Discovery of musket balls brings alive an American Revolution battle

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CONCORD, Massachusetts: Five musket balls dug up last year near the North Bridge site in the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord have brought into the limelight a battle nearly 250 years ago when hundreds of militiamen lined a hillside in Massachusetts and fired musket balls toward retreating British troops.

It marked the first major battle in the Revolutionary War.

Early analysis of the balls, gray with sizes ranging from a pea to a marble, indicates colonial militia members fired them at British forces on April 19, 1775.

"As soon as they pulled one of them out of the ground, there was kind of a 'look what I have,'" The Associated Press quoted Minute Man park ranger and historic weapons specialist Jarrad Fuoss, who was there the day the musket balls were discovered.

About a decade ago, nearly 30 musket balls were found at Parker's Revenge, the site where the Lexington militia company led by Capt. John Parker ambushed British troops. In the early 19th century, while he was walking in the area, essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau found a few musket balls supposedly from the North Bridge fight.

The latest discoveries are the most ever found. Ralph Waldo Emerson dubbed it as the "shot heard round the world" in his 1837 "Concord Hymn" describing the events that escalated the conflict.

Some 800 British soldiers had marched from Boston to Concord that day to destroy the military supplies of the colony rebels. It ended with an eight-hour battle that left 273 British troops and 96 militiamen dead and wounded. It stretched to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, covering 16 miles.

It prompted the militia to create an 11-month siege of Boston, leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution.

Joel Bohy, who was also on the site and is researching bullet strikes and bullet-struck objects from that day for a book, said the discovery helps "validate the historical record, as well as the types of arms that the provincial minute and militia companies carried that day."

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

The musket balls have attracted intense interest from history buffs and tourists, with about 800 journeying to the park's visitor center over the weekend to get a first glimpse. The interest has also prompted the National Park Service not to disclose the exact location and dissuade treasure hunters with metal detectors to search for more artifacts.

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Discovery of musket balls brings alive an American Revolution battle

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