New-York tribune., 1922-05-07
A corner of the Daily
collection that bears
tDitness to the col
iectors proWess tuith
the Weapons he Gums

used today In the ejector of the latest double
barreled single-trigger shotgun.
One Of Mr. Days prize bits is the first
breech loading type used in warfare The
trigger guard is about eight inches long and
a single turn Of this opens or closes the
breech Lieutenant Colonel Ferguson, the in
ventor fought with the British in the Amer-
can Revolution and was killed at the Battle of
Kings Mountain. This flint lock has a plug
little larger than the bore, screwed into the
barrel just behind the touch hole and under
the breech end, and coming through to the
top where it flush with the barrel the
lower end is attached to the trigger guard by
which it is turned The plug itself has multi
threaded screw to give quick travel, and on
turning the trigger guard three-quarters
around the screwplug descends below the bore
OF the barre 80 that powder and ball might
be introduced into the chamber and the screw
plug then returned to close the breech. That
gun was used by Ferguson with deadly effect
in his last fight.
The following description Of the defeat Of
Ferguson is from "The History Of the British
Army" by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue:
accordingly the 7th of September
(178O) he (Cornwallis) advanced from Cam
den in two columns, the main body under his
own command moving up the eastern bank,
and the light troops and cavalry up the west
ern bank Of the Wateree. A third detachment,
under Major Ferguson, at the same time
moved up wide to the westward from Ninety
Six. with the object Of raising recruits for the
militia, in which Ferguson still reposed con-
fdence which no ono else could share. The
e I'LL
scarcity of forage, and it not until the
22nd that CORVALLIS arrived and halted at
Charottetown. This district a hotbed Of
revolution, and the British, while they re
NAMED in it, were harassed by incessant way
laying or shooting Of the British dispatch
riders. Then as usual guerrilla operations be-
gan again in the Of CORVALLIS, and a
fierce attack made upon the post Of Au-
gusta in Georgia, but repulsed with heavy
loss to the Americans The officer in command
at Ninety Six at once conceived the hope Of
cutting off this American party on its retreat
TO the northward; but finding that the chase
led him to far afeld, suggested the same idea
to Ferguson Eagerly embracing the project
Ferguson hurried to the westward until he had
placed at least seventy miles between his de-
tachment and CharlottetoWn, when he suddenly
found himself threatened by a new wholly un-
expected enemy in the shape Of three thousand
settlers from the extreme backwoods rough,
half-civilized men whom no labor could tire
and whose rifles seldom missed their mark.
Realizing his danger Ferguson instantly sent
messages for help to Charlottetown and re-
treated toward that place with all haste. But
every one of his messengers shot down,
and the backwoodsmen, sending forward fif-
teen hundred men to ride after him, made so
swift pursuit as to leave him no hope Of
escape.
con the 6th of October, therefore, he
chose strong position hill known as
Kings Mountain and turned to bay. This
hill was covered with tall forest, beneath
which the ground was strewn with huge
powders, while on one side it was rendered
absolutely inaccessible by a precipice, and
Ferguson seems never to have dreamed that he
could not hold it forever.
Con the following afternoon the advanced
party of the backwoodsmen arrived about
thousand strong, and having tied up their