Did you know that Warren County was named after Dr. Joseph Warren, a Founding Father and War of Independence hero? Learn more about this American hero and what his legacy means for us today.
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Early Life
Joseph Warren was born in 1741 in the town of Roxbury in what was then called the Province of Massachusetts Bay. His father, Joseph Sr., was a respected farmer who tragically died in 1755 when he fell off a ladder while harvesting fruit from his orchard.
Young Joseph attended Roxbury Latin School and would eventually graduate from Harvard College. Warren became a physician and began practicing in Boston.
In 1764, Joseph Warren married Elizabeth Hooten, an heiress five years younger than him. Together, they had four children. Sadly, Elizabeth died in 1773.
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The Stirrings of Liberty
While practicing medicine in Boston, Dr. Warren developed an interest in the colonial struggle against British encroachments. He befriended men like John Hancock and Sam Adams and was associated with the Sons of Liberty movement.
Publishing under the pseudonym, A True Patriot, Joseph Warren promoted the colonial cause. Royal authorities attempted to prosecute his publishers, but no local jury would indict them.
As the tension between Massachusetts Bay Province and the imperial government intensified, Warren was appointed to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, which sought to coordinate the colonial opposition to Parliament. Warren drafted the Suffolk Resolves which called for resistance to Parliament’s Coercive Acts. The resolutions were later endorsed by the Continental Congress.
Later, Warren was appointed as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, the highest office in the secessionist government.
The “Midnight Ride” and the Beginning of Hostilities
Many Americans are aware of Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” to warn the Minute Men that the “British were coming.” What many don’t know was that it was Joseph Warren who recruited Paul Revere and William Dawes for the mission.
At the time, Warren and Benjamin Church were the last two members of the Committee of Correspondence left in Boston. Warren received intelligence that General Thomas Gage was planning to seize colonial weapons and arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. Warren sent Revere and Dawes to warn Hancock, Adams, and the militias.
Joseph Warren escaped from Boston the next day and helped coordinate American attacks on the British troops returning to Boston after the Battle of Lexington and Concord. During the fighting, Warren was nearly killed as a musket ball struck part of his wig.
Warren’s mother, Mary, upon hearing this news, begged him not to go into battle again. Warren’s response was this: “Wherever danger is, dear mother, there will your son be. Now is no time for one of America’s children to shrink from the most hazardous duty; I will either set my country free, or shed my last drop of blood to make her so.” His words would prove prophetic.
During the Siege of Boston, Warren recruited soldiers to the Patriot cause and, as the head of the Provincial Congress, led negotiations with General Gage.
The Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 14,1774, the Second Continental Congress commissioned Joseph Warren as a major general in the Continental Army. Just before the Battle of Bunker Hill, a strategic conflict fought just outside of Boston, Warren located General Israel Putman, who was commanding the Patriot militia men.
Both Putman and Colonel William Prescott asked Warren to assume command of the American forces. Warren refused, noting the military experience of both Putman and Prescott. Instead, he volunteered to join the militia as a private and asked Putman to send him to the place where he thought the fighting would be heaviest. Reluctantly, Putman sent Dr. Warren to Breed’s Hill. As the fighting began, Warren repeatedly stated, “These fellows say we won’t fight! By Heaven, I hope I shall die up to my knees in blood!”
Though greatly outnumbered and outgunned, the Patriots repelled the British advance, not once but twice. Finally, with artillery support from the Royal Navy, the imperial force managed to break the Patriot lines. Joseph Warren kept firing his gun until he ran out of ammunition.
Dr. Joseph Warren was killed in that final assault. His enemy, General Thomas Gage, was reported to have said that Warren’s death was equal to the death of 500 ordinary colonials.
Warren’s body was dishonored and mistreated by the British soldiers, eventually being thrown into a ditch. Months later, Paul Revere and Warren’s brothers exhumed his remains, using an artificial tooth to identify his body. His body is now buried in his family’s vault in Boston’s Forest Hills Cemetery, where it awaits the resurrection of the dead.
Lessons and Legacy
When the founders of Iowa settled our great state, they named many of the counties after great American heroes. Our county has the honor of being named after Dr. Gen. Joseph Warren.
Joseph Warren embodied the ideals that made America great. He was a man motivated by love of home and people. He put the cause above personal glory and dignity. Nothing says more about the American spirit than that one of the Revolution’s most competent leaders was willing to die as a private in the early stages of the war. Warren embodied manly courage and self-sacrificing patriotism.
If America will ever be made great again, it will be by men who display such virtues. This nation was built on courage, self-sacrifice, resolve, and humility. Only these virtues will restore our greatness.
Every resident of Warren County should be honored to bear his name.
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