Remains of Continental Army soldiers returned to Lake George for reinterment

Skeletal remains identified by archaeologists as individuals associated with the Continental Army and the 1776 smallpox hospital at Fort George were brought back to Lake George Wednesday afternoon. The caskets were transported from the New York State Museum in Albany to Lake George in a procession led by New York State and local police.

The remains were unearthed in February 2019 during a construction project on Courtland Street in Lake George Village. For nearly a year, volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the construction site to recover the remains, which had been damaged by the excavating equipment. The remains were subsequently sent to the New York State Museum for analysis.

Wednesday morning, at the museum, there was a dignified transfer of the wooden caskets to vintage military vehicles operated by members of the NY-Penn Military Vehicle Collectors Club. With an escort provided by the New York Patriot Guard Riders, the motorcade traveled up State Route 9, through Albany, Saratoga, and Warren Counties, to Fort George Road in Lake George Battlefield Park.

 Most of the remains were reinterred on Wednesday at the Repose of the Fallen memorial. A crowd gathered to watch as the small caskets were carried past a Patriot Guard Riders flag line and placed in the columbaria at the newly constructed plaza.

Four caskets were transported to a local church, where sentries will stand guard until Friday morning. At 9 a.m. Friday morning, a horse-drawn caisson will transport the four ceremonial caskets to the corner of Betty Little Boulevard and Beach Road. From there, Revolutionary War reenactors will carry the caskets to the Father Issac Jogues statue in Battlefield Park. A ceremony to dedicate the Repose of the Fallen memorial and reinter the final four caskets will begin at 11 a.m. in Battlefield Park.