Fight For Independence

Excavated Revolutionary War Camp Life Artifacts: Shako Plates worn on the hats of British soldiers.

When amateur archaeologists Reginald P. Bolton and William L. Calver started digging for Indian artifacts in the Washington Heights area in 1880, little did they know it would be the start of a 30-year odyssey that would end with one of the largest collections of Revolutionary War artifacts ever collected, says Brinden O'Hagen, collections specialist at the New York Historical Society.

Brinden O'Hagen

What became known as the Bolton Collection would include over 40,000 artifacts. These artifacts would help tell the history of the fight for independence in the New York area.

About 5,300 of the artifacts are now on display at the Historical Society of New York. They include uniform buttons, eating utensils, shovels, bottles, musket balls, shoe buckles and many other things that accompanied army-camp living during the time. The artifacts provide a window on what camp life was probably like for the more than 35,000 British and Hessian and later Patriot troops stationed in northern Manhattan.

"These camps had been lost to history," says O'Hagen. And finding them was not easy for Bolton and Calver who had to dig a foot and a half into the soil to get to the camps.

Life was not easy for the soldiers. Many of the artifacts show how the soldiers had to make do with what materials were available. Buttons carved out of meat bone replaced missing ones made of metal. Twisted scrap metal fashioned in the shape of dual prongs served as a fork.

Other finds include links of an enormous iron chain fashioned by the Patriots. The chain was stretched across the Hudson River in an attempt to damage and stop British vessels sailing through. Also, the large metal tail of a horse was found. The horse had been part of a large statue of King George charging into battle. Patriots had ripped down the statue and melted most of it for musket ball material. However, loyalists to the crown managed to rescue the tail and hide it.

Not all the artifacts are war-related. Also in the museum's collection are sections of New York City's first water pipes. Created in the 1790s, customers had to be careful not to choke on splinters, as the pipes were made of wood.