Dr. Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay on June 11th, 1741. After attending Roxbury Latin School, Warren went on to Harvard. He graduated from Harvard in 1759. Soon after he returned to Roxbury Latin and taught there for about a year and would go on soon after to study medicine. On September 6, 1764, he married Elizabeth Hooten, an 18 year old Heiress. Their marriage would be short but fruitful. In 1772, she passed away, but not before giving Warren four children; Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and Richard.
Warren moved to Boston where he practiced medicine and surgery. At the age of 22, he was the youngest physician in the city, but still highly respected. He also joined the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew and became very active within. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was eventually appointed Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Around this time, he became very involved with politics and started associating himself with Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other members of the “Sons of Liberty”.
In 1768, Warren proved he was as equally skilled with a quill as he was with a scalpel. He wrote an essay, “Rights and the Liberty of the Press”, under the Pseudonym “A True Patriot”. The essay was so powerful that the British Government attempted to put the publishers, Edes and Gill, on trial. However, it was so widely popular amongst the colonists that no jury could be convinced to indict them.
On February 22, 1770, Eleven-year-old Christopher Seider, became the first American killed in the American Revolution. Dr. Warren would perform his autopsy. Less than a month later, Dr. Warren would sit as a member of the committee in Boston that gathered to put together a report on the Boston Massacre.
In 1774, Warren again took up the quill. He wrote a song titled, “Free America” set to a British tune, “British Grenadier”. Published in the newspaper, Massachusetts Spy on May 26, 1774, it came less than two months after the Boston Port Act and less than a year before Paul Revere’s ride. With lines such as, “Torn from a world of tyrants, beneath this western sky. We formed a new dominion, a land of liberty”, it showed the colonists’ steely resolve early on as well as the gulf that was gradually widening between the colonies and Britain.
September 6, 1774, Warren again showed his skill with a quill as he penned the first draft of what would be called the “Suffolk Resolves”. Three days later, the Suffolk County Convention of the Committees of Correspondence would have a final draft. The Suffolk Resolves would do several things; denounce the Coercive Acts (known in the colonies as the Intolerable Acts), swear disobedience to the Boston Port Bill and Massachusetts Governor Act with a refusal to pay taxes until the Massachusetts Governor Act was repealed and those put in position through it were forced to resign, swore to boycott British imports and all British goods while also curtailing the exports from the colonies, called for support of a government in Massachusetts free from Royal Authority until the Intolerable Acts were repealed, and finally it urged the colonies to raise militia from amongst their own people. The Suffolk Resolves went over about as well in England as the Coercive Acts did in the Colonies.
Tensions began to really ramp up even further in the colonies. Warren was asked to sit on the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, a shadow government set up by the Patriot Liberty movement. Warren would be asked to speak on the commemoration of the Boston Massacre twice. The second time he did so in March of 1775, he would do so while the town was under troop occupation and while wearing a Roman toga, as a symbol of democracy. He would also be appointed President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress making him the highest-ranking official in the revolutionary government.
In mid-April, Warren was only one of two of the top Committee of Correspondence still residing in Boston. For weeks it was obvious that General Gage and the Regulars were planning to attempt a seizure of arms and a spy ring had been set up to track their movements. On April 18th, Dr. Warren received word that the troops were about to move. He also heard that they were going to attempt to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Armed with this knowledge, Dr. Warren dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn Hancock and Adams and to spread the alarm to Lexington and Concord.
During the confusion of April 19th, Dr. Warren was able to slip out of Boston. By doing so, he was able to not only rendezvous with the militia, but to lead mean as well right alongside William Heath as the Regulars attempted their return back to Boston. As the enemy fled Boston, Warren was reportedly among the vanguard; leading from the front as he harried the Regulars’ rear. Indeed, so adamant was he in his pursuit that he nearly died, as a musket ball passed through his wig.
After the battle on April 19th, Dr. Warren’s mother learned of the battle and her son’s tribulations. She begged him with tear-filled eyes not to risk his life in such a way again. However, he would not be budged. Replying, Warren told her, “Where danger is, dear mother, there must your son be. Now is no time for any of America’s children to shrink from any hazard. I will set her free or die.”
Warren then turned his attention to preparing for battle. He set about recruiting militia men and helping organize them for the Siege of Boston and the inevitable war. At the same time, acting as President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, he would lead the negotiations with General Gage.
Towards the end of April, it would also be Warren who would authorize Benedict Arnold to capture the guns at Fort Ticonderoga. There were reported to be 80 cannons and very lightly guarded. Together with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, Arnold would accomplish his task. These guns would later prove to be vital to ending the siege.
On June 14, 1775, while Boston was still under siege, the Provincial Congress commissioned Dr. Warren as a Major General. At the time, Warren was 34 years old. Most people today would consider that a pretty young age for such responsibility, but they forget that many of the founding fathers were actually quite young and that duty knows no age. Three days after receiving his commission, Warren would borrow a musket and take the field as a private.
Certainly, upon arriving at Bunker Hill on June 17th, Warren far outranked anyone else present. General Israel Putnam and Colonel William Prescott reportedly both asked Dr. Warren to serve as commander. However, Warren recognized the experience of these two men and elected to follow a different course. After declining to lead, he asked the men where the fighting would probably be the fiercest. General Putnam obliged and pointed towards Breed’s Hill. With a borrowed musket, Warren took off in that direction.
The colonials were dug in hard but outnumbered. Still, they valiantly repelled the British as they poured fire down upon the regulars. Casualties were heavy on both sides, but somewhat heavier on the side of the British. Major Pitcairn himself fell in this battle.
“These fellows say we won’t fight! By Heaven, I hope I shall die up to my knees in blood!” Standing in the redoubt at Breed’s Hill, Dr. Joseph Warren, rallied the militia and taunted the British.
On the third and final assault, the colonials were out of ammunition. Warren stood defiant against the redcoats as they poured into the redoubt, so that others may get away. A British officer recognized Dr. Warren and forced him to pay the highest price for his valor. Dr. Warren was killed instantly as the officer fired a musket into Warren’s head at point-blank range. In a heinous act, the regulars bayoneted his body beyond recognition, stripped him of his clothes, and shoved him in a shallow ditch.
About ten months later the British would finally be driven from Boston. Soon after the colonials, exhumed the body of Dr. Warren. In probably what was the first case of forensic dentistry, Paul Revere identified his body by a false silver tooth which he had fitted Warren with. Having dug him up, his body would be moved to Granary Burying Ground and reburied. This time with full Masonic honors.
General Gage himself reportedly said that Warren’s death was equal to that of 500 men. To the Americans, he was a martyr; and his death could not be measured. Dr. Warren was a great patriot and this nation owes its very existence to his efforts.
He would have 3 statues erected in his honor; two in Boston and a third in Warren, Pennsylvania (which is also named after him). 14 states would name counties after Warren as well as over 30 towns and townships. Several schools and a fort in Boston Harbor would bear his name. There would be 5 ships in our nation’s Navy also named after him. It is up to us though to see that Warren continues to be remembered. Too many people have forgotten already. We must sing his song for his ballad is worth singing. “Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! Huzza for free America!” (“Free America” by Dr. Joseph Warren, Massachusetts Spy, May 26, 1774).