Who is Abner Miles? Why is this Revolutionary War soldier's grave in the woods?

The grave is hard to find, deep in the woods, hundreds of yards from any main roads. Few people ever look for it; most people don’t even know it’s there, off of Rte. 140 in Gardner on land that used to belong to Westminster.

The grave marks the final resting place of Private Abner Miles, who was born in Westminster in 1745. Little is known of Miles’s life, but we do know that during the American Revolution, he served for just over three months in a regiment known as Jackson Company. In August 1777, his company responded to an alarm in Bennington, Vermont, marching 200 miles in 10 days from Westminster to what is now Adams, Massachusetts, under the command of Major Ebeneezer Bridge. Miles died of smallpox in 1778.

Since the 1950s, however, a local group of veterans has taken action to ensure that Miles’s life and service to his country are never forgotten. Twice a year, on Memorial Day and Christmas, members of the Westminster VFW, AmVets Post 2012, and American Legion visit the site honor Miles by offering salutes and replacing flags. At Christmas, they place a wreath on the grave.

“On Memorial Day, we (visit) the three cemeteries in the town, and we (honor) the monuments coming down Main Street,” explained Tom Lehman, commander of the Westminster VFW. “And in this case a soldier is (buried) out of town by himself, so to give him the same sort of rites that we give everybody else in the town, we make a special trip out there.”

Grave is in the woods near the Gardner/Westminster border

The grave is located in a heavily wooded section on the grounds of the former Gardner State Hospital. It is suspected that because of the contagious nature of Miles’s death, he was not buried along with other veterans in Woodside Cemetery, and instead was buried in a meadow on his farm. His grave was later covered up with large field stones because of reports that a bull kept trying to dig it up. A mound of stones remains near the grave today. An official military headstone was placed on the grave by the federal government in 1951.

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Peter Lahtinen, Commander of the American Legion, said it was important to keep Miles’s legacy alive for future generations.

“He’s isolated out there, so we make a special effort to (honor) a Westminster veteran of the Revolutionary War,” he said.

“It’s part of our mission to honor all veterans that served,” Lehman explained. “It doesn’t matter if you were in a combat area as long as you raised your hand to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Biannual ritual an opportunity to honor all local veterans

Nicole Proctor, a member of the Amvets Ladies Auxillary Post 2012 in Westminster, said honoring the unique history of Abner Miles’s life was a testament to all who served their country.

“I have a lot of respect for any and all veterans, and there’s just a lot of history with this one person that takes you back hundreds of years,” she said.

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There is a geocache location at the grave site for anyone interested in making the trek, according to Legion Chaplain Bob Feely – N 042 34.357’ W 071 56.290.’

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Revolutionary War grave of Private Abner Miles hidden in Gardner woods