My favorite section of the NRA convention is always the collector section. Each year, there’s always something new to see. In Houston, I was really excited to see a major display from Dallas Arms Collectors themed around the Revolutionary War. When I realized that several items were traced back to specific patriots, I tried to do a good gun deed and track down a few descendants who appreciated learning their ancestor’s firearm still exists. I know I would love to find out that my ancestor’s gun is still in someone’s collection and preserved somewhere.
This year, on the way back from Atlanta, we stopped at King’s Mountain, where they also have a display of weapons and related items actually used by soldiers who participated in the battle. You know what I had to do, right?
When I go down to DC in June to visit DAR headquarters, I’ll be looking up the descendants of William Smith & Jacob Beeler who have joined DAR. For all I know, they already know about their ancestor’s gun and gear on display. But, on the chance that they don’t know…well that would be amazing to share with them.
The British Major Patrick Ferguson paroled a captured American with the admonition to tell his people “that if they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, and take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.”
Those backwoods mountain men killed the Maj with at least 8 bullet wounds, stripped him naked, and pissed on the body before the encounter was “done”
Because of the weather, we were very delayed in getting to the battlefield and didn’t have time to do the whole walk before they closed the parking lot. However, we did run up to see Ferguson’s grave.
I’ve been through that area so many times and never had the opportunity to stop. May have to take a long weekend with the RV later this summer and head that direction. Just wish my boys were old enough to appreciate it.
I was really impressed with their museum section. I didn’t go watch the movie in the auditorium because we didn’t have time, and he said it was from the History Channel. (I figure I can pull it up online.) But the museum section was set up like a fake forest and looked really good.
There’s a neat LED battle ground that illustrates the battle in an easy to follow manner. It’s probably a little wrong that I chuckled at the appearance of the white flags running around the field in the little lights. The only thing I didn’t notice during our quick visit is if they have any information on which groups of men were on which side of the ridge. I would love to know which side my ancestor that I know was there went up, and which side my “maybe ancestors” went up. (Gotta prove a guy’s middle name is definitely the maiden name of his mother first. If so, I had 2 more ancestors there.)
Did you piss on it? Opps sorry did not look at the name first.
Such eloquence should be encouraged.
I am the only person in the gun culture that did NOT have an ancestor at King’s Mountain. He was near there and fought in other battles (Guilford Courthouse, Camden), but not King’s Mountain, the ne plus ultra of gun culture battles.
https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=669423
Oh, your family followed the same route my ancestor (who was at King’s Mountain) did – NC, TN, then MO. (Well, his wife and kids made it to MO, he died along the way.) Just slightly different areas, though.
I did pick up a book of men who fought in the battle based on multiple sources. It lists the sources in each description, and it lists men who were only named in one source (most of which were secondary) for further research.
Oh, and Sebastian didn’t have an ancestor there, either. :) His Revolutionary War line was in NJ, and I may have found him a path back to Boston. We’ll see how far back I can take that.
A worthy endeavor!