Teenage Soldier Identified 246 Years After His Death

A young soldier who perished in one of the most brutal battles of the American Revolutionary War has finally been named, more than two centuries after his death.

Researchers in South Carolina revealed on Thursday that remains found on the Camden battlefield belong to Private First Class John Pumphrey. He was a young man from Maryland, and his death had gone unrecorded. The remains, previously known as Camden 9B, mark the first identification out of 14 soldiers whose bodies were recovered, as reported by CBS News Baltimore.

In 2022, archaeologists from the South Carolina Institute of Archeology and Anthropology unearthed 14 bodies while working to protect battlefield graves from erosion. Uniform buttons found alongside the remains identified 12 as Continental soldiers, one as British, and another as Loyalist, according to the University of South Carolina.

Identifying Pumphrey took years of forensic analysis. The research team extracted DNA from a fragment of his skull and employed additional genetic methods to confirm his identity. Pumphrey died young and had no descendants, so genealogists traced his lineage through his brother’s descendants, as noted by WMAR-2 News.

Pumphrey hails from a well-off family in Anne Arundel County but had moved to Baltimore before enlisting in January 1777, CBS News Baltimore mentioned. Records indicate that he reenlisted on February 28, 1779, agreeing to serve for the entire war for $100. His regiment fought in battles at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth before heading south.

During the battle at Camden, Pumphrey fought under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, who faced overwhelming odds against British forces, as reported by WMAR-2 News. Hundreds lost their lives in this defeat in August 1780, and Pumphrey was among approximately 400 casualties.

In 2024, his remains were relocated to Camden’s historic Quaker cemetery, as indicated by CBS News Baltimore.