Distant relatives of an American Revolutionary War soldier now know the name of their long-lost cousin thanks to University of South Carolina anthropologists and a Texas-based forensic genetic genealogy firm.
The soldier, John Pumphrey of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, was a young teenager when he enlisted to fight in the Revolution in 1777. He died in 1780 during the Battle of Camden, one of the most famous battles to take place in South Carolina.
“This discovery helps highlight the critical role that South Carolina played in the winning of American independence,” says Steve Smith, a research professor at USC’s South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. “It brings the war and the battle to a brutal reality that cannot be fully comprehended by simply reading history. It honors those soldiers that sacrificed their lives to gain American independence.”
Smith, and James Legg, a public archaeologist at SCIAA, have investigated the Camden battle site for nearly 30 years. They first discovered Pumphrey’s unidentified remains in 2020 and excavated them two years later, along with 13 others who died at the battle. The soldiers’ remains were later given a proper burial in Camden.
Pumphrey is the first to be identified using forensic analysis of genetic material extracted from a small piece of bone. His genetic genealogy profile was matched to relatives who uploaded their DNA to public databases that allow forensic matching. Based on the growth plates in his knees, biological anthropologists estimate that Pumphrey was just 13 to 15 years old when he enlisted in Maryland’s 7th Regiment in Baltimore in 1777. He would have been one of the youngest members of George Washington’s Maryland Line and likely joined up in pursuit of a better life.
“Our soldier was orphaned at age 10, so it makes sense he would have journeyed to Baltimore to enlist in part for guaranteed clothes and food,” says Allison Peacock, genetic genealogist and president of FHD Forensics.
Her company performed the identification research and organized a reunion in Maryland where Pumphrey’s genetic relatives commemorated his life and service this June.
The Battle of Camden is remembered as one of the deadliest of the American Revolution. Heavy fighting continued until the Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1783. The researchers hope to identify more of the Camden soldiers in the future.
"The identification of John Pumphrey is extremely gratifying for those of us who have been involved with the preservation and interpretation of the Camden Battlefield for three decades,” Legg said. “It now seems likely that more of those lost men will eventually be identified. It may be that nearly any ‘unknown’ remains from the Revolution, the Civil War, or later might be identified."
