modern Marksman Attains High Precision With Arm of 1776 [3] By Dr. Alfred F. Hopkins, formerly Field Curator, Museum Division, Washington. History records that on June 1, 1776, at Woolwich, England, Maj. Patrick Ferguson, of the British Army, demonstrated his newly devised breechloading flintrock rifle to the astonishment of all beholders. Quite recently at the Washington laboratory of the Museum Division of the National Park Service beholders likewise were astonished at the shooting qualities o