Wilmington Honors Revolutionary War Soldiers in Mass Grave Dedication

The site holds the remains of at least 38 British soldiers wounded at the 1777 Battle of Brandywine and 28 members of the Rhode Island Regiment who succumbed to smallpox between 1781 and 1782. Historians have successfully identified 33 of these men, providing names to those previously lost to history. Among the identified is Private Caesar Rose, whose descendant, Jason Roomes, traveled from Rhode Island to attend the unveiling ceremony held on September 23, 2026.

The Rhode Island Regiment featured one of the Continental Army's largest contingents of Black soldiers, many of whom fought for a nation that did not yet grant them liberty. For the four men among the 14 African American soldiers who enlisted while enslaved, this service served as a precarious path toward freedom. Their remains were originally interred in Wilmington's Poor and Strangers Burial Ground before being relocated to the current cemetery during urban expansion in the mid-19th century.

Delaware historian Bill Knightly spearheaded the research that connected the soldiers' original graves to their current resting place. The dedication ceremony drew representatives from Delaware, Rhode Island, and the United Kingdom, including Wilmington Mayor John Carney and British military attaché Colonel Thomas Archer-Burton. The event concluded with a musket salute and the playing of both the "Last Post" and "Taps," marking a final tribute to soldiers who had rested in silence for nearly two and a half centuries.