Archeologists find musket balls fired during 1 of the first battles in the Revolutionary War

CONCORD, Massachusetts — Nearly 250 years ago, hundreds of militiamen lined up on a Massachusetts hill and began firing a barrage of musket balls into retreating British troops, marking the first major battle of the Revolutionary War.

The last evidence of that exchange of fire are five musket balls unearthed last year at the North Bridge site at Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord. Early analyses of the balls — gray and ranging in size from a pea to a marble — indicate that members of the colonial militia fired them at British troops on April 19, 1775.

“When they pulled one out of the ground, we were like, ‘Look what I have,’” said Jarrad Fuoss, a Minute Man park ranger and historical weapons specialist who was there the day the musket balls were discovered.

“And of course everyone goes out there and says, ‘Oh my God.’ We looked at it and the excitement just kept growing because it wasn’t just one,” he continued. “And the fact that we found five, which is incredible, all these years later.”

Musket balls were previously found in the 1,000-acre historic park outside Boston, which marks a series of opening ceremonies Battles of the American Revolution. About ten years ago, about 30 musket balls were found at the site known as Parker’s Revenge, where Lexington militia under Captain John Parker ambushed British troops. In the early 1800s, Henry David Thoreau walked the area and found a few musket balls from what was probably the North Bridge battle.

The latest discoveries are the most ever made in that battle, when militia leaders ordered their men to fire on government troops. The event led to an escalation of the conflict and was later called “the shot heard round the world” by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1837 “Concord Hymn.”

About 800 British soldiers had begun the day with a march from Boston to Concord to destroy military supplies they believed rebels from the colony had gathered. It ended in an eight-hour battle that stretched into Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood—16 miles (26 kilometers) long and left 273 British troops and 96 militiamen dead and wounded.

It prompted the militia to begin an eleven-month siege of Boston, leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution.

“This is where everything changes in an instant, because that moment is betrayal. There’s no going back,” Fuoss said. “To be able to pull that out of the ground and know that we’re the first to touch it, since someone else rammed it down the barrel of their gun 250 years ago, is one of those things that sends shivers down your body.”

Joel Bohy, who was also at the dig site and is researching bullet holes and bullet-struck artifacts from that day for a book, said the discovery helps “validate the historical data as well as the types of weapons that the provincial militia and army companies were carrying that day.”

“Based on the caliber of the balls and studying them, the general location and the context of the site, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up,” Bohy said, adding that he had been “fascinated by April 19 and the material culture since I was 7 years old — 51 years ago. So for me it was a great day.”

The war continued for seven years after the first shots were fired, even after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Nikki Walsh, the park’s museum curator, also said there was much to be learned from the lead-cast musket balls. Given their varying sizes, Walsh said, archaeologists concluded they were militia. Those men brought their own weapons and ammunition to battle, some imported and others captured or purchased by the city or county from British or Dutch traders, according to the National Park Service. The British, on the other hand, had standardized all of their ammunition.

And the fact that the musket balls were intact indicates that the fighters probably missed their target.

“Because lead is so malleable, you can see markings on it that indicate whether they were fired, whether they weren’t fired and fell,” she said. “If they were fired and hit something, they probably would have been crushed like a pancake.”

The musket balls have attracted the attention of history buffs and tourists alike. About 800 people traveled to the park’s visitor center last weekend to get their first glimpse. The interest has also prompted the National Park Service to keep the exact location of the find a secret, hoping to deter treasure hunters with metal detectors from seeking more artifacts.

They are prepared to reveal the general area of ​​the find, a field just across a wooden bridge from the Concord River and just past two monuments: a 25-foot-tall stone obelisk marking the 50th anniversary of the North Bridge battle and the Minute Man statue built to commemorate the 100th anniversary. Nearby, a smaller marker with British flags marks the location of the first two British soldiers to die in that battle.

Among those who recently visited the site was Jennifer Ayvaz, who came to the park with her husband, Tim, and their two children after her father heard about the discovery of the musket ball. As they passed Walsh, she offered to show the family the musket balls. She opened a small box, took photos, and walked closer to get a better look at the lined balls.

“It’s incredible,” said Jennifer Ayvaz, who came from Castle Rock, Colorado, adding that her father would like to see the musket balls. “I wish he could be here with us. It’s really cool. He’s a huge history buff and he kind of lives through us.”