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DNA Reveals the Identity of a Teenager Who Died in the Revolutionary War, Cracking a Nearly 250-Year-Old Cold Case
John Pumphrey was still a boy when he enlisted in the Continental Army in 1777. After archaeologists discovered his remains, a genetic genealogy analysis identified 20,000 DNA matches for living relatives
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The boy was around 14 when he joined the Continental Army. He signed his enlistment papers with an “X,” suggesting that he’d never learned to write his name. During his three-and-a-half-year military career, he marched more than 1,000 miles. When he died at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780, he was buried in an unmarked grave and forgotten for nearly 250 years.
Researchers excavated the boy’s remains in 2022. Now, they’ve discovered this young soldier’s identity: His name was Private John Pumphrey, and he was one of America’s oldest John Doe cases.
“As far as we knew, this was the first time somebody that died in the 1700s had been identified with their genetic genealogy profile,” says Allison Peacock, president of FHD Forensics, a Texas-based company specializing in John Doe investigations.
Recovery efforts at the Camden battlefield began in 2020, when archaeologists surveyed the land with metal detectors. Amid the musket balls and buttons, they noticed two sets of human remains sticking out of the ground. When they investigated further, they found 14 Revolutionary War soldiers buried in shallow graves.
Researchers moved the remains to the Richland County Coroner’s Office, where anthropologists examined them. The team contacted FHD Forensics, which had previously worked with the coroner’s office on modern-day cases.
“They said, ‘We just found a bunch of Revolutionary War soldiers. Do you think you could do what you just did for us on 200-year-old remains?’” Peacock recalls. “And I said, ‘Well, maybe. Let’s try.’”
Experts with Astrea Forensics, a California-based lab that works with ancient DNA, extracted and sequenced DNA from two of the soldiers, including Pumphrey, who was dubbed Camden 9B. The pair’s genetic genealogy profiles were the oldest that the lab had ever created. Peacock’s team uploaded the data to FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch, databases with users who have opted into forensic comparisons.
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At that point, the researchers weren’t sure whether this experiment would work. So much time had passed, and they feared that the genetic distance between these 18th-century soldiers and Americans alive today might be too great. But when they looked at the databases, they found that Camden 9B was linked to prominent families from Maryland’s Anne Arundel County.
From there, the researchers used several methods to identify the John Doe. Three types of DNA—autosomal, X chromosome and Y chromosome—all pointed to Pumphrey. The team also conducted extensive archival research. Pumphrey’s military records show that he enlisted in the Seventh Maryland Regiment in 1777 and accepted a $100 re-enlistment bonus in 1779. After the Battle of Camden in 1780, he was listed as “missing.”
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Later research surfaced additional information about Pumphrey’s roots. His great-grandfather, a carpenter, had moved the family from New Jersey to the Baltimore area around 1713. Both of his parents died when he was a young boy.
“He was orphaned at about age 10, give or take a couple years,” Peacock says. “He really didn’t have an opportunity to leave any record behind, other than his military record.”
By the end of his life, the growth plates around Pumphrey’s knees hadn’t fully closed, suggesting that he was still quite young. Although researchers aren’t sure how he died, “he didn’t have any visible injuries to his skeletal structure, which means it was probably a soft tissue injury—maybe a bayonet,” Peacock says.
Why would such a young boy enlist in the first place? After his father died, a cousin appears to have seized control of his estate, likely leaving Pumphrey and his siblings with few resources. “The earth shifted dramatically under John Pumphrey’s feet,” Peacock writes on her blog. “A young teen from an apparently prosperous family, and once with a bright, predictable future, now had little prospects.”
Now, more than two centuries later, Pumphrey is finally getting his due. He was reburied with full military honors in 2023. He was likely too young to have had children, but researchers have found some 20,000 DNA matches for living relatives. Last month, when the researchers officially announced Pumphrey’s identification, some of his “next of kin”—descendants of his siblings and first cousins—gathered in Baltimore to celebrate his life.
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“He has waited almost 246 years for his name to be said out loud again,” Rick Wise, executive director of the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, told the audience, per Maryland Matters. “The blood that ran through his veins is going through yours.”
One of the relatives in attendance was Julie Strickland from Lugoff, South Carolina—not far from the site of the Battle of Camden. “I was born a Pumphrey. I was put up for adoption when I was 6 weeks old and later found both sides of my family,” she told WLTX. “I started out without a name. He wound up without a name. And now we both know our name.”
Quick fact: The Battle of Camden
The 1780 battle was a pivotal defeat for the patriots. Roughly 2,000 British troops defeated some 4,000 American forces—though many of them were ill with dysentery.
Amid America’s 250th anniversary festivities, these kinds of discoveries can help bring the 18th century to life. “It’s almost like a mythology, the Revolution; like a story we all agree happened, but may not feel that it was real,” James Legg, one of the archaeologists who led the excavation, said in a 2023 statement. “These gravesites make it real.”
The researchers hope to identify more of the soldiers. But the investigations are complex, requiring support from experts across a variety of specialties. They’re also expensive, with each identification costing tens of thousands of dollars. The scholars are still looking for additional funding.
Right now, they’re working on identifying the second soldier whose DNA was sequenced. It turns out that Peacock herself is one of his living relatives, making the project feel especially personal. “It makes me want to know everything I can about the time and place and people that he comes from,” she says. “I’ll dig and dig and dig until 3 in the morning, finding out details about it. I guess that’s why I do this work.”
Many of Pumphrey’s living relatives reported feeling a similar bond with the young soldier who died more than a century before they were born. “They say that it gives them a profound sense of connection to their family,” Peacock says, “to know that they’re related to this boy.”
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