Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
In
1775, an irregular army made up of
American farmers and tradesmen took up
arms against the most powerful nation on
Earth, Great
Britain. We think of them as
inexperienced and outgunned, struggling
with inferior technology.
But was that
true? Can we ever know what it was like
to fight in the Revolutionary
War? You can read books. You can go to
the
battlefields. But doing experiments,
shooting these weapons really helps give
us a better understanding of the
soldiers from both sides who fought in
the American Revolution.
Certainly gives a whole different
appreciation and horror.
The Revolutionary War is on a real cusp
militarily. You see echoes of older
ways. This is aiming for the
head. And you see some of these kind of
glimmers of the future and new
technologies.
Indigenous ingenuity and European design
technology evolves because of this
collision of cultures. We have a ticking
bomb. Is it sticky? Woohoo.
How did ordinary Americans use this
technology to win their freedom?
You want to be hitting that same spot
again and again and again. I've never
experienced or seen anything like this.
Revolutionary War weapons right now on
Nova.
[Music]
As an American-based supplier to the
construction industry, Carile is
committed to developing a diverse
workplace that supports our employees
advancement into the next generation of
leaders from the manufacturing floor to
the front office. Learn more at
carilele.com.
[Music]
April 19th,
1775,
Massachusetts. Tensions between the
British and the American colonists are
at a boiling point.
[Music]
A moment that's commemorated even 250
years later.
[Music]
A silver smith named Paul Rivere has
spread word that 700 British troops are
marching from Boston to conquered. Their
mission, seize an American stockpile of
weapons and supplies to stop a
revolution before it
begins. But as the British passed
through Lexington, they are stopped by
around 80 militia men.
One of them is 36-year-old farmer John
Robbins.
Sometime before sunrise, there suddenly
appeared a number of the king's troops,
about a thousand.
The militia and the British are under
orders not to
fire, but within minutes, shots ring
[Applause]
out. The skirmish sparks a war that
lasts eight brutal years and leads to
the establishment of the United States
of
America. It's said that in war, history
is written by the
victors. In the story of the American
Revolution, the colonial forces are
often portrayed as plucky heroes
standing alone, armed with inferior
technology against the most powerful
nation on Earth.
But the truth is far more
complex. Now with modern insight, we can
reach a better understanding of what it
was like to stand in the line of fire,
armed with the weapons of the
day. This image of the Battle of
Lexington, engraved months later, is
based on eyewitness accounts.
It reveals some of the true cost of the
colonist fight for freedom. Americans
lie dead and
wounded and the British are using the
most common weapon of the Revolutionary
War, the smooth boore
[Applause]
musket. Today, the musket is seen as
crude and inaccurate, especially when
compared to modern guns. But is that
true?
At Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York,
historic firearms researcher Joel Boy is
finding out how effective the musket was
on the
battlefield. So, what we've got here is
a British pattern 1756 Longland musket,
more commonly known as the Brown Bess.
The Brown Bass begins use in about 1730,
and this type of gun would have been the
workhorse of the British army through
the 18th century into the 19th century.
was an extremely important gun to
building the British Empire and used
through the American Revolution.
Manufactured in the British Isles, each
brown best is made up of around 50
individual
pieces. The 46-in barrel is forged from
a single piece of iron, heated to 2500°
F, then beaten and welded into shape.
The inside is reamed and polished to
remove rough edges resulting in a smooth
internal
bore. The stock fashioned from walnut
because it is less prone to
splitting. The final step, assemble the
metal components, including the flint
lock mechanism and trigger to make the
finished
musket. To load it, the soldier starts
with a paper cartridge, about a third of
an ounce of pre-measured gunpowder, and
a lead ball enclosed in the wrapper.
Take a
tail, bite it off, pour some powder into
the
pan. More gunpowder down the
barrel with a musk ball.
And we ran that cartridge
home and the guns are loaded and ready
to fire.
It's cumbersome. The process can take 15
to 20 seconds and must feel like an
eternity in
battle. The musket would seem primitive
to anyone familiar with the
sophistication of a modern rifle.
