The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Date on marker does not correspond with date on application/genealogy death date
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Author: Gary Lee Coburn
Asa Coburn, the son of Andrew and Jane Coburn, was born in Dudley, Worcester, Massachusetts on September 14, 1741.
Asa Coburn was typical of the citizen soldiers that were created out of necessity in the early days of the Revolutionary War. It is doubtful if he had any military experience before he first enlisted in April 1775 when he marched on the Alarm to Lexington on April 19, 1775, as a private with Captain Timothy Parker’s Minute Men unit in Colonel Warner’s Regiment. At that time, he was thirty-three years old, had six children to support, and joined the cause of freedom to fight in a war over the next eight years. He was joined by many others from his immediate family including two brothers, cousins, uncles, and of course his young son Phineas.
He enlisted as a private and was quickly promoted to Lieutenant and a year later was commissioned as a Captain – a position he held until the end of the war. After the war, he received a brevet promotion to Major on September 30, 1783. He served with distinction in several units of the old Massachusetts Line of the Continental Army most notably the 3rd, 6th, and 7th Regiments and was on duty at the Battle of Ticonderoga, the two Battles of Saratoga, and saw action at Cherry Valley, Fort Herkimer, Albany, West Point, Princeton, and Trenton. Most of the time he was in command of companies in units such as the Light Infantry in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment of Foot but also held other assignments from time to time including one period as a recruiter. After the war, Asa joined General Rufus Putnam, and the Ohio Company of Associates, and helped to establish the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory along with many of his Revolutionary War compatriots. It is safe to say that Asa was among those men picked for his proven leadership in the war, and his willingness to venture into a new land, and endure the assured hardships and risks that he and his family would face.
At the commencement of Indian hostilities in that region, Asa and his sons joined the Waterford Association and were domiciled in Fort Frye near Marietta, Ohio.
After surviving eight years of battle during the Revolutionary War, Major Coburn perished in this new war with the Indians, which was fought on the Ohio frontier where he was killed in an Indian raid in Waterford in 1789.
He and other Patriots are buried in a plot marked by the DAR in Mound Cemetery, Marietta, Washington County, OH (39.41998, –81.45187)
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