. . . [our] men lay continuously upon their arms [weapons], [with] the enemy incessantly cannonading us, and their rifle and cannon shot reaching every part of our camp..
Thomas Anbury,
ensign, 24th Regiment of Foot
Imagine a heavy British cannon roaring and bucking backward on this emplacement each time it fired. Blue-coated British gunners here in Victory Woods dueled back and forth for days with American cannoneers set up on the high ground across Fish Creek.
Cannonballs, some weighing as much as 24 pounds, flew at hundreds of miles per hour. The solid iron shot smashed everything in its path - trees, flesh, or bone. Artillery rained down instant death or destruction and struck fear in the hearts of soldiers.
( Sidebar : )
General Burgoyne brought 138 cannon, mortars, and howitzers on his expedition to capture Albany and defeat the rebellion against the British Crown. In 1777 no factory in North American could produce weapons as daunting as Burgoyne's artillery. After the British surrendered here, these expensive, high-tech guns were used against their former owners to win American independence.
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