So here we have the Leanfield number one
commonly used in World War I and through
World War II and is a good
representation of a modern gun. Here the
loading process has been made easier
with a self-contained primed metallic
cartridge.
We've got a brass casing um a primer
which sets off the powder inside and it
fires a jacketed lead uh bullet uh which
is a lot different than the brown best.
This 303 caliber round or 303 of an inch
is also half the diameter of the 69
caliber musk
ball. With a magazine that holds 10
rounds, the Lee Enfield can fire
multiple shots in the time it takes to
load a single musk ball, which is a big
advantage in combat.
The bolt is pushed
forward. It's chambered for a round now.
It can fire.
But for Joel, the best way to assess the
musket is not by comparing it to modern
weapons, but by testing its
effectiveness in battle 250 years
ago. To gain a better understanding,
Joel's team will fire at a ballistic
gelatin block designed to replicate
human
tissue, providing valuable insight into
how different projectiles can affect a
person's body.
With the aid of a slow motion camera,
he'll also try to answer a
question. How damaging could a musket
shot
be? Finally, he will measure the speed
each round exits the barrel, known as
the muzzle velocity, using a
chronograph. Marksman Jay Waller will be
firing the guns.
First up, the musket with the 69 caliber
ball. Pulling the trigger instantly sets
off a chain reaction in the flint lock
mechanism. A stone flint strikes a steel
hammer. The impact creates sparks which
ignites the priming powder in the pan.
This ignition passes through a small
hole and sets off the gunpowder inside
the
barrel. The gas pressure produced here
propels the round out of the
gun. On inspection, it's a direct hit.
You can see where it traveled right
through the block and came out the other
side.
reviewing the footage, they can see the
horrific damage caused.
Wow. You see that ball zip right
through? Look at the cavitation in the
gel from that 69 caliber ball. When the
ball moves through the block, it
displaces the gel around it, creating a
cavity. This is known as cavitation,
similar to what would happen to living
human tissue.
devastating to bones and internal
organs.
The men on Lexington Green knew how
deadly these weapons were, but they
never had the opportunity to see the
damage in the way that we're seeing it
now.
[Music]
Wow. Wow.
It certainly gives a whole different
appreciation and horror for what
happened.
[Music]
On April 19th,
1775, one of the Lexington militia men
who feels the destructive power of the
smooth boore musket is farmer John
Robbins.
The foremost of the three officers
ordered their men saying, "Fire by God,
fire. Being wounded, I fell.
The shot enters his back, passes through
his body, and shatters his jaw. In
total, 10 militia men are wounded and
eight
killed. The musket is clearly deadly. So
why do we see it as a primitive
weapon? Likely because of what later
guns can do.
Joel demonstrates this with the modern
rifle.
Oh, wa.
Look at that.
And see the smoke from the bullet.
The modern rifle's power is far more
terrifying. But what does the data
reveal? Using the chronograph, Joel and
Jay compare muzzle velocities
on the Nfield. That is
2314 feet per second, whereas the musket
is 845 ft pers. So there's a big
difference between the two guns. You can
really see the velocity when you look at
the ballistics gelatin blocks.
The higher velocity of the modern
rifle's bullet means it carries
substantially more
energy. When it penetrates the block,
much of this is transferred to the gel,
causing it to lift into the
air. With a muzzle velocity nearly three
times the musketss, the data proves that
the musket is much less powerful. But
what makes the rifle bullet have such a
high projectile speed?
When the trigger is pulled on the modern
rifle, the charge is ignited within the
self-contained
cartridge. The vast majority of the
explosive force is transmitted to the
bullet, propelling
it. The bullet travels flush against the
barrel and with a more aerodynamic
shape, moves cleanly through the air,
retaining its power for longer.
