{"id":6294,"date":"2026-07-03T14:31:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=6294"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:31:05","slug":"anthropologists-use-dna-to-identify-remains-of-revolutionary-war-soldier-who-died-in-1780","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=6294","title":{"rendered":"Anthropologists use DNA to identify remains of Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1780"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n article<\/span><\/div>

A team of biological anthropologists from the University of South Carolina and the Richland County coroner\u2019s office, along with archaeologists from the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the state Department of Natural Resou<\/span> <\/p>

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Expand<\/div><\/div><\/div> <\/div>

Thanks to DNA, relatives of an\u00a0American Revolutionary War soldier now know the name of their long-lost cousin who died in 1780 at the Battle of Camden.<\/p>

Archaeologists with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) at\u00a0the\u00a0University of South Carolina (USC) and a Texas-based forensic genetic genealogy firm used DNA to identify the remains as John Pumphrey of Anne Arundel County, Maryland.<\/p>

The backstory:<\/p>

<\/div>

Pumphrey\u2019s remains, along with 13 others who died at the battle, were discovered in 2020 at the\u00a0historic Camden Battlefield and Longleaf Pine Preserve.\u00a0 The 1780 battle at that site claimed more lives than any other in the revolution.<\/p>

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The\u00a014 soldiers\u2019\u00a0remains\u00a0were later given a proper burial\u00a0in Camden.\u00a0<\/p>

What they’re saying:<\/p>

“This discovery helps highlight the critical role that South Carolina played in the winning of American independence. 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,” said Steve Smith, a research professor at USC\u2019s South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology in a release.\u00a0<\/p>

Dig deeper:<\/p>

SCIAA says\u00a0Pumphrey\u2019s genetic genealogy profile was matched to relatives who uploaded their DNA to public databases that allow forensic matching and based on the growth plates in his knees, biological anthropologists estimate Pumphrey was just 13 – 15 years old when he enlisted in Maryland\u2019s 7th Regiment in Baltimore in 1777.\u00a0<\/p>

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\u00a0<\/p> <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to DNA, relatives of an\u00a0American Revolutionary War soldier now know the name of their long-lost cousin who died in 1780 at the Battle of Camden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\nAnthropologists use DNA to identify remains of Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1780 - Houston Moving Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=6294\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anthropologists use DNA to identify remains of Revolutionary War soldier who died in 1780 - 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