MILFORD, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut’s state archaeologist will visit a Milford cemetery on Wednesday to help find the site where 46 Revolutionary War soldiers were buried in a mass grave. The soldiers, who died of smallpox after being dropped off on the city’s shores by British forces, are believed to be buried in a mass grave in a corner of the Old Milford Cemetery, said City Historian Richard Platt.

The grave has never been located, and officials worry that railroad tracks might have been laid over it in the 1840s. A proposed condominium project on adjacent land is also on hold while an archaeological firm hired by the developer plans to survey the property.

The soldiers are memorialized in a monument in the cemetery, but the mass grave has never been discovered.

“It would be great if we could find out where the soldiers are buried,” said Thomas Beirne Jr., chairman of the city’s Board of Aldermen. “If the graves are found, we could install a proper monument showing their actual burial site.”

State Archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni will visit the cemetery Wednesday to survey old maps of the burial grounds and to determine what nonintrusive tests, such as ground-penetrating radar, could be used to locate the graves.

Bellantoni and Platt said identifying the bodies and their graves is expected to be difficult, if not impossible, because unmarked graves are common in older cemeteries.

“Even if we find an unmarked grave, it would be difficult to determine whose grave it is unless we find some artifacts like a button or a buckle, which people usually didn’t bury with the dead at the time,” Platt said.

Despite the obstacles, searching for the graves is worthwhile, officials said.

“It would be nice if we could find the graves so they can be marked and memorialized,” Bellantoni said. “That way, we can also make sure the graves are protected into the future. These are soldiers who gave their lives for this country. We should do the best we can to find them.”