But when it comes to the musket, 18th
century gunpowder is less efficient than
the modern
equivalent. Its smooth boore barrel is
also slightly larger than the ball it
fires. This means the ball bounces down
the barrel and allows gases to escape
around it when the gunpowder is ignited,
resulting in less energy being
transferred to the ball. Being larger,
rounder, and less aerodynamic than the
modern bullet, it is further slowed by
air
resistance. But perhaps the musket's
biggest weakness is its relative
inaccuracy. The best way to demonstrate
this is to see what a skilled marksman
can do with the modern gun.
So, here we're going to do a test with
the modern rifle and the brown bass or
the musket at 100 yards.
First the
Leenfield at this distance. It's a great
shot. Now Jay tests the accuracy of the
brown best.
The musket shot at 100 yards.
There's no new impact.
[Music]
no matter how many times they
try. Should we take a walk down and look
at
it? All right, so this shot missed the
target.
Why did it miss? One key reason is the
difficulty of holding the musket steady.
It's interesting because it's only a
matter of milliseconds between the time
that the the flash and the charge and
the pan is ignited and it ignites the
charge. But that fraction of a second is
enough to lose and go off sight. You can
move the move the gun a little bit from
the time you pull the trigger till the
time it actually goes off.
This plus all the factors that make it
less powerful means the smooth boore
musket is also less accurate.
Despite this, we know from written
accounts that facing musket fire was not
for the faint of
heart. To compensate for any inaccuracy,
armies during the Revolutionary War
relied on a lethal
tactic, mass volley
fire. By standing in rows and firing
multiple lead balls at their enemy, they
made up for the musket's lack of
precision, making it very dangerous when
used on
mass. After the April 19th clash at
Lexington, the British continue onto
Conquered, where they are attacked by
400 militia men and forced to retreat,
leaving hundreds dead and
wounded. Soon, what began as a skirmish
turns into allout war.
[Applause]
Following the American colony's
declaration of independence in July
1776, the war spreads from the land to
the
sea. Some 200 British warships with
32,000 musket wielding troops arrive in
New
York. From here they rapidly deploy into
battle.
The Americans are outnumbered and
outgunned. So they begin working on a
plan to blow up the British
[Music]
warships. In the United Kingdom,
military historian Mike Loads is
investigating one of the war's most
audacious
weapons. This is a model of the first
combat submarine. Now I say model
because the original doesn't exist. All
we have is a few hints and clues from
subsequent
writings. The writings come from
American inventor David
Bushnull. The external shape of the
submarine vessel bore some resemblance
to two upper tortoise shells of equal
size joined
together. It was later nicknamed the
turtle.
First, you've got the overall shape.
It's using the technology of a barrel.
It's thick oak staves bound together
with iron
hoops. It's not quite barrel-shaped,
though. And the reason for that is
because you need space inside for an
operator to sit. So, that's going to
broaden it in the middle. And you need
space at the top for a hatch for the
operator to get in.
At first glance, it immediately reminds
you of a space capsule. But what it is,
in fact, is a time capsule. A time
capsule of contemporary
technologies. You've got these pedals
here. So, the operator is pedalling
away. This is powered by pedal power and
they are driving a
propeller. The concept of the propeller
dates back to Greek mathematician
Archimedes. His Archimedes screw
famously moved water using a spiral
blade inside a
tube. Bushnull took this concept and
located a blade on the outside of his
turtle. This is thought to be one of the
first practical applications of a
propeller. Along with a rudder, the
turtle has all the components needed to
maneuver on the surface.
A particular feature of the outside of
the vessel is this hatch at the top
here. It's got these watertight windows.
So, he has got some natural light
inside. Then above there, these strange
looking things are really snorkel so
that when it's above water, it's fully
ventilated.
