Dan Snow's History Hit - Reburying the Dead of America's Revolutionary War

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

Dan attends the funeral of British and American soldiers, over 240 years after they died fighting one another at the Battle of Camden. He takes us through the battle step by step, walking the fields of South Carolina and speaking with archaeologists, locals and soldiers to bring this British victory back to life.Dan ends at a funeral procession that commemorates the lives of the men who died, and reminds us that the cost of war transcends the centuries.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world-renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code DANSNOW. Download the app or sign up here.We'd love to hear from you! You can email the podcast at [e-mail] can take part in our listener survey here.

This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War. You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. It's just before sunrise in South Carolina. It's going to be a hot day, but the temperature is now deliciously cool.

I can move about in these woods without too much discomfort. Over there in the east, the sky is lightening. Above me, it's now a very deep shade of blue. You can hear in the distance, through the trees there, the long-distance truck drivers already on the road, a few early morning commuters. They're heading north and south between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Camden, South Carolina. I'm just outside Camden now. I'm on the battlefield where in August 1780, the British scored one of their most decisive victories over the Americans in the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Camden. In fact, probably one of the worst defeats in American military history.

A very one-sided affair. And in the aftermath, at least, it ensured that South Carolina and Georgia, two of the southern breakaway rebel colonies, would be mostly under the grip of the British colonial authorities. And I'm here in these woods because very recently a remarkable discovery was made. The bodies of soldiers from both sides of that battle have been recovered. Some buried deep, clearly in the aftermath of the fighting, buried with military honours by their comrades.

Others buried beneath perhaps just an inch or two of soil, perhaps even some of the remains left scattered on the surface and have been covered up gradually over time. So the burials are a reflection of who won, who lost, and the chaotic aftermath of the battle. These bodies have been recovered by the brilliant South Carolina Battleground Trust. The scientific, the forensic work has been carried out by the University of South Carolina. And I'm here this weekend in April 2023 because I'm attending the funeral of 18th century soldiers killed in battle. That's the first time I can ever say that. It's a very, very special event. These men, Brits and Americans side by side, will be reburied on the

battlefield with all the considerable formality that the authorities here in South Carolina can muster, we're going to have flypasts, we're going to have British military, American military presence, political and diplomatic representation from both sides of the Atlantic here as well. I'm very proud to be here and take part. So in this podcast, I thought I'd tell you about the Battle of Camden, about the bodies that have been found, what they tell us about the men who fought back then, the nature of the fighting, and the service itself. We're here making a documentary for History Hit TV. As always, go and subscribe.

You can also check out our History Hit YouTube channel. We're putting some videos up there as well. In the meantime, enjoy the pod. T-minus 10. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. God save the king. No black-white unity till there is first and black unity. Never to go to war with one another again.

And lift off, and the shuttle has cleared the tower. I am now walking through the woods, just north of the city of Camden in South Carolina. Alongside me is a road, once a Native American trading track, then pretty much the first road that took settlers long before settlers headed off on the Oregon Trail to the west. They went from Virginia, from the northern colonies, down into North and South Carolina, towards Georgia, Florida and beyond.

This was a hugely important route of European settlement and it was here on this road that the two armies clashed in August 1780. The Americans racing down from the north trying to isolate and capture a small group of British redcoats and loyalist troops and their supplies at the town of Camden. The British, though, had taken them by surprise. The Army of South Carolina, under the impressive General Cornwallis, had marched up from Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, and were already waiting for them. Incredibly effective march.

They'd marched something like 100 miles in three days. So they'd taken this American force completely by surprise. The American Revolutionary Force, led by General Horatio Gates, thought they'd be snapping up the low-hanging fruit of this garrison at Camden. Instead, they found themselves facing the full-time professional army of Cornwallis' veterans. And it was on the morning of the 16th of August 1780 that the two armies would have deployed from this road where they've been marching roughly a column up the road they'd have deployed into line of battle through these trees where I am now now the pine trees are reasonably far apart there's not much undergrowth so armies could walk and move through

