The Mystery of Object FOST 8998

The artifact known as "FOST 8998" is a unique find in 18th Century military museum collections.

National Park Service

Sitting in a storage container in the museum collection is object “FOST 8998.” This iron object was rediscovered in the Fort Stanwix National Monument collections during a 2023 inventory. When originally cataloged in the 1970s, it was labeled as a nail found in the remains of the 18^th Century fort. But after a bit of research, this actually appears to be modified shot or bar shot for use in a musket.

Bar Shot Ammunition

In artillery, bar shot is a type of cannon projectile formed of two sub-caliber balls, or half-balls, joined together with a solid metal bar. They were used in the age of sailing ships and black powder cannon to shoot masts, or to cut the shrouds and any other rigging of a target ship. When fired, after leaving the muzzle, the shot's components would tumble in the air and sweep through the target. However, the tumbling made by bar less accurate, so it was used at shorter ranges than regular cannon balls.

Fixed bar, expandable bar, and chain shot were traditionally used by naval forces to destroy enemy ships. The weights on each end of the "shot" would fly and tumble or spin with forces so great, they could tear gaping holes in thick cloth sails, wooden hulls, and large tree-sized sailing masts!

Unique, or Unfound?

Research into the object’s providence revealed that this was a unique item in contemporaneous museum collections; with no other examples existing. However, references to similar items were made in a letter from Major General William Howe to George Washington in September of 1776, as the British and American Armies battled for control of New York City:

“Head Quarters York Island…
My Aid de Camp charged with the Delivery of this Letter, will present to you a Ball cut and fixed to the Ends of a Nail, taken from a Number of the same Kind, found in the Encampments quitted by your Troops on the 15th Instant—I do not make any Comment upon such unwarrantable and malicious Practices, being well assured the Contrivance has not come to your Knowledge.”

Howe’s complaint of "malicious behavior" seems to be warranted. If cannon-ready bar shot could take down entire sails and ship masts, one could only imagine what musket-ready bar shot could do to a soldier’s body!?

Were some of Washington’s soldiers modifying these on their own accord? Were they being issued to the Continental Army on a regular basis? With no other references to, records of, or similar artifacts found it is impossible to confirm exactly what this is. Which means object “FOST 8998” will keep its secrets for the foreseeable future.

Sources

• The National Archives: www.founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0283. Accessed on May 31, 2023.

• Cyclopædia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Ephraim Chambers. 1728.