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Private John Pumphrey
In the fall of 2022, an unknown soldier known only as 9B was exhumed from a mass grave containing the remains of five Continental soldiers killed at the Battle of Camden. On Sunday, August 13, 2023—the last Sunday before the 243rd anniversary of the battle—9B was reinterred alongside the eleven other Continental soldiers recovered from the battlefield during the 2022 excavations.

Before their reinterment at the Old Presbyterian Burial Ground, all twelve soldiers received full military honors from soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), the ceremonial unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Nearly three years later, on June 18, 2026, forensic genealogists at FHD Forensics, using DNA recovered by Astrea Forensics, identified 9B as Private John Pumphrey of the 7th Maryland Regiment. Pumphrey had been reported missing in action following the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780.
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7^th Regiment of Maryland
On January 6, 1777, fourteen-year-old John Pumphrey of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, traveled to Baltimore, where he placed his mark on the enlistment papers of the 7th Maryland Regiment. Just four and a half months later, on May 22, 1777, the 7th Maryland Regiment joined the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Maryland Regiments to form the 1st Maryland Brigade, which was assigned to General George Washington’s Main Continental Army.

From the fall of 1777 through the summer of 1778, the 7th Maryland Regiment fought in all three major battles of the Philadelphia Campaign. Alongside the rest of the Maryland Line, the regiment was repeatedly committed to some of the campaign’s fiercest fighting, earning a reputation as one of the Continental Army’s most dependable combat units.

When John Pumphrey reenlisted in the 7th Maryland Regiment on February 28, 1779, he was a battle-hardened sixteen-year-old veteran. It had been eight months since the Battle of Monmouth, the final major engagement of the Philadelphia Campaign, and 1779 would prove to be relatively quiet for Washington’s Main Continental Army as the British shifted their attention to the South following the capture of Savannah, Georgia, on Christmas Day 1778.
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De Kalb’s March South
A little more than a year after reenlisting, John Pumphrey survived the brutally cold winter at Morristown, New Jersey, the harshest winter endured by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

On April 5, 1780, he and the entire Maryland Line were reassigned to the Southern Department. Twelve days later, on April 17, they broke camp at Morristown and began a 1,200-mile march south to reinforce Charleston. Before they reached the city, however, Charleston surrendered to the British on May 12, 1780, and the British Army on June 1, 1780, established the inland port of Camden, South Carolina, as their main backcountry garrison so the Maryland Line turned toward Camden and continued their march south. Considered one of the most grueling marches of the Revolutionary War, the journey ended just two days before the Battle of Camden, where the exhausted Maryland Line was immediately thrown into one of the war’s most decisive and devastating engagements.
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Gates and the March to Camden
The Battle of Camden began twenty-two days before the fighting itself. When on the July 25, 1780, Major General Horatio Gates assumed command of the Southern Army at Cox’s Mill, North Carolina. Within two days, despite the objections of several senior officers, Gates ordered the army to take the most direct route toward Camden.

Although shorter, the 120-mile route crossed a barren, swampy region of the North Carolina and South Carolina, where food was scarce and foraging opportunities were almost nonexistent. Gates justified the decision by arguing that it would allow him to link up with North Carolina militia as quickly as possible.

The march proved disastrous. With supplies running out, hungry soldiers survived on green corn and unripe peaches gathered along the way. The poor diet left many suffering from severe diarrhea and dysentery, and by the time the army reached Rugeley’s Mills about 13 miles from Camden, much of the Continental force was weakened by hunger and illness. Less than forty-eight hours later, Gates’s exhausted army marched into one of the Revolutionary War’s most devastating defeats.
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The Battle of Camden
Major General Horatio Gates’ final order was for Brigadier General William Smallwood to move the 1st Maryland Brigade held in reserve to reinforce the left flank behind the Virginia militia. As the brigade marched diagonally across the eastern side of the battlefield to take its position, disaster struck. More than 3,000 Virginia and North Carolina militia, routed by the British counter charge, broke in panic and fled directly through the hastily forming line of the 1st Maryland Brigade, which numbered only about 400 men.

On the brigade’s exposed right flank stood the 7th Maryland Regiment, including Private John Pumphrey. After the fleeing militia had cleared the field of fire 1^st Maryland Bridge fired into more than 800 British regulars who had just shattered the Patriot Militia line. The British immediately wheeled to face the Marylanders and returned fire.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, the 1st Maryland Brigade held its ground. Unable to break the veteran Continentals, Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis committed the 71^st Highlander that he had held in reserve, to strike the 1^st Maryland brigade’s exposed right flank. The assault quickly erupted into savage hand-to-hand combat, with the 7th Maryland Regiment bearing the brunt of the attack.

The location where John Pumphrey’s remains were recovered places the center some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting on the Camden battlefield, where the 1^st Maryland Brigade made its final stand before being ordered to retreat. The heroic stand of the Maryland Line who for nearly forty minutes held the British Army at bay which bought critical time need for the routed Militia, Cavalry, and General Gates and his staff time to escape. Their sacrifice prevented the complete annihilation of the Southern Army
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