Simon Fraser (1729-7 October 1777) was a Brigadier-General of Great Britain who fought in the War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War, and the American Revolutionary War.
Biography[]
Simon Fraser was born in Balnain, Invernessshire, Scotland in 1729. Fraser joined the British Army during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and fought at the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom alongside the Dutch Army against the Kingdom of France, and during the Seven Years' War, he took part in the storming of Quebec. Fraser was in disguise as a French officer during the attempted infiltration of Quebec, and although his raspy voice nearly gave his nationality away, he convinced the French sentries (in French) to let his party continue to the Plains of Abraham. He thus allowed James Wolfe's army to proceed to the city to besiege it, and thus he was a hero of the French and Indian War.
During the American Revolutionary War, he served under the command of General John Burgoyne in the campaign in northern New York. He defeated the Americans at the battle of Hubbardton and the Battle of Freeman's Farm in 1777, but during the Battle of Bemis Heights, Fraser was targeted by marksman Timothy Murphy. Fraser was shot by Murphy, who was on a treetop, and Fraser was mortally wounded. He was kept in the care of Baroness Frederika Charlotte Riedesel, wife of Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, until he died.