Using the windows, the operator could
maneuver on the surface to locate and
position the turtle next to a
ship. It is then ready to
descend by filling the area at the base
of the vessel known as the BGES. To do
that, the operator kicks a lever. This
will flood the BGES down there with
water. Under the surface, a second
propeller is used to lower or raise the
turtle. Once submerged in darkness, the
operator has only two instruments for
guidance. This is a barometer. It has a
little cork in it, and each of these
marks on the glass tube represents a
fathom. That's about 6 ft. So, as he
sees the cork bobbing down, he knows
he's going down another six feet. How
can he see that underwater? because it's
been covered with a fungus called
foxfire which is luminous. It glows in
the dark. And over here is a compass
which again the needle on the compass
has been coated with this luminous
fungus so he can read his heading. The
turtle is designed to move into position
armed with a bomb to blow up its target.
So assuming that we've now got to the
right depth, we now need to attach the
payload. And that's this crank here.
This crank operates that drill at the
top. And that bs its way up into the
hull of a ship. The drill is attached to
the bomb by a rope. Once connected, the
turtle detaches itself, leaving the
explosive secured to the ship.
And now you've got to get out of here.
So you you pedal away. When you want to
surface, you use these two hand pumps.
Yet more exertion to save your life,
pumping away to get that water out of
the BGES. But my goodness, that's a heck
of a lot of work to get to that stage.
employed to carry out this dangerous
mission. 27-year-old American Ezra Lee.
The plan, drive into New York Harbor and
blow up the British flagship HMS
Eagle. But how could Ezra Lee attach a
bomb big enough to sink the British ship
and get away safely?
Inventor David Bushnell's writings
provide some
clues, allowing pyrochnics expert John
Hargreaves to figure out how it was
supposed to happen.
I've rigged this as a demonstration.
This is pretty much the size of the bomb
that would have been on the turtle that
holds the gunpowder. Correct. £150.
How do we get a spark to it? Well, in
the references to Bushnull's machine,
they show a flint lock mechanism. So,
this little pocket pistol, correct?
Which has got this flint lock here. So,
that flint
strikes that which creates the spark.
The pistol's muzzle is screwed into the
barrel. When it's fired, it will ignite
the
gunpowder. But Ezra Lee would need time
to escape before it exploded.
Bushnull had a plan.
Within the magazine was an apparatus
constructed to run any proposed length
of time under 12 hours.
This is a specialist clock. It is a very
early 19th century version actually, but
it's the nearest thing I could find to
the right mechanism. The mechanism John
thinks Bushnell used comes from a period
pocket watch.
The pocket watch had been around at the
beginning of the 17th century. It was a
pretty rare thing and they were all
watches like
this. The clock is going to countd down
to zero. When it gets to zero, it pulls
a lever which I have attached to the
trigger mechanism of my pistol. So, it
pulls the trigger and fires the gun.
This is absolutely ingenious, John. I'm
going to set it to a minute two.
Can you hear it ticking? We have a
ticking bomb. Yeah, this is ticking.
Woohoo. Look at that.
Excellent. Proof of concept. Yes.
The timer for the bomb was set to 30
minutes and sealed in a watertight
casing. The countdown would begin when
the bomb detached from the turtle.
This apparatus could not possibly move
till by casting off the magazine from
the vessel, it was set in
motion. To test the gunpowder bomb
underwater, they use a modern firing
mechanism for
safety. When Bushnell first tested the
bomb, he did so with varying amounts of
gunpowder. For safety, Jon is only using
five
pounds. Ezra Lee was carrying
150. At 11 p.m. on September 6th,
1776, after being launched into the
water from a whaleboat, Lee starts his
mission.
Even though this is a scaledown test,
Jon is taking all the necessary
precautions. Ezra Lee is facing the real
risk that the bomb could fail to
detonate or worse, explode too early,
killing him
instantly. For over two exhausting
hours, with the constant risk of being
spotted, he navigates toward the British
ship.
Upon reaching it, he begins his descent,
dropping close to 30 ft below the
surface with the
bomb. There she blows.
That's just £5. Yes, £5 of gunpowder.
The bomb they're dealing with was 30
times that magnitude.
A detonation that large would have been
catastrophic. The wooden hull of a ship
offers less resistance to the bomb's
explosive force than the denser water
around
it. It would have just ripped through
the bottom of the boat. Instant
destruction. Yeah.
