The Battle of the Kegs

The Battle of the Kegs is a ballad written by Francis Hopkinson dramatizing an attempted attack upon the British Fleet in the harbor of Philadelphia on January 6, 1778 during the American Revolutionary War.

The kegs themselves were made by Colonel Joseph Borden's cooperage to the specifications of Caleb Carman and designed by David Bushnell, an inventor and graduate of Yale College.

Even so, the attack generated a panic on the waterfront, and throughout the entire day the sound of cannon was present in the port as the navy desperately attempted to destroy the kegs before they could find a target.

[3][4] On August 13, 1777, a Bushnell floating mine/keg sank a small (captured) schooner/tender to HMS Cerberus, in Black Point Bay, New London, CT killing three sailors and saving 1 man.

[5] The Ballad of the Kegs was meant to signal the indefatigable nature of the American rebel army, which had been driven out of Philadelphia and at the time of this operation was encamped under miserable conditions at Valley Forge.