I have found five different books that do confirm that Asa Pollard was
the first person to die at Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill) - four give his name,
four give the town he was from (Billerica) and one gives the unit. SO,
it's obviously true.

Here's how the story goes:

Asa Pollard is described as a happy, easy-going, stocky farm boy from
Billerica who enlisted in the Minutemen. He was part of Col. Thomas
Stickney's Co., Ebenezer Bridge's regiment. On June 16, 1775, Col.
William Prescott was having his men quietly digging 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.  Their water supply had been emptied  by a cannon ball by
the British that hit the container it was held in.  

Another theory, according to Abram English Brown's "Beside Old Hearth-stones" 
was that Asa, who was accustomed to the poorly directed shots from the British ships, 
did not seem to be overly concerned about them.  That he almost seemed to 
ignore them.  In this theory, Asa was sitting on the embankment around midday 
on June 17, 1775 when the cannon shot from the Somerset hit him and 
beheaded him.  If Asa hadn't taken the firings from the British so lightly, 
there is reason to believe that he wouldn't have been the first to die in this battle.
Nowhere does Abram mention that Asa was leading the men to water when he
lost his life such as the book "Now We Are Enemies" does.

But thanks to this one event, his death, Asa Pollard became the first casualty of the 
war on Breed's Hill. 

Col. Prescott, who had been sprayed with Asa's blood and brains
and who could only wipe off his clothes with the dirt that lay around
him, noticed the sudden commotion around where Asa had stood. He
barged his way through the men whose clothes were also sprayed with
Asa's blood and who were surrounding his  lifeless body. A subaltern
informed Col. Prescott of Pollard's death and asked what should be done.
There was fear and indecision in the man's voice.

Now Col. Prescott knew only too well that the men he had with him 
who were mostly farmers had mostly never dealt with such shelling
before and were undoubtedly in shock after witnessing such a death at
such close range. He knew that if the situation was handled with too
much attention, it would drive the others to want to desert as the
solemnity of the matter would be constantly on their minds. He told the
subaltern to bury him without ceremony or prayers hoping that in
making the burial quick and without much witness, the matter could
finally be put to rest and the work on the fort which was much needed
could continue on. He ordered the rest of the men to keep working on
the fort. Most of them gladly did so, being relieved to get the incident
off their minds.

"What!" said the astonished officer, "without prayers?"1

A chaplain insisted on performing the service and gathered together
many of the soldiers about the open grave. Prescott ordered them to
disperse and return to work with which the soldiers did. The chaplain
again gathered the soldiers for the service and this time performed them.
The effect of the service did exactly what Prescott feared it would do.
After the service, many of the men deserted the army and headed back
home feeling more emotional and frightened than they had before the
ceremony.

Soon after, Israel Putnam, Brigadier General in the Connecticut militia,
arrived at the fort with Col. Samuel Gerrish. He told Prescott to have
some of his men move their entrenching tools to a safer place but
Prescott warned him that if he did, he would only lose more men to
desertion. Putnam insisted, believing that every man would return.
Prescott reluctantly obeyed. The men practically begged to be chosen to
move the tools. They had been working all night and day without much
relief, had witnessed Pollard's horrific death and were being bombarded
with the occasional cannonball that would make its way up from the
English cannons. It didn't exactly give them a warm and cozy feeling to
say the least. And as Prescott predicted, none of the men who were
chosen to carry the tools returned. It was another heavy loss to the war.

So that's the story of Asa Pollard, the first to die at Bunker Hill (or
Breed's Hill). As you well know, the battle was lost due to desertions, the
weakness of the fort, bad location and the lack of supplies and
reinforcements. But the Americans, it was told, did give the British a
hell of a fight - even though the British won, it cost them highly. 

Not much about Asa is written although I did manage to find one quote
where Asa was describing Israel Putnam to a fellow soldier, "They say
that Putnam would march right into a cannon's mouth." To which
Peter Boynton of Andover answered back nervously, "He can march. 
I'll watch."4 (Peter sounds a lot like me!) 

So it's just a little history, not much. Doesn't matter. We'll take it. It
puts Billerica in the books. That's all that counts. (And God knows we
need something to put us there or anywhere for that matter.) 

ANYWAYS, I would imagine Asa's still buried out there somewhere on
Bunker Hill (or Breed's Hill, which is really where they were) hopefully
with some sort of marker. Don't know as I've never been there.

-Binny                

*Sources:
1"History of Boston, Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill" by
Frothingham; 1851; p. 126
2"Patriots - The Men who started the American Revolution" by A. J.
Langguth; 1988; pg. 276
3 "The Compact History of the Revolutionary War" by R. Ernest Dupuy
and Trevor N. Dupuy; 1963; pg. 49
4 "Now We are Enemies - The story of Bunker Hill" by Thomas J.
Fleming; 1960; pp. 16, 157 - 158, 161, 202
5 "Beside Old Hearth-stones" by Abram English Brown; 1897,  pp 329 - 333.

Copyright 2002