DNA from the skull of unknown Revolutionary War soldier reveals more than just his name

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 American Revolution can now take his place in history, just in time for the 250th birthday of the nation he fought to create.“There was a sense of divine timing, I guess,” said Allison Peacock, founder of FHD Forensics, a company that helped with the search.

“I don’t know what else you want to call it.”Pumphrey died Aug.16, 1780, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.

It was one of the Continental Army’s most devastating defeats, 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’s scorching heat and its ruinous humidity.Archaeologists surveying the area in 2020 came across human bones protruding from the ground.

Eventually, 14 sets of remains were identified — 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’s 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 “America’s oldest John Doe.”“What we did is pretty much the same as what we do with any other John Doe case,” she said.“Nobody 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.”Unlike most, Pumphrey and four comrades received a cursory burial beneath a thin layer of dirt.He was dubbed “Camden 9B,” because his were the second set of remains retrieved from burial nine.

The remains were examined and cataloged.The 12 Continentals were later reinterred with full military honors.Camden 9B’s headstone read: “UNKNOWN.

REV WAR.BATTLE OF CAMDEN.

AUG 16 1780.”...