“Fire!” barks the gun commander. As the gunner touches off the charge, there is a thunderous explosion. The earth shudders momentarily, and the air fills quickly with the smoke from black powder.
Lamb’s Artillery, a Revolutionary War reenactment group sponsored by Colonial National Historical Park at Yorktown, Va., is at it again.
They have done four interpretative programs, performed four demonstrations, and fired 12 rounds, in addition to answering scores of questions from groups of inquisitive park visitors. That’s not a bad day’s work for the group of National Park Service volunteers who call themselves Lamb’s Artillery.
Historically speaking, the Second Regiment of the Continental Artillery, commanded by Col. John Lamb of New York, was the primary American artillery unit at the siege of Yorktown. In the American batteries, it was Lamb’s Artillery that fired the heavy siege cannon, American 18 pdrs., upon the Redcoats. French batteries also helped to blast the British into submission with their 24 pdrs.
“It was artillery that won the battle here so that was an extremely important job,” observed Diane Depew, Yorktown District Historian with the National Park Service. “This was a siege; it wasn’t an infantry engagement. Muskets were relatively ineffective here.”
Six years ago, Depew was given the responsibility of resurrecting Lamb’s unit. Having worked with the reenactors of Reilly’s North Carolina Artillery for a number of years, Depew approached the unit and asked if they would be interested in doing a Revolutionary War artillery scenario.
“I was quite fortunate because many members had done a lot with Civil War artillery, so they were already very knowledgeable about that,” Depew acknowledged. “I also have a member of the park staff on the crew. Jim Eccleston, a seasonal [employee], does the interpretation and works with the crew.”
Depew noted that “firing the piece” catches people’s attention and makes an impression that otherwise could not be as effectively made. “It gives them some understanding of what it was like to be on this battlefield during the siege,” she said. “People get a better understanding of the role and impact of artillery here, also the sights and sounds of the siege.”
Historic interpreter Eccleston literally starts off the interpretive program with a bang—just to get the visitors’ attention.
“The artillery piece is a reproduction of an 18-pdr. siege gun. This reproduction is very similar, if not identical, to those that were used here…during the Revolutionary War by the Second Regiment of Continental Artillery,” said Eccleston. “They were cast up in Salisbury, Connecticut, and then dragged down here for this battle.”
When the French Navy and allied forces boxed in the British Army commanded by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, it really set the stage for American independence.
“Cornwallis had one-third of all British forces in North America. That was the last of the striking force that they could scrape together to go out and conquer the rebels,” said Eccleston. “The rest had to be used to garrison ports and towns.”
When Cornwallis surrendered, the British were forced into the position of either raising a new army or sending for British forces located somewhere else in the world. When news of the military disaster at Yorktown reached England, it turned British public opinion against continuing the war in North America. After Yorktown, the British began to actively negotiate an end to the war.
“Yorktown was the last battle of the Revolutionary War. This is the one that won American independence,” Eccleston observed.
Tim Smith, a volunteer gunner, has been with the revived Lamb’s Artillery from the very beginning.
Smith will never forget, or perhaps live down, the first time he touched off the charge on the reproduction siege cannon.
According to Smith, the Park Service had located an 18 pdr. reproduction, cast for the Bicentennial, for Lamb’s Artillery reenactors to use in their demonstration programs.
Although the Park Service had the bore inspected for cracks and checked everything to make sure the gun was safe, Smith was not sure what to expect the first time the piece was fired.
Smith’s artillery experience had been with Civil War field pieces, and he was a little apprehensive about firing the Revolutionary War replica. “Everybody kept kidding me about not surviving,” grinned Smith. “It didn’t bother me at first,” he maintained.
On the day the replica was to be fired for the first time, Smith was beginning to have second thoughts.
By the time the other gun crew members had cleared the field, Smith stood next to the barrel not knowing exactly what would result. He anxiously touched the smoldering linstock to the powder.
“As soon as I touched it and saw a spark, I dove for the ground. There was this huge explosion,” Smith recalled. The 18 pdr. had performed exactly as everyone, especially Smith, had hoped that it would.
A bit embarrassed, Smith regained his feet. “And I kind of got up and dusted myself off.”
“Everyone laughed at me,” Smith grinned. “They’ve got it on film and have given me a hard time about it,” he admitted.
The historical interpretation and the firing of the reproduction artillery includes an explanation and demonstration of 18th- century artillery drill.
Susan Warr, who often portrays the officer commanding the piece, provided park visitors who asked with a step-by-step explanation of the procedure used in firing the 18 pdrs. during the Yorktown siege.
The order was given to “tend the vent.” An artilleryman with a thick leather stall over his thumb covered the vent to prevent air from being sucked into the breech. After the piece had been tended, it was sponged. The sponge was dampened in water and put down the tube to cool it and to extinguish any embers left over from previous rounds. Then the cartridge itself was brought up and rammed down to make sure it was seated down in the breech.
Next, the priming was done. With a large heavy wire, a hole was poked in the powder bag; priming powder was then introduced into the vent.
Finally, the artillerist commanding the piece sights the gun. When the officer gave the order to “fire,” the gunner touched the linstock to the primed vent. For the past six years, everything has gone exactly as intended for Lamb’s Artillery
Humidity can influence the way black powder ignites, so misfires in hot, humid weather are a real possibility.
“We’ve been lucky here at the Park Service in that we’ve yet to have a misfire,” confided Warr. “Knock on wood!” she added.
The reenactors who have recreated Colonel Lamb’s 18th-century artillery unit offer 20th-century Yorktown Battlefield visitors a truly authentic look at the American artillery used during the siege of Yorktown.
“Lamb’s Artillery is a group of men and women who really like history. They really live and breathe it,” declared Jim Eccleston. “I’d like to say that there’s no ‘yahoo factor.’ They’re not a bunch of people who charge around waving guns,” he stressed. “These people are really serious about their true history.”
Eccleston appreciates that since, during the rest of the year, he is a teacher at Gloucester High School across the York River from Yorktown. The battery members live in the area and three are also in Reilly’s Battery.
Depew added, “They’ve definitely made a big commitment to support the program and support the park.”
If General Washington and Colonel Lamb were to visit Yorktown again and see these 20th-century counterparts of Lamb’s Artillery, they most certainly would give Diane Depew and her crew an appreciative salute of approval.
Lamb’s Artillery demonstrations are scheduled on July 28, Aug. 9 and 25, Sept. 29, and Oct. 19 and 20. The unit also gave firing demonstrations in April and June, while Reilly’s Battery D fired on Memorial Day weekend.
Yorktown Battlefield is part of Colonial National Historical Park which includes Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. Yorktown has a visitor center with a museum and 16-minute film, self-guided auto tour and the Nelson and Moore Houses. The Moore House is where the surrender terms were negotiated.
For information about Yorktown call (757) 898-2410 or visit www.nps.gov/colo. Through Labor Day the park is open from 8:30-5:30 and the houses are open from 10 to 5.