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Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object name |
Cannonball |
Artist or maker |
unknown |
Date |
18th century |
Place of origin |
excavated New York City |
Materials and techniques |
iron |
Physical description |
Six pound solid shot cannonball excavated from 180th and Broadway in New York City about 1898. |
Past exhibit |
Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York History |
Current exhibit |
Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation |
Gallery label |
This 6 lb. cannonball was found at 180th Street and Broadway in Upper Manhattan in 1898 during excavaiton for a sewer. It may have been used during the Battle of Fort Washington which took plae on November 18, 1776 in Upper Manhattan and was a victory for the British troops. Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation (2025): In the 18th century, cannons were some of the most destructive weapons available. These two cannonballs were likely fired in British assaults on Manhattan that led to the capture of the city in 1776. The cannonball on the right was excavated from the site of the Battle of Fort Washington. This type of six-pound shot was commonly fired against enemy soldiers. The cannonball on the left was excavated from Exchange Place, about three blocks northeast of Fraunces Tavern. It may have been fired from a British warship in a bombardment of the city.207 One such attack happened on August 23-24, 1775, when John Lamb and his artillery company – who had attempted to remove British cannons from the Battery - exchanged fire with the British HMS Asia. The ship bombarded the city from midnight until 3 o’clock in the morning. One of the cannon balls from the HMS Asia crashed through the roof of Fraunces Tavern. American writer Philip Freneau wrote contemporaneously about the event in his poem, Hugh Gaines Life: "That night when the hero (his patience worn out) Put fire to his cannons and folks to the rout, And drew up his ship with a spring on her cable, And gave us a second confusion of Babel, And (what was more solid than scurrilous language) Pour’d on us a tempest of round shot and langrage; Scarce a broadside was ended ‘till another began again-- By Jove! it was nothing but Fire away Flannagan! At first we suppos’d it was only a sham, ‘Till he drove a round ball thro’ the roof of black Sam;" More recently, the HMS Asia bombardment was featured in the musical Hamilton. |
Catalogue number |
1911.13.001 |
Collection name |
Tools and Equipment |
Credit line |
presented by A. Maynard Lyon |
Subjects and places |
New York United States |