Revolutionary War battlefields often romanticize combat, but this mass grave just outside Philadelphia shows the violence soldiers actually experienced

Archaeologists at Red Bank Battlefield Park in New Jersey have uncovered a mass grave containing the remains of fifteen Hessian soldiers killed in the 1777 Battle of Red Bank, according to The Conversation. Hessians were German troops hired by the British to fight in the Revolutionary War, and researchers say the bones show gruesome wounds from musket balls, canister shot, and grapeshot, painting a far more violent picture than typical battlefield memorials suggest. Isotope and DNA analysis has traced the soldiers' origins to a small region of northwestern Europe, and new funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities will support further testing. The team's ultimate goal, The Conversation reports, is to identify at least one of the fallen men by name.

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