a musket in the ground

National Park Service

A colonist likely fired this musket ball nearly 250 years ago.

This lead ball may not look exciting, but experts suspect it was used in one of the most famous battles of the American Revolution (1775-1783). Researchers say it is a musket ball that was fired by colonists at the start of the war. 

Musket balls are ammunition shot from a musket, a gun that was common at the time. This one and four other musket balls were found last year near Concord, Massachusetts, at the site of the Battle of Concord. Colonists shot at British troops there and in nearby Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775, sparking the Revolution.

The musket balls range from pea-sized to marble-sized. Researchers determined that they were fired, rather than dropped. 

Historic weapons expert Jarrad Fuoss was there the day the artifacts were found. “It’s incredible that we can . . . hold what amounts to just a few seconds of history that changed the world,” he says.              

—Lisa M. Herrington