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.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) believes Congress could soon play a larger role in the actions taken by the Trump administration against Venezuela.

Biggs spoke with The Daily Wire’s AmericaFest pre-show to discuss the recent actions against the South American nation and what it means in terms of border anti-drug policies as a border state lawmaker.

“Where we’re heading is Venezuela, effectively, has declared a narcoterrorist drug war on the United States of America. And we are engaged right now in trying to prevent them from getting to our country, and we’re trying to leverage, quite frankly, economically for Maduro to basically say, ‘Okay, we’re done being an exporter of narcoterrorism,’” he said.

Recently, the United States government has seized oil tankers with ties to the South American country, as Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has not ceded power.

“Until he’s willing to do that, you’re going to see some action, and my guess is you’re going to see Congress be much more involved in this come January,” Biggs said.

When asked if there should be a formal declaration of war from Congress, he said, “The checklist that has to be gone through before there can be any kind of an attack on them, a kinetic attack on them, is the same thing that you would see in any other kind of threat or theater in the world.”

“We know who they are, we know that they’re drug runners, we know what they’re carrying, we know where they’re going. All that has to be confirmed, and they will stop; they won’t do it if they can’t answer all of those checkpoints,” Biggs continued.

However, he’s predicting that Congress will eventually be part of the process, as the situation could be “accelerated.”

The Republican is currently running for Arizona governor in a primary with businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson and Rep. David Schweikert.

Both Biggs and Robson have been endorsed by President Donald Trump, and whoever wins the primary will face off against Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs in November in one of the nation’s most competitive gubernatorial races. The Cook Political Report ranks the general election as a “toss-up.” Trump won the key battleground state in 2024.

Running to replace Biggs in Congress is former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who’s been a leading voice on border-related issues for years.

On the border, which has gone largely quiet since Trump took office, Biggs said it serves as proof that “we didn’t need new laws, we just needed to enforce the old ones.”

“We still have some problems — Arizona’s still the number one human and drug trafficking corridor,” he said. “We have it in our state, [and] we’re going to have to shut that down, but I will tell you, the morale is high from those who guarded the border, the Border Patrol guys and gals,” the congressman said.