Revolutionary War Soldiers Reinterment Memorial
Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
IN HONOR AND MEMORY OF / REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS / HERE REINTERRED / MAY 25 1996
The Story
During the Revolutionary War, the Moravian town of Bethlehem served as a refuge and a major Continental Army hospital, and scores of soldiers who died of their wounds or of camp diseases were buried in its ground. Two centuries later, when those long-forgotten graves were disturbed or rediscovered, the remains were gathered and reinterred with honor, marked by this monument dedicated on May 25, 1996. The stone stands not for a battle but for the quiet toll of the war's sick and wounded far from any front line.
Why it matters
It reminds visitors that the Revolution's cost was paid as much in hospital towns as on battlefields, and that a community's care for its unnamed war dead can span more than two hundred years.
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Related events
- Β· American Revolutionary War
Themes & tags
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