1-149-640 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Battle of the Kegs', 6 January 1778, (1872). Scene during the American Revolution when a particular British fleet of ships terrorized the colonists and resided in Philadelphia's port. One idea of seveal to dislodge this British fleet was to create a type of mine. Theses mines were built out of kegs and filled with gunpowder. When they rubbed against an object in its path, it would explode. Engraving from John Gilmary Shea's A Child's History of the United States, Hess and McDavitt, (New York, 1872).