Christopher Gadsden

Christopher Gadsden (February 16, 1724-August 28, 1805) was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1724, he became the principal leader of the South Carolina radicals in the pre-Revolutionary period. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776 and as a brigadier general in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1778. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1788 and voted for ratification. He died in 1805 in Charleston. The Gadsden purchase of Arizona was named for his grandson James Gadsden.