America Honors Revolutionary War Soldiers Whose Remains Had Been Lost for 250 Years

More than 40 Revolutionary War soldiers are being added to America’s honor roll this Memorial Day. The discovery of their remains, and the respect that’s paid when laying them to rest, demonstrates that — even after 250 years — the nation is humbled by the sacrifice of all who fell in defense of liberty.On Thursday, pallbearers donned white gloves outside the New York State Museum at Albany to act as pallbearers for the lost Continental Army soldiers. Tiny pine boxes were loaded onto military trucks draped with black funeral bunting and American flags for the trip to their final resting place at Lake George, New York.The first dog tags weren’t issued until 1906, but buttons on one soldier’s uniform at Lake George put him in the First Pennsylvania Battalion. This meant his group was part of the Continental Army’s 1776 retreat following the invasion of British Canada.At least 44 sets of remains — an exact number impossible to determine — were uncovered while excavating for a building at Lake George in 2019. Although the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, many graves remain unknown. Whenever one is discovered, citizens emerge to give them the respectful burials they were denied for so long.William B. T. Trego: ‘The March to Valley Forge, December 19, 1777,’ detail, 1883. Via Wikimedia CommonsIn doing so, Americans take up “the great task remaining before us,” as President Lincoln called it in 1863 in the Gettysburg Address. Standing on that “consecrated” ground of the Civil War, he said “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”Seventeen thousand to 27,000 Continentals succumbed to disease during the conflict, many more than the 6,800 lost in combat. With so many dead presenting a health hazard and the war raging, hasty burials were a necessity and most carry nothing to identify them by name.The author of “Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier,” Jeff Gottesfeld, tells The New York Sun that although the Tomb contains an unidentified World War I soldier, it “is a shrine to be unknowns from every American conflict.” The Revolution, he said, “probably resulted in more combatants being buried unidentified” than any other.Generations of Americans pass unmarked graves without knowing it. At River Vale, New Jersey in 1779, Red Coats launched a surprise attack against Colonel George Baylor’s Continental dragoons, killing 15. The Baylor Massacre became a rallying cry for the young nation.William Barnes Wollen, ‘The Battle of Lexington,’ 1910. Via Wikimedia CommonsLocal militias sealed the dead in leather tanning vats and gave them quick burials. As developers encroached in 1967, archaeologists started digging. They discovered six barrels and reburied Baylor’s men in 1974 at what’s now a memorial park. Thanks to a silver buckle, one soldier, Sergeant Isaac Davenport, was identified. The rest are unknown.During renovations of a house at Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 2019, four Continentals — Brigadier General Benedict Arnold’s men — were unearthed. Preservationists raised funds for forensic research and hope for a burial coinciding with the 250th anniversary of that battle.In 2023, archaeologists discovered 14 Americans lost in the 1780 Battle of Camden, South Carolina. After analysis “to learn their stories,” the South Carolina Battlefield Preservation Trust’s website states, “these soldiers were respectfully reinterred directly in the battleground soil where they were found.”Fletcher Ransom’s depiction of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Via Wikimedia CommonsLocal lore held that Continentals from Maryland rested under a vacant lot at Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. As a rear guard, “the Maryland 400” held in 1776 at the Battle of Long Island, the largest clash of the war. Their sacrifice allowed the bulk of President Washington’s force to escape to Manhattan and kept the dream of independence alive.When New York planned to build a school on a vacant lot in 2017, locals — including a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” actor, Sir Patrick Stewart — rallied for an archeological dig. No remains were found, but the passions aroused demonstrated why Memorial Day is such a solemn occasion.Each Continental discovered in an anonymous grave adds to the American story and, by honoring them, the nation fulfills Lincoln’s pledge at Gettysburg. “We here highly resolve,” he said, “that these dead shall not have died in vain … and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

America Honors Revolutionary War Soldiers Whose Remains Had Been Lost for 250 Years

America Honors Revolutionary War Soldiers Whose Remains Had Been Lost for 250 Years

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