''The Battle of the Kegs'' is a ballad written by

Francis Hopkinson Francis Hopkinson (October 2,Hopkinson was born on September 21, 1737, according to the then-used Julian calendar (old style). In 1752, however, Great Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar (new style) which moved Hopkinso ...

dramatizing an attempted attack upon the

British Fleet The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

in the harbor of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

on January 6, 1778 during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The

keg A keg is a small barrel. Wooden kegs made by a cooper were used to transport nails, gunpowder, and a variety of liquids. A keg is normally now constructed of stainless steel, although aluminium can be used if it is coated with plastic on th ...

s themselves were made by Colonel Joseph Borden's

cooperage A cooper is a person trained to make wooden casks, barrels, vats, buckets, tubs, troughs and other similar containers from timber staves that were usually heated or steamed to make them pliable. Journeymen coopers also traditionally made ...

to the specifications of Caleb Carman and designed by

David Bushnell David Bushnell (August 30, 1740 – 1824 or 1826), of Westbrook, Connecticut, was an American inventor, a patriot, one of the first American combat engineers, a teacher, and a medical doctor. Bushnell invented the first submarine to be used in ...

, an inventor and graduate of

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. They were filled with

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). T ...

and released to float down the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before ...

. It was hoped that they would contact British warships along the riverfront and explode as river mines. As the floating mines moved downriver, however, few of them contacted the ships of the British navy. The British had hauled their ships into positions that protected them from floating river ice, and as a result of this precaution the ships also avoided the exploding kegs. The operation did not achieve strategic military results, and the British fleet was little damaged. The only casualties were two curious young boys who were killed by a mine/keg

and alerting the British. The attack was ineffectual. Even so, the attack generated a panic on the waterfront, and throughout the entire day the sound of cannon was present in the port as the navy desperately attempted to destroy the kegs before they could find a target. Similarly there sounds of musketry from the shore as the soldiers were ordered to fire upon any piece of flotsam in the water, with not one piece of wood being overlooked. The defense operation continued for several days longer until the British were confident the anchorage was safe

While the episode did not inflict any casualties on the British forces, the Red Coats response was the source of much amusement to the Americans, and provided an opportunity to uplift morale. The event was dramatized in ballads and a series of mocking newspaper articles, including most prominently in the New Jersey gazette. The ballad sarcastically praises the "courage" of the British occupation force during emotional scene on the Philadelphia riverfron

https://www.americanrevolution.org/war_songs/warsongs55.php] Earlier in 1777 a floating mine/keg sank a small British

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

/tender to , in New London, CT killing four sailors and wounding an unknown number. The Ballad of the Kegs was meant to signal the indefatigable nature of the American rebel army, which had been driven out of Philadelphia and at the time of this operation was encamped under miserable conditions at

Valley Forge Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the ...

. By creating a defiant song, the Americans hoped to signal that they did not propose to give up.

External links

* http://www.contemplator.com/america/kegs.html * https://www.americanrevolution.org/war_songs/warsongs55.php * https://morethannelson.com/the-battle-of-the-kegs-5-january-1778/ Ballads Propaganda in the United States Year of song missing {{US-mil-stub

Further reading

External links