2.4: Patriot Physician: Dr. Joseph Warren and the Battle of Bunker Hill

He was a local man who became a well-respected physician, treating all members of Boston society, Patriot and Loyalist alike.  However, his personal sympathies lay with the growing movement that would push towards full independence from Great Britain.  Dr. Joseph Warren would unfortunately not live to see this come to fruition, although he was a key player in orchestrating events that would lead to this break, culminating in his indirect participation in Lexington and Concord, and his all-too-direct participation in the Battle of Bunker Hill.  This episode of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on Dr. Joseph Warren, the Patriot Physician who became one of the first true martyrs of the Revolutionary movement.

Key People
Dr. Joseph Warren
Samuel Adams
John Hancock
General Thomas Gage

Key Events
Stamp Act
Boston Massacre
Intolerable Acts
Battles of Lexington and Concord
Battle of Bunker Hill

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

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Transcript

The event was memorialized in painting by famed artist John Trumbull, who actually watched everything unfold on June 17, 1775.  Although a defeat for the Americans, nearly three times the number of British would lose their lives at what was called the Battle of Bunker Hill…but one American life would cost them dearly.  At the center of Trumbull’s painting, lay this slain American leader, whose family actually commissioned Trumbull to complete the work of art.  It includes prominent British leaders such as Henry Clinton and William Howe, as well as the lesser-known John Small, who is attempting to prevent the bayonetting of the body of this American.  American Thomas Grosvenor is attempting to come to the aid of this officer, but is held back by a soldier commonly believed to have been Peter Salem, a free black man who also fought at Concord and would serve at Saratoga.  The leader: Dr. Joseph Warren, and the painting is called The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775.  It took on iconic status, but also etched Dr. Warren into the public consciousness as a martyr of the Revolution, but little else.  On this episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, we explore the life and Revolutionary efforts of Dr. Joseph Warren, the Patriot physician whose ultimate fate lay at Bunker Hill.

Act I: Intolerable England

In our last episode, we took a look at Phillis Wheatly’s life to examine not only colonial perceptions of freedom, but also to understand the unfolding pre-Revolutionary events as experienced by a non-direct participant.  This episode picks up the story in 1774 as Great Britain sought to act against Boston for their role in allowing the infamous tea party to occur.  It’s the singular event that caused Lord North, England’s reluctant Prime Minister, to use a heavier hand in dealing with the king’s colonial subjects.  The results are what are commonly referenced as either the Coercive Acts or the Intolerable Acts, a series of laws designed to punish Boston, and therefore Massachusetts, for destroying all those chests of tea belonging to the East India Company.  Each law was passed separately, but their overall effects were as follows: Boston Harbor was to be closed until the Company was paid for its lost tea, and the decades-old charter of Massachusetts was revoked and it was restructured as a royal colony.  Town meetings that were so ingrained within the Bay Colony’s political culture were now banned, save for one meeting per year.  Additionally, with more British soldiers occupying Boston, more conflicts were bound to occur, so any Brit accused of a crime in colonial America had the right to sail back to England for trial, and presumably, a more sympathetic judge and jury.  Provoking further anger was the widening of the Quartering Law of 1765; it legislated that owners of vacant properties were required to allow soldiers to board at a reduced rate, with the fear that personal residences may be next.  This law had been in effect in New York, but its Continent-wide application indicated that all of North America was to be held accountable for the actions of Massachusetts.  The cherry on top, the law that often gets lumped in with these Acts and really angered a majority of American colonials, was the Quebec Act.  England claimed France’s North American possessions as a spoil of the French and Indian War, and the Proclamation of 1763 was supposed to protect much of this Indigenous land, but there were a fair number of French residents who remained following that war’s end.  English colonials continued to settle and speculate this land, but now, all lands that north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River were politically transferred to Quebec: French Roman Catholicism was tolerated, and French law ruled the day in this region.  This was no mere act of punishment towards a sole colony: this smacked of a greater plot to prevent westward expansion, and thereby, diminish colonial authority.  It was amidst this backdrop that the call went out for the convening of the First Continental Congress.

Act II: Revolutionary Warren

Dr. Joseph Warren wasn’t a delegate to the First Continental Congress…in fact, he unfortunately wouldn’t even live to see the Declaration of Independence.  Yet he stood as a titan among the preeminent Patriot leaders in pre-Revolutionary Boston, even earning a place as part of a “triumvirate” of sorts alongside Samuel Adams and John Hancock.  He’s even referenced as a so-called “Forgotten Founding Father,” one of many who have that distinction bestowed upon them.  Therefore, we’ll take a look at how Dr. Warren built his Revolutionary profile.

