Revolutionary War Project: 3D Gallery

American Bronze Six-Pounder Field Piece

Society of the Cincinnati of the State of South Carolina

Now affectionately known as “George,” this six-pounder field piece is one of the few American-made bronze cannons to survive from the Revolutionary War. It was cast, probably using the bronze from larger French guns, in the Philadelphia foundry of James Byers in the spring or summer of 1777. Despite the desperate circumstances of the Continental Army, which was constantly in need of ordnance, Byers took the time to decorate the barrel with republican emblems, including a vindicta, a rod symbolizing emancipation from tyranny, and a pileus, or liberty cap. Both symbols were associated with Libertas, the Roman goddess of Liberty. The cannon was probably issued to Washington’s army in time for the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, but its fate thereafter is unclear. In the early nineteenth century the barrel was one of two used as gateposts in an ornamental fence surrounding a monument to Lt. Col. William Washington in Charleston, South Carolina. Removed from the fence and conserved by the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, the cannon is now on long-term display at the American Revolution Institute. Its mate, affectionately known as “Martha,” is on long-term display at the Charleston Museum.

Private Prince Simbo’s Powder Horn

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

This powder horn was owned by Private Prince Simbo of Glastonbury, Connecticut, who enlisted in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army in February 1778. Simbo was an African American—probably free when he joined the army, although he may have been enslaved earlier in life. The Seventh Connecticut served at the Battle of Monmouth and spent much of the latter part of the war guarding West Point, the key to the Hudson River Valley. Made from a hollow cow’s horn and used to carry loose black powder for firing muskets, his powder horn is carved with his name and hometown. It also bears the word “Liberty,” a poignant reminder of black soldiers’ struggle for personal, as well as national, freedoms. Few artifacts of black Continental soldiers survive.

George Washington’s Headquarters Tent

Museum of the American Revolution

George Washington’s first headquarters tent, made in Philadelphia, was worn out by 1778, when this surviving tent was manufactured for him in Reading, Pennsylvania, while the army was encamped at Valley Forge. Twenty-three by fourteen feet, Washington’s new tent included three small chambers, with space for sleeping and working. Washington used it from 1778 to 1783. According to his step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, who later owned the tent, Washington retreated to the tent “seeking privacy and seclusion, where he could commune with himself.” Other American generals campaigned with similar tents, but Washington’s is the only one known to survive.

Model 1766 Charleville Musket

This Model 1766 Charleville musket was part of the cargo of the Amphitrite, which arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April 1777 with the first large shipment of French arms and supplies. It was issued to a soldier of the Second New Hampshire Regiment of the Continental Army and is among a relatively small number of muskets from the Revolutionary War to bear regimental markings. The Second New Hampshire served in the Saratoga campaign and thereafter rejoined Washington’s army, spent the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, fought at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, and served in Major General John Sullivan’s campaign against the Iroquois in 1779. The French government ultimately shipped over one hundred thousand surplus military muskets to America in support of the rebellion. Americans referred to them as Charleville muskets because many bore the mark of the royal armory at Charleville, though muskets of this design—readily distinguished from the standard British infantry musket by the bright metal bands fixing the barrel to the stock—were made at other French armories as well.

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews

The Continental Army drove the British army and navy from Boston in March 1776 with heavy artillery mounted on Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston Harbor. This French mortar—captured by the British in the French and Indian War—was among the ordnance from Fort Ticonderoga Henry Knox chose as part of his “noble train of artillery,” which was packed on sleds and drawn over snow and ice to George Washington’s army outside Boston. Identified by the French as a twelve-pouce mortar—using their unit of measure for length that corresponded to about thirteen inches—this iron artillery piece fired shells weighing nearly two hundred pounds. Suddenly faced by such powerful guns, the British left without firing a shot. This mortar was returned to Ticonderoga and then went north to support the invasion of Canada. Later placed aboard a gunboat in Benedict Arnold’s makeshift fleet on Lake Champlain, it burst during test firing. The fragments of the mortar were used as ballast on the gunboat Trumbull, which was captured by the British immediately after the Battle of Valcour Island in October 1776. The British used the Trumbull for the rest of the war. The same mortar fragments were used as ballast in a British warship captured by Americans in the War of 1812. This piece was recovered from the sunken remains of that vessel in 1949 and returned to Fort Ticonderoga, having done service in three wars.

Gunboat Philadelphia

Benedict Arnold commanded the defense of the Lake Champlain corridor in the summer of 1776—four years before his attempt to surrender West Point to the British made his name synonymous with treason. To deny the British the use of the lake to invade upstate New York, Arnold oversaw the construction of a fleet of eight makeshift gunboats. Philadelphia was fifty-four feet long and mounted three cannons and several small swivel guns. The mere presence of the American fleet forced the British to build their own warships to wrest control of the lake. Construction delayed the British advance until October, when the two flotillas met in the Battle of Valcour Island. British fire mauled Arnold’s fleet and sank Philadelphia. The other American vessels fled and most were scuttled or captured. The British won, but it was too late in the year for them to mount an offensive before winter set in. Philadelphia sat undisturbed on the bottom, preserved in the dark, cold, fresh water of the lake, until she was raised in 1935. She is the only American naval vessel from the Revolutionary War on public view.

The Fighting Temeraire

Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. It depicts Ophelia, a character from Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. [more]

Sergeant Elijah Churchill’s Badge of Military Merit

New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site

The first American military decoration for enlisted men, the Badge of Military Merit, was created by George Washington on August 7, 1782. The award recognized distinguished conduct and was intended to encourage “virtuous ambition” and “every species of Military merit.” Soldiers honored with the award, his orders said, “shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding.” This badge awarded to Sgt. Elijah Churchill of the Second Continental Light Dragoons is one of only two eighteenth-century examples known to survive. The decoration fell out of use after the Revolutionary War but was revived in 1932 as the Purple Heart.

Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman’s Continental Army Uniform

Maryland Historical Society

Lt. Col. Tench Tilghman, an aide-de-camp to George Washington, wore this uniform when he presented Congress with Washington’s report of the British surrender at Yorktown. American uniforms are among the rarest artifacts of the Revolutionary War. Soldiers wore their uniforms, or what remained of them, home at the end of the war. Most were eventually worn out and discarded. Tilghman’s uniform is blue with buff facings, the standard for general and staff officers. Artillery officers wore coats with scarlet facings, and infantry regiments wore coats with facings of buff, white, blue or red, depending on their state—at least according to regulations. Cloth was often so scarce that Continental Army uniforms were never truly uniform. Tilghman’s uniform is one of only three Continental officer’s uniforms known to survive.

The Music Lesson

The Music Lesson or Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Jan Vermeer, is a painting of young female pupil receiving the titular music lesson. [more]

Username:
Password:
Submit Cancel
Not a member? JOIN NOW!

Revolutionary War Project