Brigadier-General
SIMON FRASER,
24th Regiment
1729-77
Simon Fraser was the youngest son of Hugh Fraser of Balnain. He
was Lieutenant Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot, and given the
rank of "Brigadier General, in America only" in 1776. He was
commander of General John Burgoyne's elite Advance Corps in the
campaign from Canada in 1777, commanding the British grenadier
battalion, British light infantry battalion, the 24th Regiment, the
company of British marksmen (commanded by his nephew, Captain
Alexander Fraser), Indians, and companies of British artillery,
Canadian militia, and Loyalists. He was mortally wounded during the
Second Battle of Saratoga (October 7, 1777), reputedly by Private
Timothy Murphy of Colonel Daniel Morgan's Riflemen. He was brought to
the Taylor House, a building used by Baroness Frederika von Riedesel
and her three daughters, and placed upon a bed. In her memoir she
wrote that:
- I heard him often exclaim, between moans, "Oh, fatal ambition!
Poor General Burgoyne! My poor wife." Prayers were said, then he
asked General Burgoyne to have him buried at six O'clock in the
evening, on a hill, which was a sort of redoubt.
-
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Saratoga, NY
Fraser's plaque was dedicated almost 210 years after he died.
Even today, the exact site of his burial is disputed. This plaque is
placed about two miles west of the area of his burial, on Saratoga
National Historical Park's visitor centre lawn, overlooking the
Battlefield.
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