After 246 years, Pvt. John Pumphrey is unknown no more.
Through DNA testing and old-fashioned sleuthing, the Maryland teenager who died in one of the last big battles of the can now take his place in history, just in time for the he fought to create.
鈥淭here was a sense of divine timing, I guess,鈥� said Allison Peacock, founder of FHD Forensics, a company that helped with the search. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what else you want to call it.鈥�
Pumphrey died Aug. 16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. It was one of the Continental Army鈥檚 , where British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis routed patriot forces under Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates.
Many of the 900 killed were left where they fell, abandoned to the predations of wild animals, South Carolina鈥檚 scorching heat and its ruinous humidity.
Bones emerge from a Revolutionary War battlefield
Archaeologists surveying the area in 2020 came across human bones protruding from the ground. Eventually, 14 sets of remains were identified 鈥� 12 of them Continental soldiers. The others were determined to be connected to the British side and were reburied at the battlefield.
The Richland County Coroner鈥檚 Office had worked with Texas-based FHD Forensics on modern-day cases and asked for their help. Peacock took to calling it the case of 鈥淎merica鈥檚 oldest John Doe.鈥�
鈥淲hat we did is pretty much the same as what we do with any other John Doe case,鈥� she said. 鈥淣obody really knew for sure whether we could get genetic profiles suitable for a genealogy investigation on 240-plus-year-old remains. But we got lucky.鈥�
Unlike most, Pumphrey and four comrades received a cursory burial beneath a thin layer of dirt. He was dubbed 鈥淐amden 9B,鈥� because his were the second set of remains retrieved from burial nine. The remains were examined and cataloged.
The 12 Continentals were later . Camden 9B鈥檚 headstone read: 鈥淯NKNOWN. REV WAR. BATTLE OF CAMDEN. AUG 16 1780.鈥�
DNA unlocks a centuries-old mystery
Meanwhile, samples from two of the soldiers were sent to Astrea Forensics in California for DNA extraction and sequencing.
鈥淭ypically, in a case like this, we work with teeth, because teeth are in the jaw and are protected, the roots are protected,鈥� said Peacock. 鈥淚n this case, they were just coming up with nothing on the teeth.鈥�
With remains this old, it’s often difficult to separate the human DNA from all the other genetic material in the grave, said Astrea co-founder and scientific adviser Kelly Harkins Kincaid.
鈥淚t gets colonized by the microbial environment in the soil and the water in the environment,鈥� she said.
Although she’s worked with DNA samples as old as 10,000 years, this was the oldest sample her company has ever used to try to reconstruct a family tree.
From a petrous portion of the temporal bone, a delicate structure behind the ear at the base of the skull, they successfully extracted DNA that generated Pumphrey’s entire genome. Peacock鈥檚 team then uploaded the data to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch to trace three types of DNA matches: autosomal, X chromosome and Y chromosome.
鈥淲e got 20,000 matches to work with,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, it was a lot to kind of comb through.鈥�
An orphan soldier’s life comes into focus
One of those matches, from the maternal line, was Russ Hudson.
The retired federal agent in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, offered to help do archival research. A profile began to emerge of a young orphan from Maryland鈥檚 Anne Arundel County, dispossessed and looking for his way in life.
鈥淚 learned that probably when he was 13, he went to Baltimore and he enlisted in the militia,鈥� Hudson said. 鈥淎nd who knows what his story was? What did he accomplish in order to become a member of the militia at such a young age?鈥�
Because no birth record has been found, it鈥檚 unclear how old Pumphrey was when he went to war. He signed his reenlistment papers with an 鈥淴.鈥� But he was young enough that, when he died, the growth plates around his knees had not yet fully closed, Peacock said.
A witness to history
Researchers now know Pumphrey and his comrades from the 7th Maryland Regiment were with George Washington in the snows at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Peacock said his unit was involved in some of the major contests in the Northern Theater, including the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth.
She figures he had marched 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) before he met his end in the pinelands of South Carolina.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 really know what John Pumphrey鈥檚 cause of death was because they did not find a particular injury on his body,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that he had a soft tissue injury, like a bayonet injury, but it鈥檚 a little hard to tell after 246 years.鈥�
An unexpected twist and an emotional reunion
Work continues on the other set of remains, Camden 11A. One thing is certain: Peacock is related to him.
鈥淥ne of the first things I do when I take on a case is I run my DNA against the remains to see if it鈥檚 somebody I鈥檓 related to, just on the wild chance that it might be,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 never happened before, but I am related to Camden 11A. So, I鈥檓 very motivated to get him identified.鈥�
Last month, Peacock was confident enough in the research to put a name to Camden 9B. Relatives wept during an emotional ceremony at the 19th-century Benson-Hammond House in Anne Arundel County.
鈥淭he fact that some archaeologists just happened to stumble on bones that were protruding from the earth, and knowing that it would be difficult to identify those people by DNA, I just found it really exciting,鈥� Becky Berman of Daytona Beach, Florida, Pumphrey鈥檚 first cousin, several times removed, told The Associated Press.
For Hudson, the retired federal agent, the story won鈥檛 be over until the U.S. government confirms the research and replaces his fifth great-uncle鈥檚 鈥淯NKNOWN鈥� gravestone. He said America owes it to John Pumphrey.
鈥淗e sacrificed himself, along with some others,鈥� Hudson said, his eyes tearing up, 鈥渇or the sake of this new nation.鈥�
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