Caesar Bason

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at Battle Road and the Battle of Bunker Hill

Place of Birth:

Westford, Massachusetts(?)

Place of Death:

Breed's Hill, Charlestown, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

June 17, 1775

Place of Burial:

Likely Charlestown, Massachusetts

The following is from the 2004 National Park Service study Patriots of Color researched and prepared by George Quintal:

Little is known of Caesar Bason except that he was from Westford (MA) and was ‘a colored man’ and perhaps the servant of James Burn.’^I

His first service was at the Lexington Alarm in the company of Capt. Jonathan Minot, in Col. Hames Prescott’s regiment.^II This unit served at Battle Road.^III He afterward enlisted into the eight month’s service in the company of Capt. Abijah Wyman, in Col. William Prescott’s regiment, and was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the redoubt, where he was killed.^IV Historian Rev. Edwin Hodgman had the following anecdote related to him ‘on good authority,’ describing the last moments of Caesar Bason’s life:

In the battle he found his powder was nearly gone, and putting in his last charge, he exclaimed, “Now, Caesar, give ‘em one more.” He fired and was himself shot, and fell back into the trench.^V

With other Americans who were killed, he is probably buried on or near the grounds of the Bunker Hill monument.^VI

Footnotes:

1. Hodgman, Edwin R., Rev. History of the Town of Westford [MA] (1883), 113. Rev. Hodgman speculated that Caesar Bason may have been the same man as Caesar Burn, who in 1773 ‘was paid 4 shillings for four crows killed in this town.’
2. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 1:746. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
3. Coburn, Frank Warren. Muster Rolls of the Participating Companies of American Militia and Minute-Men in The Battle of April 19, 1775, … (1912), 37.
4. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908) 1:746. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.”
5. Hodgman, Edwin R., Rev. History of the Town of Westford [MA] (1883), 113.
6. See Anecdotes – Bunker Hill for a contrary opinion.

Learn more about Quintal's study.