The Unknown Soldier - PLAQUE
Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Within this crypt rests the bones of an unknown soldier in the war for Independence. He was one of more than five hundred men who died in the hospital here at Bethlehem, and was buried on this hill side.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
During the Revolutionary War, Bethlehem's Moravian community turned its buildings into a sprawling military hospital where hundreds of Continental soldiers were treated and, all too often, died of wounds and disease. More than five hundred men were laid to rest on this hillside, their names largely lost to record. This crypt honors one such unknown soldier, a stand-in for the many who perished far from the battlefield in the war's grim medical camps.
Why it matters
It memorializes the enormous, often forgotten toll of disease and wounds that killed far more Revolutionary soldiers than combat itself, and the civilian communities that cared for them.
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Related events
- · Revolutionary War hospital at Bethlehem
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Revolutionary War Soldiers Reinterment Memorial
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