“The rebels on Edge Hill hastily collected the bodies of their fallen comrades and buried them in shallow graves hacked out of the cold, frozen, winter ground. They were soon forgotten.”
By Michael Thomas Leibrandt
IN ANY given residential development in America — chances are pretty good that the new homes are built on some very, very, old history. That is exactly what’s happening about 10 miles north of Philadelphia.
A brand-new three-bathroom and four bedroom, 3,215-square-foot home in a quaint, residential neighborhood happens to be sitting on hallowed ground that houses a forgotten piece of American history dating back 247 years.
The story begins in September of 1777 with Lord Sir William Howe’s capture of what was then the American capital : the city of Philadelphia.
In December of that same year, 10,000 British troops under Howe and Cornwallis marched north out of Philadelphia with the objective of luring General Washington’s 9,500-man Continental Army into an engagement to destroy it.
The two forces met at what’s now remembered as the Battle of White Marsh.
Amid the fighting, some of the British forces found themselves in a skirmish with a detachment of Continental forces in the small township Abington. The Americans had entrenched themselves in defensive positions in the settlement around one of Pennsylvania’s oldest Presbyterian Churches. The redcoats and Hessians massed on Old York Road – a thoroughfare that ran north from Philadelphia and still carries traffic today. Then they attacked.
The British assault forced the American troops to fall back to the west along Susquehanna Street Road. They tried to regroup on the heights of Edge Hill to the west of Abington, but the British pursued. Amid the fighting somewhere along that long ridge line, a handful of American troops found themselves surrounded and cut off by British forces and killed.
Having chased off the Continentals out of Abington, but unable to crush the bulk of Washington’s forces, the British forces withdrew back to Philadelphia, leaving the Americans in control of the field. The rebels on Edge Hill hastily collected the bodies of their fallen comrades and buried them in shallow graves hacked out of the cold, frozen, winter ground. They were soon forgotten. They’d remain undisturbed until 1861.
Around that time Edge Hill was purchased for land development. One day, a family that had settled there discovered what appeared to be a Revolutionary War relic : a bayonet sticking up from the ground. After a more thorough search of the ground, they uncovered the bodies of the four forgotten soldiers. Not wanting to disturb the graves, the family covered the remains over and left the site alone. There the soldiers would stay for nearly a hundred years.
As the 20th century wore on Abington grew. Residential homes dotted the area, the roads were paved and retail business sprang up.
In May of 1953, the remains of the four American lost soldiers were once again rediscovered as modernity encroached on their silent graves. This time, the bodies were properly exhumed and, amid a moving Memorial Day service, the remains were transferred to the grounds of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall (Post 676) and solemnly laid to rest. Seventy-seven years passed.
In December of 2023, the very same Jenkintown VFW post received a state historical marker to commemorate the Battle of Edge Hill in 1777. It was erected just feet from the resting place of the four Americans. And now, a housing development will see more homes go in, some on the edge of that very same VFW post.
Soon, a homeowner who is fortunate enough to purchase the house from Coldwell Banker Reality for $775,000 — will acquire a dwelling directly behind where the memorial stone marking where the American Patriots fell stood for decades. It’s just another great historic American story and the chance for someone to make some new history.
Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, Pennsylvania.
My 4th great-uncle, James Bolt, who served in Daniel Morgan’s Rifles was killed in the Battle of Whitemarsh/Edgehill on December 7, 1777. If the remains are ever exhumed for identification purposes, my brother’s Y-chromosome DNA at FamilyTreeDNA could be used for matching to James. He is gone but not forgotten. – Katherine Bolt-Borges