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Stash Of Revolutionary War Era Bayonets Discovered In Valley Forge Park, PA Login/Join 
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted
I work less than two miles from the famous Valley Forge National Park and saw this article last week which I find fascinating!

It appears that a cache of 30 bayonets from the Revolutionary War was discovered buried there, most likely during the time of the 1777-1778 encampment there under General George Washington.

These troops had very little in the way of equipment and uniforms so it's a little odd that they would throw away 30 good bayonets like that. The article mentions that they appear to have been for one type of musket but were had some sort of attempted modification to make them fit another musket, as nothing was universal or standardized in those days.

Some theories as to why they were left there:

1. Superior models had arrived from the French and these were obsolete
2. Someone buried them with the idea to come back for them but never did
3. They were buried as not to fall into enemy hands


quote:

ON THE LAST DAY OF an archaeological project near Valley Forge National Park in southeastern Pennsylvania, Dan Sivilich told his team not to expect to find a whole lot. Sivilich’s group, the Battlefield Restoration & Archaeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO), had spent years helping archaeologists scour the site for artifacts. He figured there would be little left to find.

Quickly, one of the volunteers, who use metal detectors to locate artifacts and guide excavations, located a nine-pound cannonball hidden underneath a walking path. “He was so excited,” says Sivilich. “But he was the man of the day for about five minutes.” Bill Hermstedt, a long-time volunteer and charter member of BRAVO, also found something new—a bayonet. And then another. The signal from the detector told him that there was a lot more metal down there.

When archaeologists methodically opened the ground, they found a cache of 30 bayonets, stacked together—a remarkable find for a Revolutionary War encampment.

“I haven’t seen anything else like it in a single excavation. It looked like someone had dug a hole in the ground and threw them in there,” says Jesse West-Rosenthal, a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at Temple University, who worked on the site and is writing his dissertation on the discoveries there. “It’s rare that you find large collections of intact material, especially something like weaponry. … To find this grouping of artifacts in one feature—someone putting a hole in the ground and putting the bayonets in the hole—it seems to be pretty unique.”

As Sivilich puts it, “No one has ever found this many together.”






Makes you wonder what else is under the dirt there! I had read somewhere that just due to nature that the ground level of the troops there in 1777-1778 is actually like a foot or more below what the current ground level is today.

A Stash of 30 Hidden Bayonets Was Discovered in Valley Forge


 
Posts: 34973 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Cat Whisperer
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very cool. I often forget how lucky we are to live so close to such historic places. Last sunday I took the wife to old city, she has lived in this area for 30 years and never saw betsy ross' house, where ben franklin is buries, THE LIBERTY BELL?!?! It was a great day and I strongly suggest it.


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Posts: 3902 | Location: SE PA | Registered: November 13, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Alienator
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Very cool find!


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Posts: 7184 | Location: NC | Registered: March 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Sigless in
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The man who buried those may have shaken the hand of George Washington. He almost certainly heard him speak and stood in his presence.

It is kind of humbling to think about. Imaging being the first man to handle those after a man who fought for our independence buried them.


This is the kind of history that I just can't get enough of.
 
Posts: 14175 | Location: Indiana | Registered: December 04, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Memorial Arch-Valley Forge


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Posts: 5689 | Registered: February 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
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quote:
Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
The man who buried those may have shaken the hand of George Washington. He almost certainly heard him speak and stood in his presence.

It is kind of humbling to think about. Imaging being the first man to handle those after a man who fought for our independence buried them.


This is the kind of history that I just can't get enough of.


It is very cool to think of that being the case.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Washington at Valley Forge. It was a particularly cold and brutal winter when they arrived in December 1777, I've been to the annual "March In" held there every December 19th to commemorate the Continental Army's arrival there and the one night I was there it was crazy bitter cold and windy and I can only imagine how hard that had to be to try and survive there.



 
Posts: 34973 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Serenity now!
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This is such an awesome find!



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Posts: 4950 | Location: Highland, UT | Registered: September 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Looks like a couple of them have been used. Big Grin


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Posts: 20803 | Location: Montana | Registered: November 01, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
teacher of history
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In 1964, I spent a week at Valley Forge at the Boy Scout Jamboree. It is indeed a very special place.
 
Posts: 5689 | Location: Central Illinois | Registered: March 04, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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You can do anything with a bayonet except sit on them. (Attributed to Thomas Hardy, Napoleon Bonaparte, and others).


