Free Download · America 250 Research Guide

Among the Founders: Revolutionary War Patriots Buried in Alexandria

When the Revolution ended, its survivors came home — and hundreds came home to Alexandria. Among the Founders is your free America 250 guide to the city’s Revolutionary War patriots — the 162-patriot registry in print, with David Heiby’s lecture menu for chapters, schools, and civic groups.

Cover of the Among the Founders brochure - Revolutionary War patriots buried in Alexandria, Virginia
Tri-fold guide — print it or save it to your phone.

A City of Founders

George Washington’s hometown became the resting place for an extraordinary concentration of the men and women who helped build the American republic: Continental Army officers who fought at Valley Forge and Yorktown, merchant patriots who funded the cause, physicians who saved its soldiers, and tradesmen who served in local militias.

Our registry documents 162 Revolutionary War patriots across 13 historic burial grounds — 46 within the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex alone. Many served directly with Washington: his physicians, pallbearers, business partners, and neighbors. To walk among their graves is to understand Washington not as a monument, but as a man.

More than a decade of original research. The registry behind this guide is the most comprehensive accounting of Revolutionary War burials in Alexandria ever assembled — the research foundation for the city’s America 250 commemoration.

Selected Figures from the Registry

The guide profiles patriots across every role in the founding — Washington’s inner circle, the founders of Alexandria, Boston Tea Party participants, women patriots, and the forgotten:

Col. George GilpinHonorary pallbearer — his grave lost 200 years, found by ground-penetrating radar in 2024
Dr. James CraikWashington’s personal physician — at his bedside when he died
Col. Dennis RamsayFirst to address Washington as “Mr. President”
Major Samuel CooperBoston Tea Party participant — wrote one of four surviving first-person accounts
Ann Ball McCarty RamsayElected Treasurer of Alexandria — raised over $75,000 for Washington’s cause
John PipsicoFreeman of color — fought at Guilford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs

…plus John Carlyle, William Ramsay, Fairfax Resolves signer Robert Adam, Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick, Joseph Harris, and an Unknown Kentucky Soldier whose name, rank, and unit are lost to history.

Where They Rest

  • Presbyterian Cemetery
  • Christ Church Cemetery (Wilkes St.)
  • Christ Church Burial Ground (Old Town — 18th century)
  • Trinity Methodist Cemetery
  • Methodist Protestant Cemetery
  • St. Paul’s Cemetery
  • Penny Hill Cemetery
  • Old Presbyterian Meeting House burial ground

The registry spans thirteen historic burial grounds in all — and none holds more of Alexandria’s Revolutionary War veterans than Christ Church’s 18th-century burial ground in Old Town, more even than the Meeting House. For the Meeting House patriots, see the Rebellious Scoundrels guide.

Lectures & Programs

David brings this research to lecture halls, chapter meetings, and classrooms — illustrated talks built on original primary-source research, adapted to your audience and schedule.

  • Alexandria’s 162

    The full story of the Revolutionary War registry — who they were, how they were found, and why they were forgotten.

  • Finding George Gilpin

    The ground-penetrating radar search that recovered the lost grave of one of Washington’s honorary pallbearers.

  • Dr. James Craik

    Washington’s personal physician and lifelong friend — from Fort Necessity to the deathbed at Mount Vernon.

  • Elisha Cullen Dick

    The physician who read the burial service at Washington’s funeral.

  • Patriots, Preservation and the Past

  • Uncovering the Mystery

  • 52 Acres. 35,000 Lives.

    The untold history buried in the Wilkes Street Cemetery Complex — thirteen cemeteries, one landscape.

Book a Lecture

dave@gravestonestories.com
(703) 869-0872

Format

Illustrated talks built on the registry
Adapted to your schedule

Audiences

DAR & SAR chapters
especially welcome

Ideal for: DAR, SAR, and hereditary patriotic organizations; heritage groups and America 250 programming; schools, colleges, and lifelong-learning programs; libraries, faith communities, and civic organizations.

Bring the Founders to Your Audience

His physicians, pallbearers, business partners — the men and women who built a nation, and never left. Hear their stories from the researcher who documented them.

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