CONFIDENT Bob Furman suspects that up to 256 Revolutionary soldiers lie under this lot in Gowanus.
Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Posted on 08/25/2012 7:23:53 AM PDT by Pharmboy
CONFIDENT Bob Furman suspects that up to 256 Revolutionary soldiers lie under this lot in Gowanus.
Dave Sanders for The New York Times
NOTHING is visible at the intersection of Third Avenue and Eighth Street in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn to indicate that anything extraordinary is there. The artisanal-pie place on one corner and the auto body shops across the way suggest it is merely another spot in the city where grit is giving way to gentrification. But if a small group of history enthusiasts are right, this particular corner of Kings County is hallowed ground.
HEROIC Kim Maier, executive director of the Old Stone
House, a Revolutionary War educational center in Park
Slope, describes the self-sacrifice of the First Maryland
Regiment in the Battle of Brooklyn as an act of great valor.
Dave Sanders for The New York Times
They believe that there is a mass grave a few dozen yards to the east of the intersection that contains the remains of American heroes: soldiers from the First Maryland Regiment under Col. William Smallwood, which saved Washington’s army during the Battle of Brooklyn on Aug. 27, 1776. Their burial site, these advocates say, deserves the same level of veneration accorded the military cemeteries at Gettysburg and Normandy.
The leader of the find-the-Marylanders group is Bob Furman, a Brooklyn historian and president of the Brooklyn Preservation Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining brownstone Brooklyn’s look and feel. “The evidence is quite strong,” Mr. Furman said. “I’m confident enough that I tell everyone I know.”
But Mr. Furman has no way to test his theory. Right now, the site he is targeting is a vacant, concrete-covered lot studded with weeds and surrounded by a chain-link fence.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Watching the action from a redoubt, General Washington said of these men: "Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose!"
The property owners are not interested in allowing an archaeological dig at the site.
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
Eminent domain.If a municipality can take property for a shopping mall (thanks a bunch,"confirmed bachelor" Soutter) then they can take this plot...certainly the parking lot if not the whole thing.Give the slumlord that owns it $25K (which is more than it's worth) and start digging.
let us know what you see
Nothing to see at the grave site, but check out the Old Stone House. Also, near there, is the Greenwood Cemetery where much of the battle took place; there are markers there.
Where’s that monument located? New York? Maryland? Elsewhere?
Thanks for posting.
I am a member of the Sons of the American Revolution(SAR), for anyone interested and believe that they are able to trace an ancestor to the Rev. War go to:
http://www.sar.org/Membership/The_Process
This monument is on Lookout Hill in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
I have a cousin that has been MIA there for 236 years now. I hope they find him.
Remember the tornado a few months back near Henryville? A couple of heroes there ~ Mrs. Decker saving her children and losing her legs, and a Mr. Smallwood, are undoubtedly descendants of those folks, and the high character still runs strong in their blood.
FYI - For all history buffs.
Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier
The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier (sometimes written as Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of American Revolution) is a war memorial located in Washington Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It honors the thousands of soldiers who died during the American Revolutionary War, many of whom were buried in mass graves in that park.
The memorial was built in 1954 and features an eternal flame and a statue of George Washington gazing toward Independence Hall.
These words are engraved in the side of the tomb.
“Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness”
“In unmarked graves within this square lie thousands of unknown soldiers of Washington’s Army who died of wounds and sickness during the Revolutionary War.”
The plaque upon the tomb of the Unknown Soldier reads:
“Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington’s army who died to give you liberty.”
I wonder what my favorite Revolutionary soldier, Private Yankee Doodle, (Joseph Plumb Martin from New England) was doing during this battle. Gotta check out his diary again.
IIRC, he was there; and further, I believe he was on duty a bit later in Manhattan at Kip’s Bay when the Brits came across the East River.
Great information...thanks.
I’m a DAR through a couple of male ancestors but also through the Water Carriers of Bryant Station.
When I visited Philly several years ago I remember how touched I was when seeing that memorial. Thanks for the reminder about it...
I'm sure some acorn member registered them to vote in 2008...
Good point...but NY State has been so far gone leftward in the past 20 years or so that they needn’t bother.
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