Eagle Feathers #243 – Doctor Warren

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

“It is the united voice of America to preserve their freedom. Let us prefer the lonely cottage, while blest with liberty, to gilded palaces, surrounded with the ensigns of slavery.” These timeless quotes came from Joseph Warren who was born in Roxbury on June 11, 1741.

Warren graduated from Harvard College in 1759, advanced his education in medicine, and practiced in Boston where he treated Patriots, Tories, British and their families during trying political times. He saw all sides and became a staunch Patriot leading up to the Revolution.

On September 1, 1774, British soldiers attacked the Powder House in what is now Somerville. The next day, on September 2, minutemen by the thousands came to Cambridge and Somerville to protest this attack and the intolerable acts the British were imposing on the Massachusetts Colonists.

Two days later on September 4, Doctor Warren drafted the Suffolk Resolves. This paper created a fire storm among the thirteen colonies. It called for noncompliance with British authority, and eight months later, the Revolution began.

He was a leader in the Sons of Liberty and the Chairman of the Provincial Committee of Safety. He ordered Paul Revere, William Dawes, and other riders to warn the Middlesex countryside of the impending British attack on Concord and Lexington.

Following the British Army’s retreat along Battle Row, he coordinated, led and fought alongside American militiamen. After the last English soldier slipped across the neck, he began mobilizing and mustering troops for the siege of Boston.

A month later, on June 14, 1775, he was appointed Major General by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Sadly, three days later, he died a heroic soldier fighting as a proud private during the Battle of Bunker Hill before his commission would take effect. The British said his loss was worth 500 men. His close friend, Paul Revere, later identified his remains.

In 1842, the citizens of Charlestown beyond the neck, today’s Somerville, wanted to name their new town in honor of this hero. They soon found the name had been taken eight years earlier by the village of Warren, Massachusetts in 1834.

At one time, there were two more locations named Warren prevailing in this state. One was ceded to Rhode Island in 1747 and the other went with Maine when that state separated from Massachusetts in 1820. Despite not adopting his name, Somerville lauded him and his memory through the years with Warren Street, Warren Avenue and Union Square’s Warren Hotel.

Today, a statue of the Doctor/General proudly stands at the base of the Bunker Hill Monument.