Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

On this date Brig. Gen. Henry Knox sent to GW a signed return, dated at West Point, with an “Estimate of Ordnance and Stores taken from the Enemy at Stoney Point [N.Y.] the 16 July 1779—and received into the Magazines at West Point and the Park of Artillery.” The estimate listed each piece of artillery, the artillery ammunition and implements (fuses, sponges, rammers, ladles) for each type of cannon and mortar, and a wide array of other items of arms, ordnance, and equipment. The return gave the estimated value for each piece of artillery; the value of the ammunition and equipment for each type of artillery; and the individual value of all miscellaneous types of arms, ordnance, and equipment. Under the category “Brass Ordnance,” Knox listed one three-pounder, one light twelve-pounder, two heavy twelve-pounders, five mortars, and one eight-inch howitzer. Under the category “Iron Ordnance,” he listed one twelve-pounder, two eighteen-pounders, one twenty-four-pounder, and their “Carriages and beds.” The artillery ammunition he listed included 327 strap shot (round shot projectile strapped to a sabot) for cannon; 253 case shot (cannister or grape shot) for cannon, mortars, and howitzers; thirty langrage shot (a type of ammunition used against ship rigging) for twenty-four pound cannon; 758 flannel cartridges for mortars and howitzers; 145 shells for mortars and howitzers; 512 fuses for mortars and howitzers; fifteen carcasses (hollow projectiles filled with combustibles); and thirty-two “bags of shot.” The artillery implements Knox listed included three rammers, twenty-two sponges, eight powder ladles, and two “wormers” (worms). Among the other items of arms, ordnance, and equipment that Knox listed were 127 muskets with bayonets; 349 other muskets (198 damaged); 3,550 flints; 140 hand grenades; eighteen barrels of powder (four “damaged”); a various assortment of tools; and even one shaving knife. Knox also included the estimated value of the artillery ammunition expended against the British when the fort’s guns were turned on the fort at Verplanck Point and the British warship Vulture. Knox estimated the total value of all these items at $140,928 (DLC: GW). Congress authorized the distribution of the value of these captured stores to the soldiers participating in the attack on Stony Point (see JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 14:890–91; see also General Orders, 7 Aug., and GW to Anthony Wayne, 15 Aug.).

On 5 Aug., Knox submitted to GW the following supplemental signed report, also dated at West Point, on the value of items captured at Stony Point: “In addition to the ordnance and military stores I am desired to appraise 2 French Horns[,] 2 Bassoons[,] 2 Clarinets. The prices of these articles I am entirely unacquainted with but I have been assured that the Light Infantry have been offered one thousand dollars for them by some individuals, I do therefore appraise them at one thousand dollars” (DLC:GW).