This musket ball was dropped by a soldier in the 21st Regiment of Foot at the Royal North British Fusiliers Encampment site on the Saratoga Battlefield. This lead musket ball was found during the 1974 archaeological investigation of the 21st Regiment of Foot campsite on the Saratoga Battlefield. The encampment was set up in that location following the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19th, 1777, in which the 21st Regiment suffered many casualties. When fired from a musket, the scored musket ball would splinter at the etched-in seams, creating four separate pieces of shrapnel instead of a single ball of lead. This would have a potentially more lethal effect. While we will never know the identity of the soldier who cut this musket ball, it is a witness to what he may have seen, experienced, and lost on September 19th at Freeman’s Farm.
Collection: Saratoga National Historical Park, SARA 1735.
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