Archaeologists digging at the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill in Boston have uncovered musket balls, parts of a musket and other artifacts linked to one of the American Revolution’s most consequential battles, with the work taking place in the park at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Ground-penetrating radar identified possible locations for the fort, and a team led by Joe Bagley, the City of Boston’s archaeologist, found definitive signs of a ditch constructed hours before the battle.
What the Ground Gave Up
Bagley said, “The part that’s really crazy to me is that we get to stand in the same ditch.” He also said, “Everything about the ditch is from 1775. You’ve got musket balls, gun flints. It’s what you would expect to see. It’s pretty powerful because these things are being dropped in the middle of the battle.” Bagley said, “If you come to the site, we have the monument, we have a lot of maps on display, and the landscape is beautiful. But you can’t really see the fort, the fortifications that were built. Very little of what’s here visibly is from 1775. So, this trench is the reason why all of this is here.”
The dig also uncovered objects likely left behind by British troops who occupied the area after the battle, including tea cups, tobacco pipes, sleeve buttons and a wig curler. No human remains have been found, though a forensic archaeologist is on site to identify any bones. There were nearly 150 combatants who died there. Joel Bohy, a battlefield archaeologist who specializes in identifying American Revolution weaponry, said, “You can see the ramrod mark from when the soldier rammed it down. You can the little ring on the top where it was pushed down,” and added that “marks on the edge of the ball” show that it had been fired.
Who Left the Marks
One volunteer held two jagged stones, identified as an English gun flint and a French gun flint. The team also found eight marble-sized musket balls from both sides in the battle. The markings and shape of some bullets showed they had been fired from a distance but did not hit anyone. Bagley said, “The start of the American Revolution is often associated with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, skirmishes fought on April 19, 1775. But many scholars cite Bunker Hill and June 17 as the war’s first significant battle.”
The rebels intended to hold off a possible British attack by fortifying Bunker Hill, a 110-foot-high slope in Charlestown across the Charles River from British-occupied Boston, but instead took a position on Breed’s Hill, where most of the fighting took place. The battle ended with the rebels in retreat, but the British sustained more than 1,000 casualties. Today, a 221-foot white obelisk atop Breed’s Hill memorializes the battle.
What the Ceremony Packages Up
On Wednesday, a church service in Charlestown was to be followed by a procession to the Bunker Hill Monument and a remembrance ceremony including a wreath-laying, moment of silence and musket firing demonstration. The dig was also scheduled to end Wednesday.
Bohy said, “Beyond locating the fort, the dig also provides visitors a chance to hold a piece of the battle in their hand.” He also said, “In a way, it makes the history more dimensional when you look at these objects from the battle itself.” Visitor Greg Nockleby, who had spent a week in Boston learning about American history, called the dig a “wonderful surprise” and said, “A live dig happening right now to uncover our nation’s history is amazing. To see that there has been people here who have died for our freedom and our nation is very immersive.”
The site’s visible monument and scheduled remembrance rituals sit atop a battlefield where the ditch, the fortifications and the fired musket balls are what remain of the violence. The artifacts pulled from the ground, including the British troops’ belongings and the weapons traces from both sides, are the clearest record of what the official landscape leaves out.