But HMS Eagle is not blown
up. After making his descent, Ezra Lee
is unable to attach the
bomb. He went under the ship and
attempted to fix the wood screw, but
struck, as he supposes, a bar of
iron. At this crucial moment, running
out of air, he abandons the mission.
In a later attempt, the boat carrying
the sub is sunk by British
gunfire. This is the end of the turtle.
I have absolutely no doubt that if it
had been successful and if it had been
repeatable to scale, if they built many
more turtles and they had destroyed the
British fleet, it would have shortened
the war by years. The war would have
been over in months.
Following the failure of the turtle, the
war grinds on with neither side securing
a strategic
advantage. But in
1777, the tide starts to turn. Now with
access to more weapons and 13,000
troops, the Americans achieve a decisive
victory at the Battle of Saratoga.
Both armies are using musketss, but
there's another weapon on the
battlefield bringing its own advantages
and
weaknesses. The long
rifle, developed in the early 1700s by
German and Swiss immigrants, the long
rifle was designed as a highly accurate
hunting
gun. After the outbreak of the
Revolutionary War, the Americans quickly
set up sharpshooting rifle units. At
Saratoga, it is claimed one of these
units, Morgan's riflemen, plays a
crucial role in securing the American
victory.
This isn't the first time Morgan's
sharpshooters have been celebrated.
One newspaper in 1775 wrote,
"Yesterday, the company were drawn out
to show the gentlemen of the town their
dexterity and
shooting. A clapboard with a mark the
size of a dollar was put up. Few shot
being made that were not close to or in
the
paper." The report also suggests the
long rifle is much more accurate than
the
muskin. But is that true?
This test is going to be for accuracy.
We're going to be shooting at that melon
60 yard down range with a long rifle.
Even before it's fired, there is a
visible difference that gives it an
advantage over the musket.
The benefit of the rifle is it has front
and rear sights. While the musket only
has a front sight, it's going to help
with the accuracy of the gun.
Having two sights allows for more
precise alignment, providing two points
of reference, enabling the shooter to
more effectively maintain focus on the
target. Says ready. Yep. He's going to
go now.
Having never fired the long rifle
before, Jay just misses the melon. But
now he has his mark and adjusts his
aim. Yes.
It's a direct
hit. But why is it so
accurate? The answer lies in the name,
the rifled
barrel. Forged by specialist gunsmiths,
the iron barrel is bored to include
spiral grooves known as rifling on the
inside surface.
This changes how the ball
behaves. When fired, the ball engages
with the grooves, causing it to spin
around its longitudinal
axis. This spinning motion gives the
projectile angular momentum, helping it
resist external forces like air
resistance and maintain a straighter
path.
The
result, the ball remains stable in
flight over longer distances,
significantly enhancing
accuracy. Combined with improved
sights and a smaller, tight fitting
ball, which travels at a higher
velocity, the long rifle is a formidable
sharpshooting
weapon. But there are also
disadvantages.
a slower loading time with the long
barrel being cumbersome and the small
ball needing firm positioning.
If you're in combat, you need to load
and fire as quickly as you possibly can.
With a rifle, it's going to be, you
know, one shot or two shots a minute
compared to the four you can get with a
musket.
Meaning this symbol of American
patriotism and success is particularly
vulnerable during
reloading, leaving a soldier defenseless
and open to attack from bladed
[Music]
weapons. Following the American success
at Saratoga in 1777, the Revolutionary
War enters a new
phase. A year later, the French
officially join the American cause,
bringing much neededed troops and
supplies. Some indigenous communities
are also playing a role in the
war. In the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Jefferson refers to them as
merciless Indian
savages. But their relationships with
the colonists and the crown are complex.
Both sides are seeking to recruit them.
Historian of indigenous eastern
woodlands, Fallon Burner, specializes in
this often untold story of the war.
