Nearly 250 years ago, hundreds of Patriot soldiers were killed or wounded fighting in the pine woods of Camden, South Carolina, in one of the worst defeats for the colonists during the Revolutionary War. Today, one organization is working to identify the remains of those who fell fighting for liberty and share their stories with the country.
Using DNA sequencing, the Historic Camden Foundation is working to identify the remains of 12 of the Patriot soldiers killed during the August 16, 1780, battle. The remains of the 12 were recently discovered during archeological excavations at the battlefield. In 2023, they were given a proper funeral and military honors, but not before DNA samples were saved from teeth and a bone at the back of the skull.
So far, the Historic Camden Foundation has secured funds for DNA sequencing of two of the fallen Patriots. Stacey Ferguson, the deputy director of the organization, told The Daily Wire that they plan to continue their work until they have sequenced all of the DNA and narrowed down the details of the soldiers.
“This is an ongoing project. We had the funds available to run those first two soldiers, but we have every intention of continuing on the work with the other soldiers,” she said. “We may or may not get to a point where we can actually put an exact name on the remains, but it’s very possible. We’ve really narrowed it way down.”
Figuring out who the soldiers were is “the oldest John Doe case in the country that we know of based on what’s in public record,” Ferguson said.
One of the soldiers they have determined is a teenage male between the ages of 14 and 18 from Maryland. He was buried alongside other soldiers in a mass grave at Camden and is believed to have been from Anne Arundel County, Maryland.
The other soldier is an adult male over the age of 20 from the Jamestown, Virginia area. Researchers believe he was related to the original Jamestown settlers and even shares some DNA with Pocahontas. He was likely an artilleryman based on where he fell in the battle.
The two heroes could have over 20,000 living relatives, according to Ferguson. Matching them to an exact name is a more difficult task because muster rolls from that time often were not the most accurate.
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The battle of Camden was a disaster for the Americans, as the Patriot forces under Major General Horatio Gates clashed with British and Loyalist forces under General Charles Lord Cornwallis. An undisciplined American army had 1,900 casualties to the British’s 324.
However, the battle did pave the way for the more competent Rhode Islander Nathanael Greene, who would go on to earn the moniker “the savior of the South.” Greene orchestrated the great patriot victory at Cowpens soon after the disaster at Camden, which followed on the heels of a great patriot victory at King’s Mountain.
Ferguson said she hopes their work to remember the fallen of Camden will help Americans identify more with their past.
“It feels like ancient history to most Americans,” she said. “These soldiers that fought and died for their freedom, but being able to say, ‘you are related to this soldier, who fought and died at the battle of Camden,’ really makes that story personal for a lot of people.”