(14 Apr 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4429434
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbia, South Carolina - 30 March 2023
1. Team getting coffins ready
HEADLINE TEXT: Revolutionary War soldiers reburied.
2. Plates for soldiers
ANNOTATION: Historians and archeologists in South Carolina are preparing to rebury 12 U.S. Revolutionary War soldiers who died in the 1780 battle at Camden.
3. Various of team preparing coffins
ANNOTATION: The ceremonies, starting April 20, are the result of months of work to carefully excavate the bodies of the unknown soldiers from shallow graves.
ANNOTATION: The group took DNA samples and studied them. They plan to give them a proper burial where they fell on the now-protected battlefield.
4. Photocopies of soldier’s bones
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOT 4++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Bill Stevens, Forensic Anthropologist, Richland County Coroner’s Office:
“We have analyzed and determined things like sex, age, race. We have learned a lot about battlefield injuries that that were sustained in the Revolutionary War.”
6. Various of team moving coffins
ANNOTATION: Several of the soldiers were teenagers.
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOT 6++
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Madeline Atwell, Forensic Anthropologist, Richland County Coroner’s Office:
“Maybe the soldiers had kind of been so rundown and depleted at that point that they had to call in younger, younger troops, although it wasn't uncommon to have younger troops in general. Our estimations for each death of these individuals ranges from about 16 to 40.”
8. Photocopies of soldiers’ bones
ANNOTATION: Historians say they should be honored as America's first heroes and that their sacrifice helped make the U.S. the country it is today.
9. Team loading coffins onto truck
ANNOTATION: A similar project is studying a dozen German soldiers, called Hessians, who died fighting for the British at Red Bank, New Jersey.
STORYLINE:
Historians and archeologists in South Carolina are preparing to rebury 12 unknown U.S. Revolutionary War soldiers who died in the 1780 battle at Camden.
The ceremonies, starting April 20, are the result of months of work to carefully excavate the bodies from shallow graves, take DNA samples and study them, and give them a proper burial where they fell on the now-protected battlefield. Several of the soldiers were teenagers.
Historians say they should be honored as America's first heroes and that their sacrifice helped make the U.S. the country it is today.
A similar project is studying a dozen German soldiers, called Hessians, who died fighting for the British at Red Bank, New Jersey.
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AP video shot by: Jeffrey Collins
Production: Sharon Johnson
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