War of 1812 battlefield in Michigan receives $169,000 archaeology grant

MONROE, MI — The University of Michigan has received a grant to support an archaeological project at River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe.

The National Park Service awarded the university project $169,121 on Wednesday, July 10, from a grant program to preserve battlefields and sites of armed conflict.

The 40-acre battlefield park opened in 2010 to preserve the site of the Battles of Frenchtown, two battles during the War of 1812 in which inexperienced American troops suffered heavy casualties at the hands of a coalition of British and Native Americans in January 1813.

The battle is sometimes called a massacre because only 33 of nearly 1,000 men escaped capture or death and there was mass killing of the wounded in its aftermath. It is the deadliest armed conflict on Michigan soil and marks the worst American defeat of the war.

The University is conducting a long-term archaeological project entitled “A Broader History of the River Raisin: Phase II of the River Raisin Archaeological Project.”

Grants were also awarded for sites of the Civil War, the Revolutionary War and other lesser-known conflicts in Alabama, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

similar posts:

Free entry to national parks for one week in April