Cato Stedman

Quick Facts

Significance:

Patriot of Color at Battle Road

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, Massachusetts(?)

Place of Burial:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cemetery Name:

Old Burying Ground

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

Nothing is known of Cato Stedman’s early life.

He marched on the 19 April 1775 alarm in Capt. Samuel Thatcher’s company, in Col. Thomas Gardner’s regiment, where he is ‘reported a negro.’^I This company served on Battle Road.

He is also listed on a 27 May 1777 roll as having joined the Continental Army from Cambridge, for the length of the war, in Capt. Reuben Slayton’s company in Col. William Shepard’s regiment.^II This regiment served in the Saratoga campaign.

He is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Cambridge (opposite Cambridge Common) but there is no known gravestone.^III

Footnotes:

1. Secretary of Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (1896-1908), 14:900. Also 2-CD Family Tree Maker^TM set “Military Records: Revolutionary War.” Also Coburn, Frank Warren. Muster Rolls of the Participating Companies of American Militia and Minute-Men in The Battle of April 19, 1775, … (1912), 41.
2. Ibid.
3. His gravesite could not be found in three visits in June 2000, September 2000, and July 2000. There is a sign denoting his burial.

Learn more about Quintal's study.