Joseph Warren Accomplishments

“When he fell in the Bunker-hill battle, co-laborers in the cause, who felt the magnetism of his influence, and knew the value of his service, declared that his memory would be endeared to the worthy, in every part and age of the world, as long as virtue and valor should be esteemed among mankind.” - The Life And Times Of Joseph Warren

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Dr. Joseph Warren, at the time of his death, was deemed worthy to be remembered forever and yet he has become forgotten in many modern tellings of the history of the United States. Joseph Warren was born on June 10, 1741 in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Joseph Warren Sr. and Mary (Stevens) Warren. Joseph Warren was a diligent and thrifty apple farmer, who was held in high regards by his fellow townsmen. In October

He was offered the position of surgeon-in-chief many times, being urged to take the position, but he refused, believing he should be fighting with the other men, and asking to be made a line officer instead. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress elected him to a major generalship. At almost the same time, the provincials learned that British troops planned to fortify the Charlestown hills overlooking Boston; the Americans reacted by hastily throwing up a redoubt on what they thought was Bunker Hill (and was in fact a lower eminence, Breeds Hill. Thus, the battle that took place on June 17, 1775 has often been misnamed in accounts of American history.) Joseph Warren joined the militia that was defending Breeds Hill and would refuse the offered command of the men, saying that he came as a volunteer and would fight like every other man. "A few hours later, in the desperate battle that marked a point of no return for Britain and her colonies, Joseph Warren was dead, a British musket ball in his head. Somewhere, in the last wild melee of the day, he fell, "He died in his best clothes," a British officer wrote, "everybody remembers his fine silk-fringed waistcoat." Another Englishman, Captain Laurie, found his body and "stuffed the scoundrel with another Rebel into one hole and there he and his seditious principles may remain." His body remained in the “grave” ,among possibly a hundred other American soldiers, until a year letter when Joseph’s brothers and Paul Revere rowed over to Charlestown and identified his body from two false teeth Paul had made specially for his old friend. Joseph Warren was properly buried in King's Chapel, Boston, on April 8, 1776. In the span of just ten years, Dr. Joseph Warren married, fathered four children, furthered the revolutionary movement in Boston immensely and died a hero’s