Joseph Warren

As long as the British troops occupied Boston and Charlestown, Joseph Warren’s mother, Mary, and his brothers, Sam, Eben, and Jack, were unable to retrieve his remains from Breed’s Hill. It would be almost a year before the British evacuated. Joseph died without a will, therefore, during this darkest period of grief his loved ones took care of the immediate needs of Joseph and his wife Elizabeth’s four orphans, …

On June 20, 1775, after three days of trying to determine his brother’s fate, Dr. Jack Warren, in an act of seeming desperation, headed toward British occupied Boston. In a biography of his father’s life, Dr. Edward Warren wrote, “While endeavoring, on this occasion, to pass a sentinel, in his overwhelming anxiety to ascertain his brother’s fate, Dr. [Jack] Warren received a thrust from a bayonet, the sear of …

JACK WARREN WAS THE YOUNGEST OF THE FOUR WARREN BROTHERS – THE SONS OF JOSEPH WARREN SR. AND MARY (STEVENS) WARREN. Joseph Sr. died instantly from a fall while picking apples in the family’s orchard in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Jack, only two-years-old, witnessed his father’s death. The shock of this tragedy can hardly be imagined Joseph, Mary’s eldest son, had just begun his freshman year at Harvard. He was fourteen …

On the night of June 16, 1775, an earthen redoubt was to be constructed under the cover of darkness on a prominence on a peninsula in the town of Charlestown known as Bunker Hill. In earlier discussions of occupying this hill, Warren was skeptical. Now, there was no choice. On the morning of June 17, Warren discovered that the redoubt was not constructed on Bunker Hill, as planned, but …

On June 16, 1775, Warren was president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, chairman of the Committee of Safety, and awaiting his commission as major-general of the Massachusetts forces (which could only happen after a new president was seated in congress). His concerns were vast and colossal – how to feed, cloth, house, and supply the tens of thousands of men that turned out to face the British in battle …

What was he able to accomplish by staying? British General Thomas Gage was instructed to arrest Warren – why didn’t he? I’m not aware of any historians who have seriously considered these questions. I have co-authored an article, soon to be published, that addresses these questions – and will offer concise, historically documented answers. Warren’s unique ability to remain safely in Boston was his carefully strategized rise to the …

Joseph Warren was able to take on risks no other Patriot leader could due to his prominent Masonic position of Most Worshipful Grand Master of North America. His name and position were known throughout the colonies. This position offered him respect and protection from fellow colonists and British officers alike. As mentioned in my previous post, when Boston Patriot leaders feared taking on a necessary secret mission to England, …