Dr. Joseph Warren (1741 – 1775) played a leading role in Patriot organizations in Boston at the beginning of the American Revolution, eventually serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. He enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes to spread the alarm that the British were moving to Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warren was at the Battles of Lexington and Concord the following day.
Warren was commissioned a major general in the colony’s militia before the Battle of Bunker Hill. Instead, he participated in the battle as a private soldier, and was killed when British troops stormed Breed’s Hill.
Warren’s death was immortalized in John Trumbull’s painting, “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775,” and he was memorialized in the name of many towns, counties, streets, and other locations in the United States, including Warren County, NY (although Warrensburg is named for James Warren, an early settler).
Portrait of Dr. Joseph Warren.
An interesting footnote in the annals of history is that Dr. Warren was the head of
the Commission in Massachusetts that Benedict Arnold appealed to when he wanted
to go take the cannons from the British at their Fort Ticonderoga. The commission OK’d his idea, gave him money and off he went to “take the fort”. However, there were others thinking similar thoughts as a Commission from Connecticut appointed
Ethan Allen in the part of the country which is now ( not then) Vermont to go to
Ticonderoga to do the same thing. E.A. and B.A. met – I believe – in several places… one of them on the main street of Castleton, Vt…. and Ethan Allen told B.A that he,
and his “boys” were going to be the ones to take the fort…which they shortly thereafter
did, although, Benedict Arnold was along for the ride and was there when the fort was
taken over in 1775. This is not a well known part of Dr. Warren’s story, but, I believe
his connection to the taking of Fort Ti .. resulting in the following trip with the cannons to Boston should be considered a part of his legacy.