The Battle of the Kegs
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The Battle of the Kegs is a ballad written by Francis Hopkinson describing the attempted attack upon the British Fleet in Philadelphia harbor on January 6, 1778 during the American Revolutionary War.
The kegs themselves were made by Colonel Joseph Borden's cooperage to the specifications of a Mr. Carman. They were filled with gunpowder and sent downriver to (hopefully) hit the warships and explode as a sortof naval mine.
When the mines were completed, they were guided downriver by Caleb Carman. When they arrived in the port, however, the British readied their ships to stay at bay in such a way as to avoid pieces of ice in the ocean and avoided much damage. They did destroy a small barge killing four sailors and wounding a few more.
The sudden explosion alerted the British to the point that soldiers flocked the wharves and were ordered to shoot at any piece of wood in the water.
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