Interestingly enough, Watt’s hymn books were used as wading during the battle of Springfield in 1780:
“At the Galloping Hill Bridge, Knyphausen bombarded Colonel Angell’s defenders with six cannons, which the Americans answered with their only available gun. As the American artillery ran low on wadding, James Caldwell, the Continental Army chaplain who had lost his wife during the Battle of Connecticut Farms, brought up a load of hymn books published by English clergyman Isaac Watts to use instead. “Give ‘em Watts, boys!”, he advised. After heavy exchanges of fire and two unsuccessful attempts to charge the bridge, the British 37th and 38th regiments and the Hessian Jägers forded the Rahway and, in twenty-five minutes of tree-to-tree fighting in the woods, drove the Rhode Islanders back to the bridge over the west branch of the Rahway defended by Shreve and his 2nd New Jersey Regiment. The British quickly followed up the retreat, driving back Shreve and Angell, who only narrowly foiled an attempt to outflank them by the British 38th Regiment and the Jägers. Recognizing the danger of Shreve and Angell being encircled, Greene recalled them to Bryant’s Tavern; abandoning Springfield to the enemy.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Battle_of_Springfield_(1780)…