Patrick Ferguson (1744-1780)
Patrick Ferguson was born in Edinburgh and entered military service at fifteen. In 1772 he took infantry training and began experimenting with a breech-loading rifle design, making improvements that would be incorporated in the Ferguson Rifle. Eventually placed in charge of an infantry unit armed with the new weapons, he was sent to America in the spring of 1777 and took part in the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded in the arm. Two years later he was posted to the Carolinas, where he was charged with recruiting and training Loyalists from throughout the region. In October 1780, while leading his force toward a rendezvous with Cornwallis in Charlotte, he was surrounded and killed at Kings Mountain.