Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest: - UGA Laboratory of Archaeology ...

Arms Group
The common militiaman in the American Revolution was lightly equipped. An April 6, 1779 list of
“Articles of Equipment” that were to be provided to the Continental soldiers in the northeast included the
following items:
A good Fire-Arm, with a Steel or Iron Ram-Rod, and a Spring to retain the same, a Worm, Priming wire and Brash, and a
Bayonet fitted to your Gun, a Scabbard and Belt therefor, and a Cutting Sword, or a Tomahawk or Hatchet, a Poach [pouch]
containing a Cartridge Box, that will hold fifteen Rounds of Cartridges at least, a hundred Buck Shot, a Jack-Knife and Tow
for Wadding, six Flints, one pound powder, forty Leaden Balls fitted to your Gun, a Knapsack and Blanket a Canteen or
Wooden Bottle sufficient to hold one Quart (Hopkins 1940:19).
A variety of battlefield weapons and relics in the Arms Group have been discovered and taken from the site
in the 229 years since the battle ended. Bowen noted that, “For a long time, pieces of muskets, of bayonets,
and also musket balls were picked up at the battlefield of Kettle Creek” (Hays 1950:18). Oral history
provided by former Kettle Creek area residents Henry Nichols and Eloise Slaton in 1974 to Davis and
Thomas (1975:95) included recollections of, “gun barrels, bullets, dishes etc. being found in the area.” We
cannot determine the percentage of battlefield relics that were removed by people in years past, although it
probably represents a significant percentage of the total. Bear in mind, however, that the entire battle event
took less than four hours, it included no entrenchments, and the victors (and later residents) scoured the
battlefield and collected weapons and other valuable materiel.
To illustrate one type of object that was likely removed from the battlefield, collector and artifact merchant
Childs provided an unconfirmed report of a spontoon that was dug by a relic collector from the Kettle
Creek battlefield several decades ago. Wier (2004) provides this discussion of spontoons and their use in
the American Revolution:
A spontoon, formally called an espontoon, was a spear carried by European and American army officers in the 18th century.
The spontoon served as a badge of rank, to direct troops, and occasionally for a personal weapon in battle, as need
arose…During the War for Independence General George Washington directed that officers carry spontoons rather than
firearms. He wrote "As the proper arming of officers would add considerable strength to the Army, and the officers
themselves would derive great confidence from being armed in the time of action, the General orders every one of them to
provide himself with a spear or half pike as soon as possible -- fire arms, when made use of, withdrawing their attention too
much from their men, and to be without either, has a very awkward and unofficer-like appearance At Valley Forge in 1778 a
council of brigade commanders recommended that ‘...the Quartermaster General be directed to cause spontoons or pikes
made for the officers, the staff six feet long and one inch and one quarter diameter in the largest part, and that the iron part to
be one foot long.’ There was no standard design for the spontoon; they varied from ornate to crude (Wier 2004).
If this alleged relic, which Childs attributes to the Kettle Creek battlefield, was tracked down and its
provenance more securely established, it would likely provide very useful information about the battle, as
well as contributing significantly to the interpretive material culture. The presence of spontoons at Kettle
Creek would be expected for both Patriot and Loyalist militias. In the absence of any firm evidence,
however, the find mentioned by Child must remain unverified hearsay.
The present survey located 71 artifacts in the Arms Group (see Figures 32 and 33). Most of these are
probably associated with the battle of Kettle Creek. Figure 37 shows the spatial distribution of the Arms
Group artifacts over the battlefield landscape.
Small Arms. The combatants in the battle of Kettle Creek included skilled marksmen, both Loyalist and
Patriot. These fighters were from the interior, where weapon skills were essential for survival. A variety of
firearms were used in Georgia in the American Revolution. These included rifles, smoothbore muskets, and
pistols. All were flintlock weapons. The standard weapon of the regular Continentals was the French
Charleville musket, which had a .69 caliber barrel. The standard firearm of the British foot soldier was the
Brown Bess musket, which had a .75 caliber barrel. The firearm arsenal for the militia was a different
matter, however. Militia flintlocks were a mix of whatever was available at the time the war began. For
many, this was a rifle.
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