WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Remains believed to be of a Revolutionary War hero buried at West Point don’t belong to a woman known as “Captain Molly” after all, but to an unknown man.
The U.S. Military Academy said Tuesday the discovery stems from a study of skeletal remains conducted after Margaret Corbin’s grave was accidentally disturbed by excavators building a wall in the West Point Cemetery last year.
Tests revealed the remains were those of a man who lived in the 1700s.
Corbin was known for firing a cannon in 1776 during a battle in New York City after her husband was killed. She was wounded but lived another 24 years.
Ground-penetrating radar around the gravesite failed to turn up signs of her remains.
A re-dedication ceremony of a Corbin monument at the cemetery is scheduled for May.
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