Archeologists at the Revolutionary War battlefield in Camden, S.C. made an amazing discovery in 2022: the bodies of 14 soldiers who fought in the battle that occurred August 16, 1780.
After a forensic anthropological autopsy is completed, the bodies will be reburied on April 22.
“We knew that there might be one or two bodies at the site, but we were amazed to find 14 sets of remains,” said Doug Bostick, CEO of the South Carolina Battleground Trust.
Clothing and, particularly, buttons determined that 12 of the bodies were members of the Patriot Continental Army. One body was that of a Loyalist, and one was the body of a British Soldier.
According to Bostick, scavengers with metal detectors hunting illegally on the property caused concern, and so a team of archeologists were called in to excavate the area.
“We don’t go out hunting for bodies on any of the battlefields, but the graves were so shallow, really, we had to excavate them in order to protect them,” Bostick said.
Some of the graves were only 6 to 12 inches deep, showing that the graves were dug in haste.
Bostick says he is amazed that the bodies were even buried at all, since usually Revolutionary War dead were left to decompose where they fell. It is the prevailing belief that prisoners of war captured by the British during the battle were tasked with the burials.
Military historian Hubert van Tuyll says it could be quite likely that prisoners of war dug the graves, but no matter who manned the shovels, the burials would have been quick.
“The Americans had all runaway, and Cornwallis had other places to be,” van Tuyll said.
Once excavated, the remains were sent to the Coroner’s Office in Columbia, S.C. since that lab has the ability to perform forensic anthropological autopsies.
According to Bostick, the bodies were studied to determine manner of death, age, height and nutrition.
Special coffins were built using 200-year-old heart of pine wood, and the coffins will be placed in a concrete vault when the bodies are re-interred in April. All of the men will receive full military honors.
The bodies will be re-interred in the same spot where they were discovered.
According to the American Battlefield Trust, the Battle of Camden, while largely forgotten because it was over so quickly, marked a low point in America’s fight for independence.
In August 1780, British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis learned that American Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates had a force of some 3,700 men attempting to liberate northern South Carolina from British control.
Cornwallis responded by leading an army of 2,230 men to the area. Even though the British force was vastly outnumbered, the battle was an absolute massacre for the Americans. In fact, the battle was so lopsided that the Americans basically dropped their arms and fled.
Gates’ army lost 1,700 men that day, while the British only lost 325 soldiers, according to the American Battlefield Trust, making the battle the largest single day loss for the Americans of the entire war.
The Battle of Camden also marked the end of Gates’ military career. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene who would go on to develop a strategy of guerilla warfare that would eventually turn the tide of war to the American’s favor.
