Revolutionary War grave marked in Georgetown

The Caesar Rodney Chapter of the Delaware Society of the Sons of the American Revolution held a patriot grave-marking ceremony Oct. 15 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Georgetown. The ceremony honored patriot Ensign James Anderson (1757-1810). Anderson first appears on a muster roll of Col. Samuel Patterson's Delaware Battalion Flying Camp in Perth Amboy, N.J., dated Nov. 14, 1776. Available records do not show when Anderson first enlisted though surviving documents indicate first enlistments were in late July of 1776.

The Flying Camp Battalion fought in the Battle of Long Island in the end of August of 1776. It is noted in the Delaware Archives that most of the muster rolls for the Flying Camp Battalion were likely captured by the British during the battle. As a result, Anderson disappears from the surviving record. Patriots are people who can be documented as making a contribution to the effort for freedom during the Revolutionary War. More than 233 years have passed since the war ended, when patriots were successful in their fight for independence from Great Britain.

The Sons of the American Revolution is an organization whose members carry out patriotic, historical and educational activities to perpetuate the memory and sacrifices of ancestors who fought or aided in the American Revolution.

One ongoing program is to locate and mark the final resting places of those who participated in the struggle for freedom.