Asa Pollard

Photo http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3C4Y_Birthplace_and_Home_of_As...

HyperLink View waymark gallery Birthplace and Home of Asa Pollard - Billerica, MA in Massachusetts Historical Markers Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Team Farkle 7 N 42° 35.005 W 071° 17.102 19T E 312493 N 4717086 Quick Description: The first casualty of the war on Bunker (Breed's) Hill, grew up here in Billerica, MA., Harvey Farkle's hometown.

Long Description: How many times have I walked, peddled or driven past this place? Too many to count, that's for sure.

Asa Pollard was the fourth son of John Pollard and Mary, daughter of Isaac Stearns, born November 15, 1735, at a farm located in North Billerica.

On June 16, 1775, Col.William Prescott was having his men dig a trench on Breed's Hill in preparation for a fort. It was while digging the trench that the British discovered what the American's were up to and they started firing at the fort. A cannonball from the English ship, Somerset anchored in Boston Harbor, hit Asa Pollard and beheaded him as he led the other men to find water to drink.

The plaque reads: Birthplace and Home of Asa Pollard First to fall at Bunker Hill June 17, 1775

The marker is engraved into a large stone in front of the home close to the side of the road. For those heading north on 3A, Pollard Street is just off Boston Road at the junction of routes 3A and 129. Follow it Northeasterly. Those of you who are coming south from say Lowell, take a left onto Sprague Street, across from Rangeway Road and then right onto Pollard Street. If you can't find it, you've picked the wrong hobby.

The Birthplace and Home of Asa pollard is also listed here (visit link) and here (visit link

________ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_Pollard Asa Pollard born on November 15, 1735 in North Billerica, Province of Massachusetts to John and Mary Pollard, two farmers.[1]

American Revolutionary War sa Pollard (November 15, 1735 – June 15, 1775) was an American soldier. He was the first soldier to be killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War.

Pollard enlisted in the Continental Army on May 8, 1775,[2] and his first battle was during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He died in the Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill) when a cannonball shot from a ship, took off his head.

Brown, Abram (1897). Beside Old Hearth-Stones. Lee and Shepard. Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State (1904). Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War. Wright and Potter Printing.

Brown 1897, p. 329

Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State 1904, p. 499

_________ find a grave

evolutionary War Colonial Soldier. He was the first man killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill, actually fought on Breed's Hill. While some accounts say he was still in his teens when he was killed, source records show he was 39 and an experienced veteran of the French and Indian War. Accounts also differ on the circumstances in which he was killed, but not the method. Pollard was struck by a cannonball fired from HMS Somerset anchored in Boston Harbor. It skipped along the ground, bounced and instantly decapitated him. One account says this happened as he was returning with a party of soldiers sent out to forage for water. However, the account of Col. William Prescott, in command of the earthworks atop the hill, indicates Pollard was on the edge of the redoubt close by when he was struck. Prescott even remarks how he wiped the man's blood and tissue off himself with fresh earth. Fearing the sight of Pollard's headless corpse would panic his men, Prescott ordered him to be buried immediately without ceremony just outside and to the rear of the earthworks. A minister defied orders by saying some prayers over the hastily dug grave. After the battle, British victors buried American dead left behind in a common trench. Families later exhumed and retrieved some of these remains, which they identified through personal effects. But Pollard's grave location was not recorded, and his remains never retrieved. It is presumed that he lies to this day in the shadow of the 221-foot tall Bunker Hill Monument.