these trees in large coherent bodies of men and the two lines would have faced each other a couple hundred meters apart initially and then closing to musket range and then engaging in hand-to-hand fighting like this morning there wasn't a breath of wind and as soon as the muskets started firing and the artillery opened up soon the air became thick and heavy with gunpowder smoke and the battle became a confused affair units obscured from one another very hard to exert any command and control i'm walking through these trees i'm the only person here it's quiet peaceful it's still hot i'm here in May and it's hot. In August it would have been absolutely roasting. Can you imagine the British regulars in their thick woolen red coats

marching up this road grumbling about the heat? Each unit had a different facing colour, so the sort of lapels, if you like, of their coats would have been a different colour to show men what regiment they were in. Above each of the regiments they'd have had flags, two flags flying held by the youngest officers the ensigns young teenage boys surrounded by burly sergeants to make sure the ensigns didn't fall into enemy hands one of the ensigns a big union flag the king's color

the other a regimental color more particular to that unit a symbol for the regiment and then all the battle honors all the previous battles in which that unit, a symbol for the regiment and then all the battle honours, all the previous battles in which that regiment had taken part, reminding the men of the glorious exploits, their forebears, encouraging them not to break and run, to fight as hard as their forebears had done. And that's the British army deploying in these trees, one regiment of Scotsmen, the 71st Highlanders. The bizarre thing about this battle was that the fraser highlanders had fought against the british government the battle of culloden in 1746 which has been covered on this podcast before then they volunteered the fraser highlanders to fight for

the british government they found themselves here in north america fighting for the government against one or two soldiers on the American side who'd been fighting for the British government at Culloden, had moved to America and now become rebels. So this really was a civil war, a war of confusing and shifting loyalties. Through the trees opposite me now, I've been able to see the American patriots,

the revolutionaries deploying. Opposite me on the eastern side of the road would have been the American, the militia. These are part-time soldiers. They're farmers, farmers really they've been issued with a musket hadn't really been done much training they might sign on for just one campaign or or perhaps a year of fighting they were not shown how to use the bayonet which is the lethal bits of razor sharp steel like a knife that attaches to the end of the musket which means that musket can be used not just as a gun to shoot people,

but can be used as basically a spear as well, with the razor-sharp steel tip perfect for hand-to-hand fighting. So these militiamen now face some of the crack units of the British Army. That would not go well. On the other side of the road, we have interesting units raised from America. So there are Americans who've signed up to serve in the British Army for the duration of the Revolution. So they're lined up on the other side of the road from me now. And facing them were American revolutionaries,

but not militiamen, full-time professional American revolutionaries who'd been trained up in George Washington's army, the so-called Continental Army, the crack American troops. The British plan was brutally simple that day. It was to close with and destroy the enemy. It was get up close, fire a volley or two with your muskets, and then get amongst them with the bayonet, hand to hand fighting, put your enemy to flight. And that's what they did. The British commander was absolutely thrilled that after months of

kind of irregular guerrilla warfare hit and run attacks here was a chance to do the kind of fighting he wanted to do regular fighting on a battlefield where two lines of men faced each other in this kind of fighting the british enjoyed a huge advantage and the americans opposite them yes there had been some successes in the revolutionary war so far but usually americans enjoyed the advantage of entrenchments, for example. But here it was just line of men against line of men, and the British were confident of victory. Over here on this side of the road where I am now, the British closed, they fired those musket volleys,

they got amongst the Americans with their bayonets, and the Americans fled. They hardly fired a shot. Men threw away their muskets, they ran, some hid in the swamp surrounding to escape. Others kept going north as fast as their legs could carry them. It was a catastrophic defeat on this side of the battlefield for the Americans. On the other side, those American professionals, those continental soldiers I mentioned,

they put up much more of a fight. It was very, very fierce for some time on that side of the road. And that's where many of the casualties have been found on this battlefield. The fighting there was ferocious, Brits and Americans firing musket volleys at close range, furiously reloading. It takes about 20 seconds to reload a musket all the time. The enemy are pouring fire into you, then you shoulder the musket, you fire off your round and then you start the process of reloading again. You get close, you try and use the bayonet, but they were driven back. The tide ebbed and flowed a few times on that side of the battlefield.

There was very tough fighting. And senior American commander became one of only two American generals killed during the American Revolutionary War. General de Kalb, he was a European mercenary who'd trained the new young American army in the ways of European militaries. He fell mortally wounded to the ground, trained the new young American army in the ways of European militaries. He fell mortally wounded to the ground, cut several times with saber slashes and bayonet thrusts. The Americans eventually on that side were driven back as well.

