17th-century grenade found on Scottish battlefield

Archaeologists have found proof of the first ever use on British soil of a terrifying new weapon at the Battle of Killiecrankie, at which 2,500 Jacobites annihilated a force of 4,000 redcoats.

A three-inch fragment of corroded iron is all that remains of a hand grenade thrown by government soldiers at the Jacobite ranks during the 1689 engagement near Pitlochry.

As well as being the first documented use in combat of the hand grenade anywhere in Britain, there is also evidence it may have been at the centre of an early ‘friendly fire’ episode.

Experts say the position of the fragment strongly suggests the grenade rolled back towards the English soldiers and exploded among them, causing death and mayhem and even contributing to the scale of their defeat.

It was previously thought that the hand grenade was first used at the 1719 Battle of Glenshiel, near Inverness, when the Jacobites were defeated.

From The Scotsman.

UPDATE: A letter to the Times of London from Miss S.F. Jones points out:

. . . “hand-grenadoes” (semi-hollow pottery spheres packed with powder and fuse) were already in use during the Civil War. The Royalist account of the storming of Bristol in 1643 states that “ . . . some 250 men, fell directly upon the Spurre it selfe; . . . & threw 9 hand Granadoes into the Worck.”

For some grenade history links, look here.

Posted by David on February 22, 2004 8:39 PM