A group of Newark, New Jersey high school students, led by Rutgers College, Newark Campus, Professor and Earth and Environmental Sciences Department Chairman Dr. Alexander Gates, have found what could very well be the burial site of several soldiers who died during the Revolutionary War Battle of Stony Point. The students used a ground penetrating radar device to survey the Stony Point Battlefield, which is now part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
Gates said their study on Friday found what they believe to be a number of fallen soldiers.
“We found what looked like several very good spots and it looked like in one spot two soldiers were buried together. We found one spot where maybe six were buried together and we probably came up with about a half dozen to maybe even 10 areas that are very good candidates for where they may have buried some of the bodies,” Gates said.
Tenth grader Zarino Etheridge, 15, was among the students involved in the field study.
“I feel like I am part of something greater than myself that I am helping to restore history, what has happened in the past,” Etheridge said. “Me and all the people in the program are actually restoring history and we are actually taking part in something that is greater than ourselves.”
The results of the radar surveying will now be turned over to archeologists.
According to historical records, about 50 soldiers were killed in the Battle of Stony Point and buried where they fell or nearby. Their graves have never been found.
Incidentally, the continental troops defeated the British in that battle.