All in all, it was a catastrophic defeat for the American army. One of the worst defeats actually in the history of the American army. One commander of the Virginia militiaman wrote to the governor of virginia and said picture it as badly as you possibly can and it will still not be as bad as it really is right at the end of the battle the british were able to unleash their cavalry men mounted on horseback who crashed down on the wavering americans and that was the absolute end, that was the decisive blow. This thunderous charge took the fight out of the Americans and they fled before the men on horses slashing down with their sabres. Perhaps as many as a thousand Americans were killed, wounded or captured. This area that I'm walking across now is one huge cemetery. The

vast majority of the remains here have never been identified, lying under a very shallow layer of earth. We know that pigs and wolves feasted on their remains. We know that for a long while after they were digging up human bones on the battlefield and making off with them, it would have been a terrible sight. As for the British, only around 70 killed, around 250 wounded. This was a very one-sided battle. It was a triumph for the British. It looked like it was a battle that would confirm Britain in the possession of South Carolina, of Georgia to the south, and it seemed to be a precursor to Britain taking control of North Carolina as well.

The southern strategy seemed to be a precursor to Britain taking control of North Carolina as well. The southern strategy seemed to be working. The British commander General Cornwallis was in the thick of the fighting. He directed that cavalry charge himself for example choosing exactly the right moment to deploy his shock cavalry but the American commander Horatio Gates was way behind the American line. He's completely hopeless and he seems to have played no real part in the action at all. It's not clear that any orders were issued or received by any of his subordinates. And certainly when it became clear that the Americans were retreating, he led the way. He galloped off. He actually had one of the best racehorses in America as his mount and he used it that day. By the end of the day, he was something like 60 miles away in Charlotte, North Carolina. And he didn't stop there. Three days later, he was 180 miles away to the north, completely

abandoning his defeated army in the field, who had to look to themselves for their salvation. I've walked now to the centre of the battlefield where the modern road, which broadly follows the route of the old road, runs right through this area, right through the battlefield. And then about 10-15 metres to the east of the road is one of the burial sites that's been discovered. It was originally disturbed by relic hunters. They let the authorities know and the body has been excavated and subjected to the proper archaeological examination.

Turns out this is the Brit. This is a member of the 71st Highland Regiment, the so-called Fraser Highlanders, and it's marked now by four small white flags. There'll be a marker stone here. The body's been taken off for examination and will be rebur stone here the body's been taken off for examination and will be reburied in the military cemetery that's being set up very close to here it's in a sandy patch

of soil as well as the four markers there's an orange pole to mark where the head would have been so he's lying with his head in the north and here i'm going to meet steve smith who's a professor in the department of archaeology and and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. He can tell me more about what the archaeology can tell us. Steve, what's this depression here with these markings? Well, this is the exact location where we found the 71st Highlander. And the orange pole that's sticking up there marks where his head was and the green pole marks where his legs or feet were. How did we come across these bodies? Were they disturbed by

treasure hunters or animals or did you know where to look? In this case the first one, this gentleman here was found by a relic collector. Others that we found were found by us doing systematic archaeological work here using metal detectors. And how do we know that this gentleman here in this grave was the 71st Highlander, a Brit? He had plenty of 71st Highlander buttons on him. Okay, so the buttons are key? The buttons are key. As well as the 71st Highland Regiment buttons, the excavations of this burial also revealed metalwork,

complete with a Scottish thistle insignia and the number 71. The plan of the excavation shows how the Highlander was laid out carefully in the grave. What does the manner of burial tell us about this gentleman? Well we recovered 14 soldiers, 12 continentals, aiaman, and this British Highlander. This was the only individual that was buried formally, laid out as you would if you knew the gentleman and you wanted to pay him respects. This gentleman was buried the deepest of all of the 14. He was about a foot and a half deep, whereas the other soldiers that we recovered were

all just kind of thrown in shallow graves. In fact, one individual we found after we began excavating him, we found that his femurs were actually sticking up out of the ground and in very shallow graves, again, and just tossed in any old howl, so to speak. So I guess that reflects the Brits are in charge of the battlefield.

