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I defer to NGGOAT on that question. However you have to note that battle deaths were really insignificant against deaths by disease and accidents. In those cases the dead would be buried near camp in I would assume a makeshift cemetary, probably long since developed over.
But, know this - The British Army of the 18th century was a state of the art (for that time) model of beuracracy and professionalism (as compared to the Continental Army). In most cases events were meticolously documented for various records and reports. I would venture to guess that many graves, but individual and mass, and their locations, are recorded in some very old documents somewhere. Maybe long since forgotten, but I don't doubt they exist in some stuffy vault in London.
I suspect they kept excellent records too. One might start their search or inquire here:
By any chance do you know what the british government officially called this conflict back during 1775-1783? Was it the ''Revolutionary War'' or is that an american created name instead? Did they possibly label it the ''American Rebellion''? as i'm looking through your posted British National Archives link (another thread) to search for more info about the british war dead as i typed in American Revolution into the search box and didn't really find anything of substance that would help?
By any chance do you know what the british government officially called this conflict back during 1775-1783? Was it the ''Revolutionary War'' or is that an american created name instead? Did they possibly label it the ''American Rebellion''? as i'm looking through your posted British National Archives link (another thread) to search for more info about the british war dead as i typed in American Revolution into the search box and didn't really find anything of substance that would help?
That's tough to give an answer to as it is referred to as a variety of names. At the time it seemed to be referred to mainly as "The Rebellion". The biographies of Lord North and the Encyclopedia Britannica both refer to it as the "American Revolution". The primary "official" term (and the one most likely used at the Archives) used in British school texts is the "American War for Independence" or "AWI".
That's tough to give an answer to as it is referred to as a variety of names. At the time it seemed to be referred to mainly as "The Rebellion". The biographies of Lord North and the Encyclopedia Britannica both refer to it as the "American Revolution". The primary "official" term (and the one most likely used at the Archives) used in British school texts is the "American War for Independence" or "AWI".
That's tough to give an answer to as it is referred to as a variety of names. At the time it seemed to be referred to mainly as "The Rebellion". The biographies of Lord North and the Encyclopedia Britannica both refer to it as the "American Revolution". The primary "official" term (and the one most likely used at the Archives) used in British school texts is the "American War for Independence" or "AWI".
I think modern Brits refer to it as "That Nasty Affair with the Colonies."
I think modern Brits refer to it as "That Nasty Affair with the Colonies."
I have lived amongst many English ex-pats for the past twelve years, and my impression is that most of them see it as yet another one of an interminable number of wars their country waged that they were expected to know at least a handful of facts about in order to successfully complete school. I do remember a dinner a couple of years ago where something about U.S. patriotism or history came up, and my friend's 50-something brother-in-law closed his eyes, and quickly recited, "George Washington, 1776, Treaty of Paris...have I remembered it right?" Everyone, but myself, was English and they all laughed, so it was probably a familiar exercise for passing a test.
For we Americans, it is our beginning; but for the British, with their long history and far-flung empire, I can understand that it was yet another of their history's wars.
It was important in my mother's family as they were Canadians, and their great-grandfather and his spouse and in-laws had walked to Ontario and settled in the wilderness there after the American Revolution. So, for her and her sisters it was also the The Beginning, but it was called the American Rebellion, as I recall from her old textbooks, which dated from the early 1920's.
In my research on the Pennisular War I have found that British policy was generally to bury their own dead in a mass grave on or near the field of battle. Officers and persons of high rank (who were generally officers) might be given an individual grave. There were a few (note a very few) sent home in "spirits", but this was frowned upon by the War Office and by Gen. Wellesley (Wellington) and made prohibitively expensive in order to discourage the practice. There were several practical problems: the heat, the superstition of Naval men to carry a dead body on board, and the distance.
I assume the practice would have been similar in the States thirty years earlier. Interesting note: I know there is in one of my family graveyards in the American South (Charleston/Savannah area) a small pillar in the corner naming four British officers who "died in battle bravely" during the Siege of Charleston in the Revolutionary war. I know my family were not loyalists, but there seems to have been some honour accorded the fallen enemy.
Yes, when ever near a community, the dead were buried in community or church cemeteries, on account of the fact that in that era, it was considered most appropriate to give even the "enemy" a "Christian burial".
"Christian burial" even up into the early part of the 20th century meant the body was put into a designated cemetery. If you walk through any cemetery that was designated prior to the 20th century, you will also find that orientation of all the graves is east to west, so if you were to stand the bodies up out of the graves they would all be facing east. This practice comes from the Scripture verse that says "As the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Cemeteries were orientated this way so that when the bodies rose from the dead they would all be facing Christ upon His return.
Also, it was not uncommon in the American Revolution that soldiers of both sides were buried next to each other in these church and community cemeteries. These graves would often be marked and subsequently replaced over the centuries by headstones that would simply say "Revolutionary War soldier". This simple type head stone does not necessarily mean the person's identity has been "lost to time", since Americans, if identified and claimed by families, were moved to family plots. They were often marked this way because they would not necessarily be distinguished by who's army they were in. This was the case because the dead were not always solely buried by "military burying crews" but also by town's folks, church groups and farmers, all of whom had no real stake in who won the war.
This is one of the anomalies of the American Revolution and that things were often done this way because of the impact of (what was called at the time) "the Great Awakening" had on the culture. The "Great Awakening" (or rather first great awakening) was a religious revival, the bulk of which was driven by the Methodist movement (which would later become the Methodist church). This religious revival spanned both the colonies, and Great Britain, as well as her army and had a profound impact on this war in particular. It was likely the sole factor that made the American Revolution the most civil "civil war" in human history. Not only did it impact the behavior of both armies, (The vast majority of "war crimes" committed in the American Revolution were not committed by either army, but rather by colonial civilians' families' "revenge" against other colonial civilians.) it impacted how the civilian population interacted with these armies as well as how the dead were buried.
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