Artifact of the Month: October 2015

Photograph by Allison Gall

Decorative copper alloy plate to a Revolutionary War-era ammunition cartridge box associated with the Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz showing the crowned lion of Hess.   This artifact was likely part of a decorative plate on a Hessian artillery cartridge box from the Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz and was found in a well at an 18th-century farmstead in Manalapan, New Jersey near Monmouth Battlefield.  While no skirmishes were reported on the site, the Battle of Monmouth was fought in 1778 roughly one mile northeast of the site and it may have been collected by one of the site occupants as a battle souvenir.