Archaeologists in the employ of the National Park Service have uncovered some small metal objects of astonishing historical significance.
Almost two and a half centuries ago, a hillside near Concord, Massachusetts played host to a line of hundreds of militiamen. The rag-tag army leveled their weapons and fired a thick volley of musket-balls at the retreating redcoat army, whom they successfully beat back. The first major battle of the American War for Independence was thus decided in favor of the revolutionaries.
Archaeologists at the site have now uncovered five musket balls in Minute Man Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. The balls were found near the North Bridge site during dig last year. The early stages of analysis of the balls has now been completed. They are gray lead rounds ranging from the size of a pea to the size of a marble, in line with the range of calibers common in muskets that were used at the time. Dating methods employed, combined with the position of the bullets uncovered, indicate that they were indeed among the rounds fired by the colonial forces on the British soldiers on April 19, 1775.
A Minute Man park ranger named Jared Fuoss, who was present at one of the discoveries, said they inspired a “look at this!” sort of delight. The excitement grew from there as one after another continued to emerge from the ground. To find five rounds in such close proximity so many years later inspired a sense of getting very lucky indeed.
This isn’t the first time that the thousand-acre historic preserve has given up musket balls. A cache of about thirty were unearthed a decade ago at a place called “Parker’s Revenge,” located on the site where Captain John Parker led the Lexington Militia Company in their ambush of the British.
Even our historical figures got into the musket ball game Henry David Thorough found a handful in the early 19th century while on a nature hike.
