- This place is so cool because it's the only place in North Carolina that has bullet holes from the American Revolution.

This is the only physical evidence that you can still go up and feel for our fight for independence.

It's one of only a handful of places in the country you can go to still see these physical scars from the American Revolution.

- And that evidence allowed historians to treat this battle from the American Revolution kind of like a crime scene.

The forensic analysis would either confirm or debunk the story of the house in the horseshoe.

First, the weapon.

(gunshot) - So this weapon is a flintlock musket.

What that means, it has this flintlock mechanism.

You could shoot every 10 to 15 seconds with this.

(gunshot) - Now to the history.

It is July 29th, 1781.

- The Tory War, which is this kind of revolutionary civil war that happens within North Carolina, is really about fear.

One of the reasons why the battle happens is they're trying to fear people in this area, terrify them to either go patriot or Whig, the term they call themselves, or Tory, loyalist.

They're trying to force people to decide on what side they'll end on.

And they commit some pretty brutal acts along the way.

- These reenactors paint the story.

Philip Alston and his Whig Party militia, which supported the American Revolution, are attacked by a loyalist militia.

The plantation was called the House in the Horseshoe because it sits on a horseshoe bend on the deep river.

The loyalists were coming up this way.

And it wouldn't have been a good idea to stand here, but if I was standing here, I would have seen what?

- You would have seen a line of loyalist militia start to surround the house.

And they would have been mounted on horseback.

Someone probably would have stayed on horseback.

Someone would have dismounted, used the fence for cover, but also the building, the structure that was over here in the side of the yard as well.

- So they were behind this fence shooting at whoever?

- Yeah, so by this point, Alston's men have run inside.

Windows are open and they're firing from both stories, the top, the second story and the first story out at these loyalists.

- The muskets could hit a target about 100 yards away.

That's roughly the length of a football field.

(upbeat music) - So the weapon works by pouring gunpowder in the pan here, shutting the pan, which is held in pressure by springs here in this piece called the hammer.

And you have right here, really the key to the whole mechanism, a piece of flint.

You then pull this cock back right here with a piece of flint, a sharpened piece of rock.

And when you pull the trigger, it releases all the pressure and springs, which create a spark, ignites the gunpowder there, sends it through a pinhole, ignite gunpowder, you pour it and ram down the muzzle of the gun and then send your bullet down range.

- The firefight lasts, like I said, two, three hours.

And it's not gonna be volleys of fire like we think about on regular battlefields.

It's gonna be very, very intentional, very, you know, aiming and shooting.

There's probably a couple of volleys to begin with, but we have about 20 to 25 men inside, around 30 men on the exterior as the loyalists are attacking the house.

- And here's where the crime scene investigation begins.

About 30 bullet holes from the battle pockmark the pine panel walls inside and outside the home, physical scars of the American Revolution.

- These walls are not insulated.

I mean, they're two layers of board, but as it's evident still today, the bullets are coming all the way through.

We know casualties occurred on both sides.

We don't have exact numbers.

There's a number of men who are wounded here.

- There's some more bullet holes, but I can see through.

- Yeah, if you get just the right angle, you should be able to see inside.

- Oh, oh, that's the bed.

- Yep.

- This thing, so it went all the way from- - All the way through.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

(dramatic music) - Forensic scientists from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation studied the bullet holes and discovered a lot more information about what happened early that summer morning, almost 250 years ago.

- We love updating the narrative and updating what we're able to teach people about the site, about the history.

We love learning new information.

It just makes the interpretation richer, deeper, and more human.

- Trajectory analysis reveals where the shots were fired from, confirming the history of the battle that was passed down.

- And what's interesting is all the bullets on this side of the house kind of come from that direction, almost like this was the approach.

- And musket balls, I'm assuming.

- Musket balls.

So these are 69 to 72 caliber, musket ball about this size.

And you can see the impact that would have had here on this house.

And of course, once they impact, they'll spread and they'll open up, but this is what it's gonna look like coming out of the musket itself.

This one, interestingly, you can look through there and see a piece of the frame.

And these are six inch timbers that frame the house.

So some of them probably would have lodged in the frame.

A lot of them would have passed through both interior and exterior siding.

(dramatic music) (guns firing) This did back up the historic record that they approached from the north, 'cause most of these are coming from that area.

This was probably the first firing was on this side because they are so angled.

On the other side of the house, they were more straight on, they've improved their stance a little bit, got a little bit more thought about what they were gonna do.

And then the ones upstairs, of course, are all angled down.

- Austin and his militia surrendered to the Loyalists.

- Ultimately, Phillip Austin and his men are paroled to put down their arms for the duration of the war against the King.

And Phillip Austin himself is put on house arrest.

Now he has about 4,000 acres of land, so it's not like he's stuck right here on this little footprint we have today.

- But Austin was not involved in any other action during the revolution.

That deprived the colonists of a capable military leader.

It was a small battle with lasting consequences.

- This house was lived in up until the 1950s, but we're happy that the residents that lived here recognized the significance of those bullet holes.

But to see those bullet holes and see an evidence, you know, a physical, tangible object from this fight is really incredible and very rare.

(gun firing)