Revolutionary War Blowing Horn

Revolutionary War Blowing Horn

Silver Mounted Revolutionary War Blowing Horn.

The blowing horn was collected by Earl Chilton, Bowling Green, Virginia who got it from his uncle James Chilton who lived in Chatham, Virginia, which is across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia. James Chilton got the silver-mounted blowing horn in the 1950s while performing construction at the 1200 Charles Strteet home.
He was told that it was George Washington blowing horn and had been given to his mother by Washington after the Revolutionary War. This wonderful silver-mounted blowing horn has been in the author’s collection since 1976 when he purchased it from Earl Chilton..

Blowing horns were used by officers in the Revolutionary War to alert soldiers. Different sequence of sounds directed soldiers as to the action expected. Not unlike the voice of an officer, soldiers would recognize the tone coming from the blowing horn carried by an individual officer. General George Washington writes in his paper that he carried a silver mounted blowing horn which he used to alert soldier of eminent danger or when to proceed into battle. This powder horn was from an 18th-century home at 1200 Charles Street, Fredericksburg, Virginia, which was once the home of George Washington’s mother, Mary Washington.