Native people were involved in the
American Revolution since the beginning
um since Lexington and
Concord. Native people fought on both
sides of this conflict. That might be
the American side, that might be the
British side, that might be remaining
sort of neutral. These decisions are
based on what is best for that native
nation and the trajectory that they are
on. In a conflict often characterized by
small skirmishes, whoever indigenous
people side with, their impact is felt,
often with the help of a deadly axe, the
tomahawk.
Fallon is meeting up with Eastern
Woodlands weapons expert Russell Reed to
discuss indigenous people's weaponry and
its role in the war.
I know that the word for tomahawk
actually comes from this area here in
Tidewater, Virginia. Um, can you tell us
a little bit about the kinds of
tomahawks that settlers would have been
seeing when they first arrived here? So
when uh the English first arrived,
you're going to see the tribes here in
Virginia and really throughout much of
the eastern woodlands using stonebladed
axes like this to clear brush uh and
fields to work on canoes, build houses,
and also certainly as a weapon when the
time required it. However, after the
English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and
other colonial powers arrive, rapidly
you're going to see this um replaced bit
by bit with iron and steel versions of
the tomahawk that we more think of
nowadays.
With Europeans came new technology,
including iron mongery and steel
work. Early on, colonial traders
realized they could exchange metal
goods, including ax heads, for items
needed in Europe.
The advantages to this are several.
Stone tomahawks work for thousands of
years. There's no issue in using them.
However, the iron and steel ones can be
brought to a little bit of a finer edge
for more effective cutting. And this can
be purchased or traded for at fairly
cheap cost. in some cases for a couple
of deer skins. It just makes a lot of
sense to trade for scores of these
rather than make stone versions that are
a little heavier and not quite as
sharp. Over time, metal tomahawks
transformed, taking on new shapes with
intricate
decoration. Some even contained pipes
that could be
smoked. But the tomahawk remained a
weapon for close combat.
You're going to see a sort of a system
of weapons. You're going to have your
long range weapon. So, it's going to be
your long bow, your rifle, or very
commonly this Indian trade gun musket.
Once in battle, the system is deployed
rapidly.
You're going to be leveling that at your
enemy,
firing, and then while your enemy is
hopefully
reloading, you're going to see this long
range weapon toss to the side
immediately drawing tomahawk and your
knife. And so you're going to see the
knife in one hand, tomahawk in the
other, and actually closing in on your
enemy.
Period sources routinely talk about the
fact that this is actually going to be
brought aiming for the head. It
certainly can be an effective weapon
against the body, but layers of thick
clothing and the fact that this is a
fairly light weapon. You're going to see
a lot more targeting of the head. Uh the
knife being something you can use to
follow up or possibly to block a
strike and quickly either brought to the
side or straight
down. You can see it's sort of cleaved
pretty much right through the center of
it like that and then can even be
brought back in the opposite direction.
That would be terrifying if that was my
head. Now you can imagine this on a
battlefield with hundreds of warriors,
musketss going off, arrows flying
everywhere, and then warriors closing
the distance with devastating effect on
their enemies against an enemy,
especially slow loading riflemen. The
tomahawk could be highly effective.
So, we definitely see a lot in movies or
other cultural depictions of native
warriors throwing and letting go of
their tomahawk to hit a target. How
viable and actionable do you think that
is? It's likely that actually throwing
your tomahawk in combat would be
incredibly uncommon. This weapon simply
doesn't weigh a lot and you would have
to match the rotations to hit your enemy
perfectly and you're incredibly limited
on range. It's certainly going to be
more effective use in the hand. You
throw it, you've gotten rid of it, then
you don't have it to use. Unless you
have now, unless you've been incredibly
lucky and successful, you have now
disarmed yourself, given your enemy your
main weapon. So, how much of a
difference do you think the tomahawk
made in the revolution? Um, it really is
such an effective hand-to-hand weapon
that you're going to see colonial
forces, militia, and the British all
carrying tomahawks as well. And so we do
get period accounts in the revolution
where the tomahawk comes into play in a
big way with lots of hand-to-hand
fighting which can turn the tide of the
battle one direction or the other
commonly leading to the victory of
whoever is employing it first and most
effectively. After six brutal years, the
war takes a sudden turn. In 1781, in a
surprise move, nearly 18,000 American
and French troops corner 8,000 British
in Yorktown,
[Music]
Virginia. Outnumbered and surrounded,
the British are forced to dig in. Pitch
battles and skirmishes are out. Now this
becomes a siege war.
