It’s been a year since four skeletons, presumed to be the remains of Revolutionary War soldiers, were unearthed in Ridgefield. The discovery, during a construction project, brought Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni to town to conduct the laborious recovery process from the cold clay of a site that had been part of the battleground on April 27, 1777, when some 2000 British troops met a much smaller force of Patriots.
On Tuesday evening, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. Dr. Bellantoni will be featured in a webinar about the discovery and what has happened since, as well as what is yet to be done in research on those skeletons and other materials found with them.
Presented by the Ridgefield Historical Society, his topic will be Living Their Enemies, Dying Their Guests: Four Revolutionary Soldier Burials, Ridgefield, Connecticut. He will discuss how his excavations yielded four skeletons of young, robust adult males, who were hastily buried together in a common shallow grave where the bodies are commingled with overlapping arms and legs. The discovered burials are located in the area of the Revolutionary War Battle of Ridgefield (April 27, 1777). The working hypothesis, Dr. Bellantoni said, is that the burials were victims of this historic Revolutionary War battle. Material culture recovered from two individuals includes 37 brass and two pewter buttons. His presentation will discuss the history, discovery and excavation of the burials and update on the forensic analysis currently underway.
The Dec. 8 presentation is sponsored by CT Humanities. To sign up, visit the Ridgefield Historical Society website, ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org.