In 2019, a Connecticut home renovation uncovered human remains beneath a basement

An accidental discovery beneath the floorboards of a Connecticut home during a basement renovation has led to important new findings about the American Revolutionary War. In late 2019, contractors working on a 1790 house on Main Street in Ridgefield found human skeletal remains buried in a shallow communal grave. Later investigations by the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology identified the remains as adult men who had been buried without coffins. Physical evidence strongly connected them to the April 1777 Battle of Ridgefield. Years of additional excavation, metal detecting and forensic research, supported by National Park Service grants, have uncovered important military artifacts. These include rare military buttons and lead musket balls that are changing long-held ideas about how the 1777 battle took place.Discovery of early national insigniaAmong the most important finds from recent surveys by the Ridgefield Historical Society and Heritage Consultants, LLC were three pewter military buttons stamped with the initials "USA." Archaeologists say these buttons are the earliest physical evidence found so far of Continental Army enlisted soldiers wearing a common national insigni...