They retain possession of the field after the fighting, so they look after their own. Correct, exactly. I'm sure this gentleman was buried by some of his friends. And from these bodies, can we tell anything about the manner in which they died? Well, the Highlander had a severe impact to his back, back of his cranium. I believe it's probably blunt force trauma. So he probably was killed by a hard blow to the back of his skull. So like the blow from the butt of a musket or something, so like real hand to hand? Absolutely.

We're in the middle of a thick battle with very violent fighting between 23rd British soldiers, the 71st Highlanders, and the 1st Maryland Brigade. All of them veterans, they knew what they were doing? Yeah, these were not amateurs, these were people who had been through a lot already and they were hardcore veterans, so this was violent warfare right here. What other archaeology have you done on the Bafu? Have you done metal detecting, remote sensing that can tell you any more about the fighting? Yes, that's correct. We've actually, that's our primary effort

here is to do systematic metal detecting across the entire battlefield. Every artifact we have a GPS point for. You could come into our lab and say I'd like to know exactly where that musket ball was found and we can go okay, we put it in the GPS, come right back out here and go that's where we found it. Can I see the results of that? Oh, yes, absolutely. So here is one of our latest maps. And you can see all of these are musket balls or buckshot. So we're standing in pretty much the most,

well, the densest concentration of musket ball drops here. That's correct. There's hardcore fighting going on here. These are either drop musket ball drops here. That's correct. There's hardcore fighting going on here. These are either drop musket balls, or they're from both the British and the Americans, or they're buckshot fired from American cartridge. And there's a few gun parts and that sort of thing. It's the suggestion here,

these are actually musket balls that shot and fell to the ground, or were they fumbled as people were reloading their muskets and just dropped out of pockets? That's correct some of these are we call them unfired because we don't know if they were dropped or how they got there but they're basically unfired but you're right we can extract out all the fired muskets and look at the unfired musket balls and be able to refine where we know units were. Because if you've got a line of unfired musket balls, then you've got an indication that someone was standing there in a row

with other British or American soldiers firing volleys downrange. And so let's take a look at this. What do you think it's telling us? Clearly there's a big fight down here where the American Continentals took on the British American-raised troops. The Battle of Ebden flowed there, didn't it? That's correct. What you're pointing at is the American right flank and the British left.

And so the 2nd Maryland Brigade was fighting here against the North Carolina Loyalists and the Volunteers of Ireland. On the other side of this road, out here was where the Virginia Militia and the North Carolina Militia were. And, of course, they fled from the battlefield. Not many musket balls there, so maybe nothing lasted too long there. The Virginia militia fled almost immediately as we saw the British regulars coming forward with their bayonets.

They just simply took off. And then the 2nd Maryland Brigade, which was in reserve, came forward, met the 23rd and the 33rd, and then slowly were forced back. And this is where this heavy fighting is going on. And that's why the sense almost of a right angle here. Correct. Because the Brits are coming in from here and from here. Correct.

It's like a backward J. Yeah. And what happened was the British General, Lord Cornwallis, saw the gap between those two battles that were going on, sent in his 71st Highlanders and British Cavalry, the British Legion Cavalry, and British Legion Cavalry were able to get behind the Americans on this right flank, and then they realized they were being surrounded, and that's when they had to fall back. Our 71st man here was perhaps sent into battle by Cornwallis slightly after the rest to administer the coup de grace.

Absolutely. He was a reserve. He came in later in the battle, but he got all the way up here. So he made it this far forward. Approximately how many artifacts and musket balls and other projectiles do you think you found on the battlefield? Oh, we've just counted recently. We've got 2,900 musket balls.

You listen to Dan Snow's history hit, The Best is Yet to Come. do you think we found on the battlefield? Oh, we've just counted recently. We've got 2,900 musket balls. You listened to Dan Snow's history hit, The Best Is Yet To Come. Stick with us. This is history's heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War.

You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts. I've come to another part of the battlefield now, probably 30 or 40 metres south of where the Highlander was found. And there is another site with lots of flag markings which show where they found more of the fallen from the battle. These markings on the surface show that they found five corpses here. Unlike the Highlander, these ones were not buried in separate graves. They appear to have been thrown in together in a shallow grave, buried hastily.

