Cannon fragment lifted from Red Bank Battlefield grave
NATIONAL PARK If the broken section of a Revolutionary War cannon raised from its battlefield grave Friday could speak, what a tale it could tell of the Battle of Fort Mercer.
The excited curator at Red Bank Battlefield Park, Gloucester County officials and the archaeology team that found and unearthed the long-buried, 3-foot-long cannon fragment called the find spectacular.
The team leader of the excavation believes the cannon section may be from one of two cannons that exploded a few weeks after the Battle of Fort Mercer in National Park on Oct. 22, 1777.
"This is an amazing discovery … a major find," said curator Jennifer Janofsky, who also thanked volunteers.
She said the county is sending it to a lab to see if it is one of the guns that exploded. American troops salvaged cannons from the British ship HMS Augusta, mortally wounded after exploding in the Delaware River. A cannon explosion at the fort killed one Rhode Island soldier and wounded 10 to 18 others on Nov. 11, 1777.
"This is exceptional and we are thrilled about it and will look to see what history is behind this," promised county Freeholder Frank DiMarco.
What the cannon's appearance has thus far revealed to the experts is that it is the top half of the breech end of a muzzle-loading, British-manufactured naval gun that was 8 to 9 feet long. The Augusta had 64 guns of that type on board.
On the top of the fragment is a breech vent hole and a broad arrow, a stamp placed into the gun to indicate it came from a royal arsenal.
When a bulldozer raised the rusting piece of weaponry via straps from a grave several feet deep Friday, it wowed the crowd of spectators who clapped at its safe removal. The fragment was found in late August.
It was located by an archaeological team from John Milner Associates (JMA), a CCRG company in West Chester, Pennsylvania, hired by the county as part of a $46,200 Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service.
The goal is to identify the remains of Fort Mercer, map its boundaries and excavate limited areas for battle-related objects.
Wade Catts, JMA regional director of cultural resources, said the piece was located by a geophysics archaeologist walking behind a piece of ground-penetrating radar equipment. He said the cannon part appeared as a bright flash and was 2 to 2½ feet deep.
"This is a pretty remarkable object to have been found at a battlefield site this long afterward," he said.
However, he said it is the first systematic survey of the park section closest to the old Fort Mercer. The discovery was made just outside what was once the perimeter of the fort, which was an earthen fortification.
Hundreds of other artifacts have been found since the survey started in the spring such as belt buckles, religious medals, including one of Mary Magdalene, grape shot and a picture frame.
A dozen other cannons were found in the park in the 1900s, but none of this type, Janofsky said.
Catts said there are historical records of two cannon explosions.
"When somebody tried to fire a cannon Nov. 11, 1777, it exploded killing Benjamin Ross, a bombardier with the Rhode Island Regiment, and injuring the others," he said.
"Then on Nov. 14, an engineer tested another gun and it exploded, but no one was hurt. I guess they all stood back from it that time."
The fragment is on its way to the Maryland Archaeology Conservation Lab at Jefferson Patterson Park in Saint Leonard.
Resident Charles Hepp said he was surprised such a large object was not found sooner.
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His son-in-law, local resident Joseph Cheety, has found many smaller war artifacts outside the battlefield over the years and brought one of them, a cannonball, to the Friday event, which he described as amazing.
Revolutionary War re-enactor Paul Ferrante of Bellmawr came outfitted for the occasion in his uniform and carried a Brown Bess musket. He is also a docent at the battlefield's historic Whitall House, which became a field hospital during the Fort Mercer battle.
"It's amazing to me anything like this survived in the ground all these years considering the property has been picked over for years," he remarked.
Reach Carol Comegno at (856) 486-2473; or ccomegno@gannettnj.com