In this painting, the siege of Yorktown,
the artist captures the defensive
earthworks built by both
sides and the powerful weapon intended
to defeat
them. The
cannon. The contest between these
earthworks and the cannon would become
one of the most iconic in
history. But which one would come out on
top? At Yorktown today, historian Marvin
Alonzo Greer is finding
out. So, what you're seeing here is a
reconstruction of the 18th century uh
earthworks that the British created.
This foliage here, this greenery would
not have been here at the time. It would
have all been dirt and earth and
palisades here, these wooden spikes
sticking out of the
ground. In just six weeks, the British
construct a system of fortified
earthworks.
These defenses would have been built by
a mixture of people, some by soldiers in
the British army, but the vast majority
of these defenses would have been built
by freedom
seekers. Before the Revolutionary War,
all 13 colonies practiced
slavery. During the conflict, many
enslaved people are brought to the
battlefield, often as laborers.
Some fight on the American side
voluntarily with the hope of
freedom. The British also offer them
liberty if they join their ranks.
Thousands take this opportunity at
Yorktown. They've become known as
freedom seekers.
Most of their names are lost to history,
but we do have names of at least two.
Eve from Williamsburg and her son
George. They were enslaved by Payton
Randolph and his wife Betty Randolph.
Betty Randolph writes since
1781. Some of her enslaved people,
including Eve and George, have gone to
the enemy right here to
Yorktown. In the painting of the siege,
there are clues about how the defenses
are
built. Piles of strange shaped objects
lie next to passing
troops. But what are
they? Revolutionary war expert Matthew
Kagel has built three examples.
So these are called gabons. Basically
big wicker baskets, but they don't have
a bottom or a top. So you can move where
you need to go. You can dump earth into
them and they're going to hold it
there. Gabons had been used in defensive
fortifications since the time of the
ancient Egyptians during the
Revolutionary War. And with so many
American towns lacking stone wall
defenses, gabons are common place. We're
just looking at this cross-section of
the works.
So imagine this continuing through us
and past us to make a whole wall 9 ft or
more deep.
With ditches dropping no less than 6 ft
and ramparts of equivalent height
covered in spiked palisades, the
earthworks at Yorktown present a
formidable
obstacle. But they had to face down the
cannon. Originating in China 800 years
ago, the first experimental cannon were
made of bamboo. By the 1770s, the most
expensive and lightweight are made of
bronze, but the more common ones are
heavier, larger, and made of iron. This
is the most powerful weapon system known
at this time. The works at Yorktown are
all designed around the capabilities of
these weapons, either to prevent
incoming fire from damaging people and
equipment or as platforms to fire
artillery from. At Yorktown, the
Americans and French bring 100 cannon to
the
battle. The British have 250 cannon, but
not nearly as much
ammunition. To defeat Earthworks,
artillery men use solid iron shot.
Right here we're working with a French 4
pounder. So that's not the weight of the
barrel, that's the weight of the shot
this is going to fire. So a solid iron
ball weighing 4 lb is going to come
hurtling out the muzzle of this cannon
down
range. For this cannon, there are five
crew members. Each has a specific role.
So what we see up here is on that front
right, he's got the sponge rammer.
