Battle of the Kegs

a mock heroic poem by Francis Hopkinson. During the winter of 1777-8 the British army under General Howe made Philadelphia winter headquarters. The Americans made a few torpedoes out of kegs and sent them down the Delaware in hopes of annoying the British shipping. One keg seems to have exploded in the hands of some curious boys, maiming one of them. The British gunners occupied themselves in firing at other kegs that appeared with the tide a few days afterward, but the incident attracted no particular attention until Francis Hopkinson got hold of it and wrote a poem to the tune of Maggy Lander, in which he described the alarm created by the kegs, and heroism displayed by the British in the terrific attack made on the kegs. The song served to keep up the spirits of the colonists.