THE SEARCH FOR MARGARET CORBIN: APPLICATIONS OF GROUND PENETRATING RADAR IN REVOLUTIONARY WAR ERA HISTORICAL PRESERVATION

Heroine of the Battle of Fort Washington, Margaret “Molly” Corbin died in Highland Falls (then Buttermilk Falls), New York in 1800. In 1926 the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) sought to honor her military service in the American Revolution by locating her burial site and reinterring her remains with a monument in the West Point Cemetery. During a 2016 expansion of the West Point Cemetery, the remains interred in Margaret Corbin’s memorial were examined and concluded to be an unknown man from the 19^th century. That revelation brought back into question the whereabouts of Margaret Corbin’s place of burial. Historical documentation implies that Margaret Corbin’s remains are buried on the former J.P. Morgan estate on the Hudson River near Highland Falls, in what would have been a pauper’s grave with several other burials nearby.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys at the site over the past year have been successful at ruling out suspected locations for the burial location. Modern infrastructure makes a complete survey impossible, with a paved road and parking lot, railroad tracks, and a wastewater treatment plant complete with underground sewer lines. Previous GPR work was also obscured by inaccurate GPS location data when conducting free-form line scans (due to heavy tree cover and steep terrain). In a final push to identify potential burial locations for Margaret Corbin, we used a compilation of existing historical documentation, site reconnaissance, photogrammetry analysis of 1926 photos, and refining the GPR surveys. This work produced two key results. First, grid scans of the primary search area produced more precise models of the subsurface, and suggest the existence of buried objects consistent with unmarked graves. Second, broad coverage of the surrounding area rule out a large portions of the site where initial observations led us to target for the search. Both of these results indicate the importance of sufficient background research before collecting GPR survey data, as well as taking a broad perspective on a site to ensure that surveys include areas where there are not features of interest. While there are no plans to further exhume any remains at the site, we suspect that we have identified a probable location for this pauper’s grave.