Deep in the pine forests of South Carolina, the trees stretch endlessly across the horizon. To the untrained eye, it’s just another patch of wilderness. But beneath the sandy soil of Camden lies something sacred: the long-forgotten remains of Revolutionary War soldiers.
“I was completely blown away every time we found one,” said archaeologist Jim Legg. “It’s kind of stunning.”
The remains weren’t discovered by police detectives, but by South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology archeologists, Steve Smith and Legg, who had spent decades combing Camden’s historic battlefields for artifacts. What they found was more than history — it was humanity.
The Battle of Camden
On Aug. 16, 1780, Camden’s grounds witnessed one of the most brutal clashes of the American Revolution. The Continental Army, led by General Horatio Gates, faced off against British forces under General Lord Cornwallis. The result was devastating: nearly 2,000 American troops were killed, wounded, or captured.
“It was really brutal,” Legg explained. “All parties fought stubbornly and exchanged musket fire at close range. It was a disaster for the Americans.”
The Battle of Camden is mentioned in history books and even films like “The Patriot,” but the precise location of much of the fighting remained unclear until Legg and Smith began their archaeological survey in the 1990s. Years later, a simple uniform button led to an extraordinary discovery: a shallow grave containing five sets of human remains. Soon after, nine more were found nearby.
The evidence suggested these were hastily dug battlefield burials. Among them were Continental soldiers, a Scottish Highlander from the British side, and even a Native American fighter. Yet their identities were lost to time.
A Revolutionary War cold case
Today, Camden and its historic foundation are working to bring these forgotten soldiers back into the light. To do so, they’ve turned to an unexpected source: forensic genealogy.
“This is the ultimate cold case,” said President of FHD Forensics, Allison Peacock. “It belongs to the whole country.”
Peacock, who specializes in identifying unknown remains by combining DNA analysis with family tree research, was asked if it could be done on bones more than 240 years old. Her answer? Maybe.
So far, her team has built genetic profiles for two sets of remains, nicknamed 11A and 9B. Astonishingly, each profile shows more than 25,000 living genetic matches, far more than a typical unidentified remains case.
“In a typical John Doe case, I might get 3 or 4,000, 5,000 at the most,” Peacock said.
One soldier, 9B, has already revealed key details.
“He was a teenager,” said FHD Forensics Senior Investigative Genetic Genealogist Valerie Kemp. “We know for sure his family came from the Anne Arundel area.”
The team has narrowed the search to a handful of family names including Warfield, Griffith, and others, and is now asking possible descendants to submit their own DNA through the Revolutionary War Forensic Institute.
“My dream would be that a Warfield or a Griffith reaches out,” Peacock said. “We’ll send them a cheek swab and pay for it.”
Honoring the forgotten
In 2023, the city of Camden gathered to formally bury twelve of the discovered Continental soldiers with full military honors. For many, it was a moving reminder that America’s earliest soldiers should not be forgotten.
“These are the first Americans,” said Smith. “The first American soldiers.”
Yet their names remain unknown, and for Peacock, that work is far from finished.
“When you see someone getting the respect they deserve, that maybe they had been forgotten about, it matters,” she said. “These men were just left to the elements. Nobody knew their names. But we want to change that.”
The battle to restore their identities has just begun.
The post Experts work to ID remains of Revolutionary War soldiers found in woods appeared first on CBS News.