To talk me through this different burial, I'm joined by Dr. William Stephens Stevens and Dr Madeleine Atwell, forensic anthropologists at the Richland County Coroner's Office. They're far more used to dealing with contemporary crime scenes than 18th century ones. So this looks like a more complicated site, a lot more markers here, Bill. What was under the ground when you had a look here?

Maddy and I were excavating across the road. Archaeologists were here. They were troweling away, carefully brushing, and we soon realized this was potentially a mass grave. The skull location is marked by the orange flags and the feet are the green markers. And so Maddy, this looks like it's a mass grave, but also quite concentrated. They're not all kind of spread out. Yeah, so these individuals were commingled. This side was less commingled than this. This consisted of about three people who were very much overlaying each other. And so it took Bill and I a couple hours of sitting and just looking

and taking a color-coded map and sketch to figure out which skeletal element belonged with each individual to ensure that we were maintaining anatomical orientation of every individual. So it sounds like these gentlemen were sort of thrown in in a pretty haphazard way. Does that reflect the attitude you think after the battle of the victors towards the vanquished potentially it does what stood out in this grave particularly were fractured femurs so we have kind of a locus that was commingled here with broken bones suggesting rough handling of the soldiers contrasting with some of the other graves hastily thrown in you know there are lots of factors at play the august

heat men were not well they were suffering from dysentery and battle wounds, so this was done hastily and in a rough manner. The throwing, potential throwing of the bodies on top of each other is a sign they were not given much respect, they could have been buried by the victors of the battle, with nowhere near the care, just a hundred feet away of the Highlander. Other than the manner in which they appear to have been buried without that respect, what other clues do we have that these were Continentals, these were American Revolutionary troops? Yeah, this is based on the archaeology done at the site

that has been able to identify everybody by their buttons. And so the buttons had USA on them, and Jim Legg, the archaeologist, was able, even in their very fragmented state, to put them back together in a really amazing way. What can we tell about the way they may have lived? Their dental enamel preserves signs of nutritional stress, maybe fever-producing illness as children. So these are ubiquitous among 18th, 19th century samples, usually evidence of growth disruption, linear defects of the enamel, growth stoppages revealed by x-ray of their shin bones, their tibia.

So they had tough childhoods and nutritional challenges. So even before they joined up to serve in this brutal war, they would have had a very tough life? They would have, yes. And do we have any causes of death? We are always hesitant to make assessments of cause of death when we only have fragmentary skeletons, so we document traumatic injuries. So we have associations of musket balls directly with the bone. So those we document as projectile injuries.

A lot of the men, the preservation out here did not lead to survival of elements like the ribs and the vertebrae because they're porous bone. So in not surviving, the evidence we have for their potential injuries and causes of death are projectiles within their abdominal cavity. Maddy, you must have, in your job as a coroner, you look at all sorts of different cause of death and sites. Is there something really different about working in a battlefield where you've got mass casualties like this? Right, where everybody is pretty much a homicide.

Yeah, the difference for me, although it's absolutely still emotional, where you've got mass casualties like this? Right, where everybody is pretty much a homicide. Yeah. The difference for me, although it's absolutely still emotional, is it's not contemporary medical legal death investigation. So it was a real honour to figure out more information about these individuals where there really isn't a lot of the physiological, the biological aspects involved in the historical canon that already exist. It's Saturday morning. It's the day of the reburial, just getting in the car. The reason I'm getting in the car here is because it is raining. After a week of absolutely roasting weather, I got sunburned yesterday,

and beautiful weather forecast tomorrow, the day of the parade, the day of the outdoor funeral, the reburial service. The weather is decidedly British. Grey clouds, driving rain. There's a little bit of blue sky over there to the east, so hopefully there'll be a gap in the weather. The weather gods will smile upon today's commemorations. The rain has cleared. Blue skies are back. That heat is back. I'm now standing on Broad Street, which is like the main street of Camden. There are hundreds of people lining the road.

