A service will be held Tuesday for Continental Army soldiers killed 250 years ago during an American Revolutionary War naval battle on Lake Champlain.
This marker will be placed on the gravesite holding the remains. (Courtesy of the New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs)
The remains of the five soldiers who died during the Battle of Valcour Island on Oct. 11, 1776, will be interred at 12:30 p.m. in the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville. The five men are believed to have died on the gunboat Philadelphia, which sank in a battle with British forces, or during their attempted escape.
“The Philadelphia was hit by a 24-pound ball and sank at 6:30 p.m.,” the New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs said. “The crew evacuated to the gunboat Washington before the Philadelphia sank.”
The small, flat-bottomed warship was crewed by 44 soldiers serving with the New Hampshire Militia, a precursor of the National Guard, which was part of a fleet built in what is now Whitehall and commanded by Benedict Arnold. Historians credit the 44 militiamen with helping to delay the British before the Continental Army defeated them a year later at the Battles of Saratoga.
Human bones and teeth were discovered in 1935, when Lorenzo Hagglund, a World War I veteran found the Philadelphia’s remains on the bottom of the lake. The boat is now being preserved at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
The five men who may have died are Ebenezar Bailey, Ezekiah Budthomas, John Leach, Benjamin Walker and Daniel Whitworth. Researchers have determined the other 39 soldiers who served on the Philadelphia survived the battle.
Members of the New York Army National Guard Honor Guard will bring the remains in a flag-covered casket to the burial site, where they will provide military funeral honors at the ceremony, including a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.