Christopher Gadsden Christopher Gadsden ( February 16 , 1724 – August 28 , 1805 ) , a soldier and statesman from South Carolina , was the principal leader of the South Carolina Patriot movement in the American Revolution . He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the War of Independence . He was also the designer of the famous Gadsden flag . Early life . Gadsden was born in 1724 in Charleston , South Carolina . He was the son of Thomas Gadsden , who had served in the Royal Navy before becoming customs collector for the port of Charleston . Christopher was sent to school near Bristol , England . He returned to America in 1740 , and served as an apprentice in a counting house in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . He inherited a large fortune from his parents , who died in 1741 . From 1745 to 1746 he served during King George ' s War as a purser on a British warship . He entered into mercantile ventures , and by 1747 he had earned enough to return to South Carolina and buy back the land his father had sold because he needed the money to pay off debts . French and Indian Wars . Gadsden began his rise to prominence as a merchant and patriot in Charleston . He prospered as a merchant , and built the wharf in Charleston that still bears his name . He served as captain of a militia company during a 1759 expedition against the Cherokees . He was first elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1757 , and began a long friction with autocratic royal governors . In 1765 the assembly made him one of their delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City , which was called to protest the Stamp Act . While his fellow delegates Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge served on committees to draft appeals to the House of Lords and Commons respectively , Gadsden refused any such assignment , since in his view Parliament had no rights in the matter . He addressed himself with outspoken support for the Declaration of Rights produced by the Congress . His addresses brought him to the attention of Samuel Adams of Massachusetts , and the two began a long correspondence and friendship . Gadsden was eventually known as " the Sam Adams of the South " . Revolutionary years . On his return from New York , Gadsden became one of the founders and leaders of the Charleston Sons of Liberty . He had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia . He was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress the following year . He left Congress early in 1776 to assume command of the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army and to serve in the Provincial Congress of South Carolina . In February 1776 , South Carolina President John Rutledge named him a brigadier general in charge of the state ' s military forces . As the British prepared to attack Charleston , Major General Charles Lee ordered outlying positions abandoned . Rutledge and the local officers disagreed . A compromise was reached and as William Moultrie prepared the defenses on Sullivan ' s Island , Gadsden paid for , and his regiment built , a bridge that would allow their escape if the position were threatened . The British attack was repulsed . In 1778 , Gadsden was a member of the South Carolina convention that drafted a new state constitution . That same year he was named the Lieutenant Governor , to replace Henry Laurens who was away at the Continental Congress . He would serve in that office until 1780 . Actually , for the first year and a half his office was called " Vice President of South Carolina , " but when the new constitution was adopted , the title was changed to the modern usage . When the British laid siege to Charleston in 1780 , John Rutledge , as president of the council fled to North Carolina to ensure a " government in exile " should the city fall . Gadsden remained , along with Governor Rawlins Lowndes . General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered the Continental Army garrison on May 12 to General Sir Henry Clinton . At the same time , Gadsden represented the civil government and surrendered the city . He was sent on parole to his Charleston house . Prisoner of war . After General Sir Henry Clinton returned to New York , the new British commander in the South , General Cornwallis changed the rules . On the morning of August 27 , he arrested about 20 of the civil officers then on parole . They were marched as prisoners to a ship and taken to St . Augustine , Florida . When they arrived , Governor Tonyn offered the freedom of the town if they would give their parole . Most accepted , but Gadsden refused claiming that the British had already violated one parole , and he could not give his word to a false system . As a result , he spent the next 42 weeks in solitary confinement in a prison room at the old Spanish fortress of Castillo de San Marcos . When they were finally released in 1781 , they were sent by merchant ship to Philadelphia . Once there , Gadsden learned of the defeat of Cornwallis at Cowpens and withdrawal to Yorktown . He hurried home , to help the restoration of South Carolina ' s civil government . Later life . Gadsden was returned to the state ' s House of Representatives , then meeting at Jacksonboro . At this session , Governor Randolph and de facto President Rutledge both surrendered their offices . Gadsden was elected as the governor , but felt he had to decline . His health was still impaired from his imprisonment , and an active governor was needed since the British had not yet given up Charleston . So in 1782 , John Mathews became the new governor . Gadsden was also a member of the state convention in 1788 and voted for ratification of the United States Constitution . He died from an accidental fall on August 28 , 1805 , in Charleston , and is buried there in St . Phillip ' s Churchyard . Gadsden was married three times , and had four children by his second wife . The Gadsden Purchase of Arizona was named for his grandson James Gadsden . Another grandson , Christopher E . Gadsden , was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina .