Raritan Landing What's New

What's New?
	Spring 2002:
	Various sized lead musket balls found at the Encampment Site. In the top row are three .69 caliber musket balls and a .62 caliber ball to the far right. On the bottom, from left to right, are .57 caliber, .63 caliber, and .55 caliber musket balls. The .69 caliber musket ball was the most common sized ball excavated from the site. These were used by the British in the "Brown Bess" musket.
	Chewed lead musket balls found at the encampment site. Such teeth marks have been attributed to soldiers chewing on them during field surgery since no local anesthetics were used at the time. Alternatively, chewing musket balls may have been a tactic used by dehydrated soldiers to stimulate saliva production.
	A typical eighteenth century British military brass shoe buckle excavated from the encampment site. The majority of military shoe buckles were made of cast brass with brass or iron tines. The tines are missing from this example.
	On the left is a late 18th century British Navy captain's brass button with incised motif anchor and fouled anchor. The other button is a pre-1778 British 5th Regiment of Foot enlisted man's white metal button with a Roman numeral "V".
	At the top is a brass ramrod guide from a British "Brown Bess" musket. The ramrod guide held the ramrod in place on the musket. Below it is the tip of a brass scabbard that held a bayonet.
Winter 2002

What's New?