Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Lake George officials broke ground on Friday, and work was to begin Monday, on “Repose of the Fallen,” the reinterment site and memorial at Lake George Battlefield that will be the final resting place for 44 Continental American soldiers and others.
Their remains were discovered in February 2019, during a construction project at Courtland Street in the Village.
The site is believed to have been a cemetery associated with the Continental Army’s smallpox hospital at Fort George, circa 1776, in the American Revolution.
The reinterment will be at the very site where the smallpox hospital was located, said organizers.
They aim to complete the project for an unveiling and ceremony on Friday, May 22, 2026, during Memorial Day weekend. The remains will be brought up by procession from where they are now being stored in Albany.
Four ceremonial caskets will be held back for the ceremony itself.
The approximately $620,000 project is largely funded with $520,000 from the Village and Town’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant from New York State. The Lake George Battlefield Alliance has raised another $120,000 to date, including $25,000 each from the Lake George Steamboat Company and the Fort William Henry.
Lake George Town Supervisor Vinnie Crocitto thanked the Battlefield Alliance, its president John DiNuzzo, the State Department of Environmental Conservation and Lake George Village and Town Planning Director Dan Barusch.
“These are great things we can accomplish, preserving our history,” he said.
Mr. Barusch said, “I have to tip my hat to Senator (Chuck) Schumer…who gave us the idea to put this project in the DRI,” on a visit to Lake George.
Mr. DiNuzzo said that on a visit two years ago Senator Schumer “might have been the one who uttered the phrase, ‘They drew their last breaths here.’”
Mr. DiNuzzo said of the 44 Continental Soldiers and supporters whose remains were found, “this was where the smallpox hospital was located…so if they died of smallpox, and all indications are they did, it is likely that they died right here,” on the site of the memorial.
Typically, DRI funds are specific to downtown projects, Mr. Barusch said, “but we made the argument in the case that this is part of our downtown area, close enough it’s walkable. I heard directly from the state that this is one of the most unique projects they’ve ever funded through DRI. They’ve never funded a reinterment project with DRI money.
“It’s much more than the typical Historic Preservation stuff. They fund signage and things like that. This is much more than that.”
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