“Warren’s ultimate sacrifice and bravery inspired both Washington and the fledgling nation.”
By Christian Di Spigna
DR. JOSEPH WARREN was one of the most active revolutionaries in the decade leading up to America’s independence. And although today his name has been overshadowed by the likes of Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton, Warren’s incendiary actions predated the founders’ involvement in the Whig rebellion by many years. Despite being killed at Bunker Hill, one of the war’s first engagements, his martyrdom obscured his other major contributions to the early Revolution.
Warren’s rise as a social, political and military leader can be traced back to a New England smallpox outbreak in 1764. Upon his graduation from Harvard University, Warren spent a year as a teacher at his alma mater, Roxbury Latin School, before becoming a medical apprentice to Dr. James Lloyd. One of the finest doctors in the colonies, Lloyd became Warren’s early mentor. After the aspiring physician administered scores of smallpox inoculations in 1764, he began to grow his own practice and soon became involved with the Sons of Liberty — Boston’s radical insurgents who resisted oppressive Crown policies.
From the Stamp Act crisis and the Townshend Acts to the Boston Massacre and Tea Party, Warren’s footsteps are cemented throughout what is now known as the Freedom Trail. But it wasn’t until September 1774, when he drafted the Suffolk Resolves—a declaration and list of grievances against Great Britain’s oppressive policies—that Warren’s influence on “the Cause” really took hold. The seminal document was a precursor to the Declaration of Independence and was unanimously adopted by members of the somewhat divisive first Continental Congress.
Over the course of the next 10 months, Warren would rise to join the elite ranks of Whig society in Massachusetts. Already a grand master of Ancient Scottish Rite Masons, Warren chose to deliver the annual commemorative Boston Massacre oration in 1775 amidst rumours that any Whig who accepted the task would be subject to harsh reprisals and possible assassination. Later he became president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and head of the Committee of Safety, coordinating the most important military, fiscal, and political matters in the Bay Colony. With other upper echelon Boston Whigs on their way to Philadelphia’s congress, Warren became a leading patriot leader in Massachusetts.
His decision to summon Paul Revere and William Dawes on their April 18th missions did indeed set events on a trajectory that would change the course of history. And while Revere and Dawes did make the famous journey (Dawes is much less remembered), it was Warren who voluntarily rode into battle early the next morning and fought alongside his patriot brethren in what came to be known as the battles of Lexington and Concord. Warren was nearly killed during the war’s opening skirmish when a musket ball grazed his head taking with it a portion of his pinned hair curl.
In the following weeks, Warren participated in clashes at Noddle’s and Grape Islands, once again proving his willingness to place himself in danger to support the rebellion and his fellow patriots. Although nominated to serve as a major general, Warren opted to fight as an ordinary soldier at Bunker Hill, believing that his fellow officers William Prescott and Israel Putnam were more capable commanders. It proved a fateful decision. In the opening volleys of the battle, Warren was shot through the face and died instantly. He was 34 years old.
It must be remembered that Warren was the only top political Whig leader to actively participate or be engaged in combat in the war’s first four battles. And since he had been involved in nearly every major insurrectionary event in the Boston area in the decade leading up to Bunker Hill, he alone deserves the moniker, “Founding Grandfather.” The Founding Fathers we esteem today, Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Henry, Paine, Hamilton, and even John Adams were late comers to the fields of rebellion, when compared to Warren.
In death, he was transformed into one of the Revolution’s first martyrs. Up to that point, the most admired fallen hero in the American colonies was British Major General James Wolfe.
Killed 16 years earlier on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe led his troops to victory over the French in Quebec during the Seven Years War. For Whig colonists, Warren’s courage and premature death immediately supplanted the martyrdom and adulation of Wolfe. His courage was recognized and admired by those on both sides of the political divide, but particularly by his fellow soldiers who fought at Bunker Hill.
“The greatest loss sustained is the death of Dr. Warren,” wrote one participant in the battle. “A main spoke in the wheel of Politicks at this critical juncture—he is universally lamented in the camp.”[i]
When General George Washington arrived in Cambridge weeks later, he was virtually unknown by the New England army. Yet Warren’s ultimate sacrifice and bravery inspired both Washington and the fledgling nation.
In a modern world in which many have sadly become desensitized to reports of military casualties, and one where athletes, movie stars and pop icons gather the lion’s share of attention and adulation, it’s difficult for us to appreciate just how significant Warren’s death was to colonists in 1775. Overnight Warren had become an inspiration and hero. His death and martyrdom served as a rallying cry against an oppressive mother Britain and helped lead the way to American independence.
[i] John Bromfield to Jeremiah Powell, June 21, 1775, Miscellaneous Bound Manuscripts MHS.
Christian Di Spigna is the author of FOUNDING MARTYR: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero, published by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House. He lives in New York and is a regular speaker and volunteer at Colonial Williamsburg. You can follow him at @martyr1776
