Revolutionary Firebrand, Citizen General & Ordinary Soldier at Bunker Hill - Joseph Warren (1775)

            Successful physician, committed revolutionary, and colonial militia officer, Boston-born Joseph Warren (1741-1775) gave up the practice of medicine soon after his graduation from Harvard University to pursue politics. Outraged by the Stamp Act of 1765, he joined Sam Adams and other prominent Whigs in forming the Boston Committee of Public Safety, one of the most important of the political “clubs” that fueled the growing movement for separation and eventual independence from the English crown.

            A prolific pamphleteer and frequent contributor to the regular press, Warren was a skilled orator who argued publicly – and at considerable personal risk - for an end to the oppressive measures passed by Parliament and the depredations endured by his fellow citizens. After the Boston Tea Party, Warren helped draft the “Suffolk Resolves” (September 9, 1774), a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence that called for armed resistance and economic retaliation for the excesses already suffered. Carried by Paul Revere to Philadelphia, the “Resolves” were endorsed by the Second Continental Congress shortly after it convened.

            Continuing his service to Massachusetts as a legislator, he played a major role in helping organize the defenses in and around Boston. He personally dispatched Revere and William Dawes to Lexington on April 18, 1775 to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock of the immanent arrival of British troops. After the initial battles there and at Concord bridge, Warren was given a commission as a Major General of the Massachusetts militia and named second in command.

          

            On June 14, 1775, as the colonial forces gathered on the hills to the north of the city, Warren refused command of the troops defending Bunker Hill, volunteering instead to defend the ramparts as an ordinary soldier. It was there that he fell three days later, before receiving his written commission, and immortalized in a painting that bore little in common with actual events. The British dumped his body in an unmarked ditch and when later recovered it was identified by the artificial silver teeth crafted by his close friend and renowned silversmith Paul Revere. It was probably the first example of the wartime use of dental identification of remains in our history.

            Dr. Joseph Warren was the first American general to fall during the Revolution. In an act of humility and true citizenship, he gave up command to one who was better able to wield it, and fought as a citizen soldier, shoulder-to-shoulder with his friends and family, defending his country, in sight of his birthplace and home. If one must fall in battle, what better way, what better place?