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Posts: 2821 | Location: Falls of the Ohio River, Kain-tuk-e | Registered: January 13, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
The man who buried those may have shaken the hand of George Washington. He almost certainly heard him speak and stood in his presence.

It is kind of humbling to think about. Imaging being the first man to handle those after a man who fought for our independence buried them.


This is the kind of history that I just can't get enough of.


It is very cool to think of that being the case.


One of those could have belonged to my great...grandfather or his brother! That's really cool to think about.

If you are into genealogy you can check the muster rolls of Valley Forge and see if you have a relative who may have been there.

http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/

My great...grandfather and brother were there, my grandfather was listed as 'sick in tent' in May of 1778. He was in the 8th Virginia, commanded by Captain Jonathan Clark - William Clark's oldest brother.



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Posts: 29408 | Location: In the red hinterlands of Deep Blue VA | Registered: June 29, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
If you are into genealogy you can check the muster rolls of Valley Forge and see if you have a relative who may have been there.

http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/


Very cool. I found a relative on the roll.



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Posts: 2043 | Location: Central FL | Registered: September 03, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
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quote:
Originally posted by 10-7 leo:


Very cool. I found a relative on the roll.


Some years back I saw this singer Eliza Gilkyson open up for Richard Thompson at a concert, turns out she had a relative at Valley Forge; Major-General Jedidiah Huntington and wrote a song about it based on writings and notes she found of his. It's pretty folksy and not up to some people's tastes but I loved the words:

quote:

Jedidiah 1777

Jedidiah out in the snow
Walkin' the frozen trenchlines
Wet boots and his wool coat comin' apart at the seams.
Rations of hard-baked dough,
Handfuls of melting snow
What else can a man live on but his dreams?
Not twenty miles away,
in the mansions of Philadelphia,
Loyalists lay their money down on the king.
We've provision enough for the day,
but if victory were just for the wealthy
Our noble cause wouldn't be worth the hardship we're suffering.
Send the cloth for a good waistcoat,
I dream of your hearth and the fields of oat.
I awake to the drum and the trembling note of the fifer.
May it please God in His great mercy,
To shelter our friends and our family.
I remain your son most faithfully,
Jedidiah

I have seen a man, who has seen a man
who has heard the king,
Tell of his intention our independence to declare.
The peace will undoubtedly bring
A great revolution in commerce;
May it be our rightful fortune to come in for a share.
My regards to a certain Miss Moore,
I've stated my honorable intentions for her;
That upon my return from this necessary war she'll be my wife.
May it please God in His great mercy
to restore the joys of domesticity.
Salutations to the family,
Jedidiah

I rejoice that the cause we're engaged in
is in the hands of an Almighty Sovereign;
Who I doubt not is accomplishing the ends of His desire.
My love to you and the fair Miss Moore;
Spare me a bottle from the cellar store,
and in my name let the contents pour,
Jedidiah






 
Posts: 34973 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I'd guess that they were throw away 'cuz the were rusty.




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Posts: 17588 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: November 08, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nosce te ipsum
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That is pretty amazing. As a teenager, VF was our stomping grounds. Wink

The 1970s "Visitors Center" was barely locked. Looked as simple as "Crack a pane and reach in to unlock the door". No camera or alarm. A large display of battle axes and pikes was completely unsecured. Stuck into a crafted box with dividers, like you might see shovels displayed at a hardware store. Weapons which were old during the revolution. I was always fascinated. Cool
 
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Any Nazi memorabilia found? Para posted about Valley Forge earlier in another thread.
 
Posts: 17622 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
delicately calloused
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"Superior models had arrived from the French and these were obsolete"

I'd choose French super models over rusty old spikes any day.....



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Posts: 29941 | Location: Norris Lake, TN | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That's amazing. What would make French bayonets superior and would they fit the rifles the Americans had?
 
Posts: 10640 | Registered: June 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Dies Irae
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quote:
Originally posted by mbinky:
That's amazing. What would make French bayonets superior and would they fit the rifles the Americans had?
It's possible they had Charleville muskets and the bayonets en route would've been specifically for them.

Superior? Probably metallurgy.
 
Posts: 5785 | Location: Fort Heathen, Texas | Registered: February 25, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Admin/Odd Duck

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History is cool.

So is cosmoline.


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