In 1777, a 14-year-old boy enlisted in the Continental Army to fight British troops. He signed his enlistment papers with an “X,” which indicates that he never learned how to write his name.
He was in the military for three and a half years and marched over 1,000 miles. In 1780, he died at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina and was buried in an unmarked grave.
For nearly 250 years, he was forgotten. Finally, researchers excavated his remains in 2022. Since then, they have discovered his identity. It is the first time that somebody who died in the 1700s has been identified through their genetic genealogy profile.
In 2020, archaeologists began surveying the land where the Battle of Camden took place. They ended up uncovering a total of 14 soldiers from the Revolutionary War.
From there, experts analyzed the remains. They extracted and sequenced DNA from two soldiers, including one who was dubbed as Camden 9B.
The research team uploaded the data to two databases and found that Camden 9B was linked to prominent families from Anne Arundel County in Maryland. They identified Camden 9B as John Pumphrey.
Three types of DNA pointed to him, and according to Pumphrey’s military records, he enlisted in the Seventh Maryland Regiment in 1777. In 1779, he accepted a $100 reenlistment bonus. After the Battle of Camden in 1780, he was listed as a missing person.
Pumphrey’s great-grandfather was a carpenter and had moved the family from New Jersey to the Baltimore area around 1713. He and his sons purchased extensive real estate. They established sawmills and other businesses and grew prosperous.
When Pumphrey was about 10 years old, both his parents died. After his father died, it appeared that a cousin took control of the estate, leaving Pumphrey and his siblings with very little. Without many other future prospects, he was likely forced to enlist in the army.
The growth plates around his knees had not fully closed by the time he died, suggesting that he was still young. It is unclear exactly how he died because he did not have any visible skeletal injuries. Researchers believe he died due to a soft tissue injury, possibly from a bayonet.
In 2023, Pumphrey was given a proper burial with full military honors. Around 20,000 DNA matches for his living relatives—descendants of his siblings and first cousins—were found. Overall, 54 people were determined to be his “next of kin.” They gathered in Baltimore to celebrate his life.
“We’re doing this in the 250th anniversary of our country, and I’m telling a story of a boy who was orphaned and then defrauded by his own relatives and left with nothing,” said Allison Peacock, president of the company that is conducting the genealogy research.
“As a 13- or 14-year-old, he went to war, marched 1,000 miles, got a $100 reenlistment bonus, and gave his life for the idea of escaping tyranny, even as he was escaping tyranny at home.”
The researchers hope to identify more soldiers, but the process is complex and costly. Currently, they are working on identifying the second soldier whose DNA was sequenced.
The second soldier, known as 11A for now, has a lineage that traces back to a man named Robert Fleming, who helped start a church in colonial York County.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
