Cato Mead (17611846; also spelled Meed) is the only known

Black Patriot Black Patriots were African Americans who sided with the colonists who opposed British rule during the American Revolution. The term "Black Patriots" includes, but is not limited to, the 5,000 or more African Americans who served in the Continen ...

(

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

veteran) buried west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

. Mead is buried in or near Montrose Cemetery in

Montrose, Iowa Montrose is a city in Lee County, Iowa. The population was 738 at the time of the 2020 census. The town is located on the Mississippi River. It is part of the Fort Madison–Keokuk, IA-IL-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The area aroun ...

. According to historian Barbara MacLeish, who is researching a book on Cato Mead, he joined the

4th Connecticut Regiment The 4th Connecticut Regiment was raised on April 27, 1775, at Hartford, Connecticut. The regiment saw action in the Invasion of Canada. After which the regiment was disbanded on December 20, 1775, and reformed on September 16, 1776, to fight ...

of the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

commanded by Colonel John Durkee of

Norwich, Connecticut Norwich ( ) (also called "The Rose of New England") is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River flows south to ...

in 1776 or 1777. Other sources reveal that Mead was born in 1762 and that he enlisted as private on 1 March 1778 for a one-year enlistment serving in Captain John McGregor's Company. It is not entirely clear if he was a former slave. He served at

Valley Forge Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the ...

from December 1777 through June 1778, where he contracted

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

, spending two months in a Pennsylvania hospital. Early military records show Mead received solder's pay of $10.04 for service his in the Continental Army in July 1783.''Pierce's Register: Register of the Certificates Issued by John Pierce, Esquire, Paymaster General and Commissioner of Army Accounts for the United States, to Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army Under Act of July 4, 1783, Issue 2 Volume 9, Issue 988 of Document, United States 63d Cong., 3d sess.'' Genealogical Publishing Company, 1915, p. 348 It is not known why he migrated to Iowa. While the exact grave location of Cato Mead is unknown, a marker stands at the Montrose Cemetery.

Sources

*Abigail Adams Chapter,

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

. ''Revolutionary War soldiers and patriots buried in Iowa''. 1978. *''Pierce's Register: Register of the Certificates Issued by John Pierce, Esquire, Paymaster General and Commissioner of Army Accounts for the United States, to Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army Under Act of July 4, 1783, Issue 2 Volume 9, Issue 988 of Document, United States 63d Cong., 3d sess.'', 1915.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mead, Cato Year of birth uncertain 1846 deaths People of Connecticut in the American Revolution Connecticut militiamen in the American Revolution 18th-century American slaves People from Lee County, Iowa Black Patriots Military personnel from Norwich, Connecticut People of colonial Connecticut