The sponger ensures the cannon is safe
to fire by plunging the barrel with
water and pulling it out with the vent
closed. A vacuum extinguishes any embers
from the previous
shot. So when he pulls that out, we get
that sound, which is evidence of the
vacuum inside the tube because if you
put a round of cartridge in there
afterwards and there's even the smallest
ember that could set that off. Another
crew member passes the cartridge which
holds the gunpowder to the loader. After
inserting this, the loader then adds
wading which holds the cartridge against
the breach of the
cannon. Next, the iron ball followed by
more
wading. Then sponge rammer is actually
going to ram down this whole mass into
the brereech because for the gunpowder
to work correctly to get the most force
possible, it needs to be compacted into
as small a space as possible. Now, at
the rear, at the vent of the weapon,
they're going to take a small spike,
drive that through the vent hole through
the cartridge, opening up the gunpowder
inside there. With the cartridge open,
the gunner pours additional gunpowder
into the vent, and then inserts a
fuse. Finally, the commander who aims
the gun prepares to
fire. At Yorktown, the closest the
American and French guns get to the
British lines is just 200 yards away.
Fire.
[Music]
Within an instant of lighting the fuse,
the gunpowder inside the barrel ignites.
The gases produced rapidly build to
create pressure between the ball and the
base of the barrel. In milliseconds,
this pressure propels the ball out of
the cannon.
came around
here.
Oh, look at that. Did it just plunge
right through the
gabon? Yeah. So, see right there that
shattered sapling and then we've gone
right into here. That's our second hole,
isn't it? Yep.
It's dislodged a fair amount of
earth. But they're still holding.
The fact that it passed through the
earth, the saplings, and into a second
one and into the next one, that's some
power. That really is. Because this is
so loosely constructed, this isn't like
firing into a stone wall. So the nature
of this defense has helped it to kind of
almost heal
itself. Earthworks could effectively
withstand a single
strike. But at Yorktown, the Americans
and the French are firing up to 3500
rounds every day with some cannon shot
six times the weight of this 4 pounder.
We got the palisade.
Right on target. Bullseye.
The second shot is inches from the first
hit.
Your intention is you want to be hitting
that same spot again and again and again
and again, ultimately battering down
that wall.
After six tightly grouped shots, they
inspect the
damage. I've never experienced or seen
anything like this that that earth just
literally sucking up all of that
artillery fire. Um the accuracy is
amazing. But it's this kind of
consistency that is ultimately going to
win you something like the siege of
Yorktown.
Over 9 days of bombardment, the
Americans and French fire an incredible
15,000 cannon rounds. Finally, after 3
weeks of siege, mounting losses, and low
supplies, the British surrender, ending
the last major battle of the
Revolutionary War.
As for the freedom seekers who helped
build these defenses, like Eve and her
son George, when smallox breaks out in
the fort during the siege, the British
expel
them. Threatened once again with
enslavement, most take their chances
between the opposing armies in no man's
land. Eve escapes, but after a reward is
issued, she is captured.
We don't know what happens to George.
Her son probably died of smallpox or in
no man's land. But Eve is sold for quote
unquote her bad behavior, for going to
seeking her freedom. Harrowing is the
word that continues to come to mind
through all of this.
Exactly.
It would be another 84 years before
slavery is abolished throughout the
United
States. After the siege of Yorktown, the
British realized the war can no longer
be won. After 8 years and 57,000 killed
in action on both sides combined, they
recognized the independence of the
United States of America.
This freedom was only possible thanks to
the people who fought and the
extraordinary technology they used.
As an American, this is the foundation
of the United States. Uh we're a
relatively young country. We're one that
was born out of 8 years of struggle of a
vicious
war. Going out and shooting these
weapons can give you a much greater
understanding of the battles, how they
were fought, how they were won and lost.
And it enables me to have a much better
understanding of the war itself.
Back then this was cuttingedge
technology. This was experimentation.
This was original thought.
Indigenous people were involved in this
conflict since the very beginning. So
was their technology. The tomahawk is
really this unifying factor here that
ties indigenous history and American
history together.
Whether people are inventing technology
or using the technology, an instrument
of war can also be used as an instrument
of freedom. And I think we as humans can
learn a lot from this time period
because just like in our lives today,
there's good and bad happening on all
sides. And it's really up to we the
users of technology to determine how our
future will be
paved. Heat.
[Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music]