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John Pumphrey's re-enlistment papers FHD Forensics
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The soldiers were given a proper burial with military honors. FHD Forensics
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Posted on 07/13/2026 5:17:10 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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. 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.”
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.
“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.”
John Pumphrey's re-enlistment papers FHD Forensics
The soldiers were given a proper burial with military honors. FHD Forensics
RIP, former unknown soldier.
Thanks for posting this.
Ping
Thankyou for posting this.
To Private John Pumphrey
Thankyou, and your sacrifice mattered. Rest peacefully knowing your sacrifice was birth to a new nation.
That seems really high. Equivalent to several thousands of dollars today.
“and accepted a $100 re-enlistment bonus in 1779”
just so you know that would be worth about $2,746 today
The youngest oldest case. Or is it oldest youngest case?
Or he died of disease. Typhus and dysentery were very common among Revolutionary War soldiers.
Wonderful story. Thanks so much for posting this thread. Good to know he will be cared about again by the extended Pumphrey family. Think about marching 1000 miles!
Good point.
I had a thought and looked it up: I had no idea that cholera hadn’t yet been introduced to at least North America in the late 18th century.
Interesting...
After his father died, a cousin appears to have seized control of his estate, likely leaving Pumphrey and his siblings with few resources.
Wow, prominent family with at least one POS in it. Thanks, great topic!
There is at least one POS in every family.
MFO
I’ll ping ya in the future. This will be my Socialist Democrat sister cleaning out my Mom’s estate that Mom is leaving to the four* of us adult children. *Rolleyes*
Hopefully I won’t have to go to war to seek my fortune, LOL!
*I don’t need the $. But I DO need to see that my two Step-Siblings to get what is legally theirs.
I think modern day re-enlistment bonuses are much higher than $2,746. Actually, I think they were higher than that when I was in the service 50 years ago.
Great story. Thanks for posting. Can you believe how much alike those four sons of John Robert Pumphrey Sr. are? The resemblance is amazing.
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