For decades their resting place remained unknown, lost to time and memory.

On Saturday, Philip Brittain and Aaron Wilson received the honors and recognition that they deserved as patriots who served in the American Revolution.

The Andrew Jackson Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Marshall County Historical Society held a service marking the rediscovered graves of the two men in the Moses-Wilson Cemetery in Chapel Hill.

SAR members from all over the South and dozens of county residents joined together for the ceremony, offering history and pageantry, celebrating their final resting places.

The graves were found through the efforts and research of Chapel Hill residents Marion and Tommy Joyce, avid historians of the area who also care for the old cemetery along Thick Road.

“This is one of the best history lessons you could have taught us,“ said Marshall County Mayor Mike Keny of the Joyce’s discovery during his remarks.

Both men were native North Carolinians, with Brittain born in Orange County, the home of the Chapel Hill for which the Marshall County town is named.

He enlisted at a young age in the 9th North Carolina Regiment, serving as a musician through battles at Germantown and Brandywine and at age 18 surviving the winter at Valley Forge.

Wilson served as a lieutenant in the North Carolina militia, seeing action in South Carolina during the war.

Both men died in what was then Bedford County, prior to Marshall County’s founding, in the early 1830s.

Local historian Lynda Potts said in her remarks that the Historical Society had initially identified 61 veterans of the Revolution tied to Marshall County, many of whom settled here after the war on land grants for their service.

Wilson was known to the society but his resting place was unknown, and Brittain was not previously one of the 61 veterans identified.

Despite the almost 200 years since their passing, both men still have descendants in the county, several of whom spoke at the ceremony, including Becky Scott Delk, Robert E. Stammer, James L. Rickman, Marianne Blackwell, and Chris Wilson.

Cara Waters performed several patriotic songs during the ceremonies as well.

“I pray his soul would hear our kind words,” said Rickman, a descendant of Wilson, during his tribute to his uncle from several generations ago.

After untold years with their graves unknown, both men have new Veterans Administration headstones detailing their service and marking, once again, their final resting place.

(Marion Joyce emphasized that neither was under the cairns located in the cemetery, noting that one had been disturbed since the graves were rediscovered.)

Both men honored with ceremony and respect and their memory revived anew.

Tribune photos by Scott Pearson

Paul White, president of the Andrew Jackson Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and members of the SAR from several chapters paid tribute to the patriot ancestors and the sacred ground in which they are buried in the Moses-Wilson Cemetery in Chapel Hill on Saturday.

Members of the Sons of the American Revolution fired a 21 gun salute and played taps over the rediscovered and re-identified graves of two American Revolution veterans in Marshall County on Saturday.