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In 2019, during an excavation on private property in Lake George NY, construction crews tasked with laying the foundation of a new apartment building were surprised when they unearthed a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of what turned out to be 44 bodies. The site was turned over to bio-archaeologists for detailed exploration. The remains were fully recovered and sent to the NY State Museum in Albany where they were examined by experts. Here is what they found: All the deceased were males believed to be in their teens or early twenties. One very fortunate discovery was a button which bore the insignia of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment originally mustered as the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles aka the Thompson rifles under the command of Colonel William Thompson. They hold the distinction of being the first regiment formed by an act of congress on June 14, 1775, which called up six companies of expert riflemen in Pennsylvania and two each from Maryland and Virginia. Because Pennsylvania frontiersmen were so eager to enlist, the six called for in the legislation expanded to nine. Together the thirteen companies were initially sent to Boston under General Washington as light infantry. In the course of the war these units were engaged in 15 battles, sieges and campaigns from Quebec to Yorktown. Because there was no evidence of battle wounds found on the skeletal remains and due to the fact that this site was near a revolutionary era military hospital, it was concluded that all of these young patriots probably died of smallpox which ravaged the army after the failed assault on Quebec. Recently, having concluded its research, the museum arranged for the remains to be escorted from Albany back to Lake George to be interred with honors in the new memorial named ‘Repose of the Fallen’ at Lake George Battlefield State Park. The skull of one of these men allowed for a forensic reconstruction of his likeness. It isn’t hard to see how youthful this sharpshooter was at the time he entered his service to a country that did not yet exist. Now on the eve of celebrating our 250th birthday, it is left for us to reflect with gratitude on the price which freedom has demanded from those who answered the call.