Nearly 100 people gathered Monday morning, Memorial Day, in Lake George Battlefield Park to honor the service and sacrifice of the Four Unknown Soldiers buried there. The soldiers were killed during the Bloody Morning Scout, an ambush of the British by the French along the Old Military Road during the Sept. 8, 1755 Battle of Lake George. The Memorial Day ceremony was also a rededication of the gravesite, which has been refurbished with new paving stones and landscaping, a project funded in part by a challenge grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.
The soldiers’ remains were discovered in 1931 by a road crew while working on the construction of Route 9. The soldiers, who were under the command of Col. Ephraim Williams of Massachusetts, were reinterred with honors in Battlefield Park in 1935. The Battlefield Park (Fort George) Alliance, a friend organization of the state-owned park, tends the gravesite and holds a ceremony each Memorial Day.
“These soldiers,” says Lyn Karig Hohmann, Alliance President, “were called British, but the reality was that they were colonists, people whose military experiences was working in a militia. They were farmers, they were businessmen, they were doctors, they were ministers. They gave up what they were doing to come here, to protect their homeland, like so many other American citizens have done.”
In 1755, William Johnson brought 1,500 soldiers to the Southern Shore of Lake George. They were local militia from Massachusetts and Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York tasked with driving the French, who were advancing on Fort Edward, back to Canada. The Morning of September 8, 1,000 British soldiers and their Native American allies led by King Hendricks, set out along the Old Military Road to provide support to the Fort Edward garrison. They were ambushed about three miles south of the lake, an engagement that took the lives of Ephraim Williams, King Hendricks and dozens of colonial militiamen including the four now buried in Battlefield Park.
“The living did a retreat back to camp,” says Karig Hohmann, “and the end result was that those American Colonists beat trained French troops. That was the very beginning of Americans believing they could throw off British rule. Folks, it started here, and that’s why these men are so important to our history. This was the beginning. They should not be forgotten. We may not know who they are, but they are not forgotten.”
Special guest speaker Deryn Pomeroy of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation says the Foundation was delighted when the Fort George Alliance approached them with a request for funding to upgrade the Four Unknown Soldiers burial site. “Being able to make these improvements and rededicate this site on Memorial Day is particularly meaningful to my father, Bill Pomeroy, and I as we are ancestors of one of the soldiers who died during the Bloody Morning Scout.” Deryn Pomeroy is the sixth great-granddaughter of Lt. Daniel Pomeroy who was killed in the Bloody Morning Scout. Karig Hohmann noted that one of the Unknown Soldiers could be Lt. Pomeroy. Gen. Seth Pomeroy, brother to Daniel, also fought in the Battle of Lake George.
Deryn Pomeroy explained that the Foundation, founded by her father, seeks to help communities celebrate their history by offering grants to pay for historical signage. The Foundation is impressed with the Fort George Alliance, says Pomeroy, as they were able to garner enough community support to meet and exceed the grant challenge.
The new pavers replace an older asphalt walkway that was beginning to show wear. During the course of refurbishing, the actual vault buried in 1935 was located and its spot, directly in front of the granite monument, is marked with a rectangle of pavers that aligns the horizontal and vertical joints, a break from the alternating-joint pattern of the walkway.
“The Alliance is pleased to have done the work here supported by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and local and distant community support to make this site look like what it should be — a memorial to four American soldiers, unknown but to God, but known to us for their bravery and the role they played beginning to start this country.”— Lyn Karig Hohmann, President, Fort George Alliance
“This year, 2018, is the first annual Lake George History Weekend,” says Town and Village of Lake George Historian Margaret Mannix. The Town and Village boards both passed resolutions declaring that the last weekend of May annually be designated as Lake George History Weekend. “In light of this,” says Mannix, “it is essential that we embrace our local history and with that, preserve this park’s history and the soldiers’ sacrifice. The Fort George Alliance is doing just that.”
The Memorial Day ceremony in Battlefield Park included the laying of a wreath by the Fort George Alliance, the Lake George Fire Department and the Lake George American Legion Post 374. Historian Bruce Venter read an 18th Century Prayer of Remembrance and French and Indian War reenactors with Fort William Henry fired a gun salute.
Feature photo: Deryn Pomeroy of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation speaks at a Memorial Day ceremony in Battlefield Park, Lake George, New York, May 28, 2018.