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After 250 years, Revolutionary War-era soldiers finally laid to rest in upstate New York
The reburial honored 44 analyzed remains linked to the 1775-1776 Quebec campaign, museum officials said.
More than 40 Revolutionary War soldiers were laid to rest Friday with full military honors at the new Repose of the Fallen memorial in Lake George Battlefield State Park, about 200 miles north of New York City.
The discovery began seven years ago during routine construction in Lake George when unmarked graves with centuries-old skeletal bones were unearthed, linked to a makeshift smallpox hospital where Continental Army soldiers died.
Scientists spent years analyzing skulls, arm bones and other remains belonging to 44 people, finding soldiers were predominantly teenagers and young men; among the deceased were a woman and a child, with many contracting smallpox.
Former service members in white gloves carried small pine boxes from the New York State Museum in Albany during a solemn 60-mile procession as citizens lined streets waving American flags to salute the motorcade.
Lake George's Revolutionary War significance emerges as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence, reclaiming history long overshadowed by the French and Indian War and the 1755 Fort William Henry fortress.