It's been closed in preparation for the funeral to come past. The cortege, the American flags, the 1780 appropriate American flag with the 13 stars representing the 13 colonies lining the route. A gentle breeze is stirring them. The scene is set for the arrival of the 14 unburied soldiers killed at Camden. We're just waiting now for the procession to turn into the church. I've got the four horses drawing the gun carriage

on which the British 71st Regiment soldier is lying, his coffins shrouded in a Union flag. Seven members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland providing an honour guard. They're looking resplendent in their kilts, marching through the middle of Camden. It's a fine sight for any Brit. In front of them we've got wagons, artillery kilts, marching through the middle of Camden. It's a fine sight for any Brit. In front of them, we've got wagons, artillery wagons, on which the bodies of the American soldiers are sitting, are resting. In their pine coffins, the pine has been carefully sourced to be 18th century pine that would have been growing

when these men were alive. The Royal Regiment of Scotland is the descendant of the 71st Army. It's the descendant of all the Scottish regiments in the British Army, famous regiments like the Black Watch or the Highland Light Infantry. Those have all been amalgamated now into one Royal Regiment of Scotland. So that's why they're here. And the horses are now dragging the wagons and the gun carriage off into the Presbyterian Church. Scottish troops stepping off smartly.

As people prepare for the funeral service, I'm going to talk to Sergeant Major O'Neill of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, about how he and his men are feeling on this special day. I can be guilty of thinking about the kind of archaeology, but actually for you, this is something that you've experienced. You've lost men in battle. Yeah, well, we have done so. It's not lost on us that we have soldiers in our regiment who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in recent operations. And if you have a look at the pallbearers, every single one of them have got medals on their chest from recent campaigns in

places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo. So as much as we're here today to lay to rest a soldier who died almost 250 years ago ultimately our thoughts will also be with soldiers from our own regiment who have died in recent campaigns. I'm going to try and grab a word now with an American sergeant who I've just spotted through the crowd. Joel, what's it mean to be here today as a serving soldier? Sir, being here today, it's a true honour and a privilege to not only be here amongst our greatest ally and our local population, and to see our soldiers serve today to recognise our fallen,

regardless of how long it's taken so team history here just driven the 10 minutes from camden back up to the battlefield we're here now huge gathering of people the reenactors are here with their muskets. Modern military. We've got the governor of South Carolina here. We've got some important-looking state senators. They are all leading the next stage of today's events. This is the battlefield on which the bodies will eventually be buried.

The plan was actually to bury them today, but the US Army stepped in and said they wished to create a special cemetery, a consecrated piece of ground for those men. They won't just be buried where they were found. So in fact the burial won't place today, that will be in a month or two's time. But this will be the last official stage of the journey. At the end of the service following the American soldiers picking up the American coffins and putting them on the back of Humvees, the British soldiers picked up their comrade separated in time, but not in profession. And they loaded him on the back of a Humvee for transportation back to the battlefield as the band plays Amazing Grace.

But that wasn't the end of the day's commemorations. We're heading back, following the bodies up to the battlefield where they will eventually be placed back into the earth. The coffins have been brought to the battlefield, draped in their flags. British and Americans side by side on the field of battle on which they fought nearly 250 years ago.

There was a short service. We had a speech from South Carolina's government. He warned us to be vigilant on behalf of liberty against enemies, foreign and domestic. Now, Apaches have flown overhead and now in keeping with American tradition for the fallen flags that draped the coffins are being presented

not to family members because we haven't been able to identify the descendants yet of these men but to various dignitaries, various officers and men representing different units in the US military. The British coffin now lies alone at the end of the row,

draped in its Union flag. And that's really the last stage of their journey. A special plot is being prepared here by the US military, and the soldiers will be interned on the battlefield. They came from the field of battle, and they will return to the field of battle where they will remain. But for the next few centuries they will lie with a far greater degree of respect and acknowledgement than they've had for the last two and a half centuries. It's been a huge honour to be here in South Carolina.

A huge thank you to everyone we've met here, all the people that have helped us. honour to be here in South Carolina. A huge thank you to everyone we've met here, all the people that have helped us. We couldn't have made the TV show and these podcasts without the famous Southern Hospitality that we've been showed at every single stage. Made lots of new friends, lots of new colleagues. So thank

you to everyone who made this possible. And thanks, as ever, for listening. See you next time. This is History's Heroes. People with purpose, brave ideas, and the courage to stand alone. Including a pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the shattered faces of soldiers in the First World War.

You know, he would look at these men and he would say, don't worry, Sonny, you'll have as good a face as any of us when I'm done with you. Join me, Alex von Tunzelman, for History's Heroes. Subscribe to History's Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.