Joseph Warren hailed from Roxbury, which was two miles south of Boston, and it had the distinction of being the last town on passed through on their way to Boston if one hoped to pass through the Boston Neck.  It was on the family land in this town where Joseph Warren entered the world on June 11, 1741: Warren grew up on the family farm where he assisted with all forms of labor necessary to running such an operation.  His parents valued formal education and enrolled him in nearby Roxbury Latin, which was a feeder school for Harvard.  Similar to the subjects of our first two episodes, Thomas Hutchinson and Samuel Adams, Warren would attend this prestigious institution; unlike those two, Warren did not come from a well-to-do background, which affected his official “standing” while there.  Nevertheless, Warren used these years to build his knowledge base, hone his speaking skills, and most interestingly, practice his military skills as a founding member of a Harvard militia unit.

Warren began studying for his degree in medicine in the early 1760’s, and given the absence of any formal medical schools in colonial America at the time, it meant that Warren only needed to study for two years to become a doctor.  Warren then became an apprentice physician, studying under a highly respected Boston doctor who himself came from a highly respected, and high-society, family.  Through this man, Dr. James Lloyd, Joseph Warren gained access to Boston’s elite, and his social skills enabled him to develop a professional demeanor that would eventually endear him to Patriots and Loyalists alike.  Dr. Warren built his client base in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and worked through a host of political events that caused strife on both sides, even administering smallpox inoculations to the household of John Wheatly during a 1764 outbreak…the same household in which last week’s subject, poet Phillis Wheatly, resided.  That same year, lawyer John Adams left his home in Braintree for his Boston-based inoculation courtesy of…Dr. Joseph Warren.  He was closely associated with prominent Patriots from an early date, but right up until the outbreak of fighting, he treated Patriot AND Loyalist families, including that of Thomas Hutchinson and his family.

In his personal life, Dr. Warren mingled more with those who expressed their discontent with English laws.  For instance, he counted several members of the so-called “Loyal Nine,” a precursor to the Sons of Liberty, among his patients and friends.  Leading up to the implementation of the Stamp Act, Dr. Warren published an editorial (anonymously, of course!) expressing his displeasure at the law and informing his fellow colonials whom he felt would most benefit from this heinous act.  He also went out of his way to praise His Majesty and place blame for the law solely on the shoulders of his administrators and advisors.  He also counted Samuel Adams as one of his patients beginning in 1768…the same year as the implementation of the Townshend Acts, and already well on his way to counting himself as a “radical” Patriot.  He was summoned to treat the wounded on the night of March 5, 1770; he autopsied those who were killed, and provided the keynote address commemorating the event one year later.  Dr. Warren was a founding member of Boston’s Committee of Correspondence, and likely played a role in planning the Boston Tea Party.  However, it was in the aftermath of Act I’s Intolerable Acts where Warren really began to shine.  Boston was located in Suffolk County, and its assembly continued to meet in defiance of the Massachusetts Government Act.  As member of this assembly, Dr. Warren drafted the “Suffolk Resolves,” and they surprised even the most radical in the First Continental Congress when they reached Philadelphia courtesy of silversmith Paul Revere.  The Resolves denounced the Intolerable Acts…and went further by calling on all Massachusetts residents to refrain from paying taxes to England, boycott British goods, and cease all trade with the Empire.  Most distressing to the North administration was Warren’s belief that these citizens should, to quote, “acquaint themselves with the art of war as soon as possible,” and all militia should disavow their loyalty to Great Britain, Lord North considered the Suffolk Resolves to be a declaration of war…and the First Continental Congress almost unanimously adopted them.

Act III: The British Are Coming

Well, the Resolves were adopted…partially because Samuel and John Adams reassured the more moderate delegates that they would tone down Dr. Warren and his incendiary rhetoric.  The Congress adjourned in October 1774 with the intention of meeting again in May 1775 if King George III was unresponsive to their requests.  Prior to this adjournment, in spring 1774, Governor Thomas Hutchinson bid farewell to his home and was replaced by General Thomas Gage, an officer with experience in the French and Indian War and thus holding a better grasp of the continent then his colleagues.  The arrival of Gage and an additional 4,000 soldiers are what prompted Warren’s further radicalization and authorship of the Suffolk Resolves.  In March 1775, Warren delivered another keynote speech honoring the victims of the Boston Massacre, an annual tradition by this point.  Unlike his previous speech, this time he was surrounded by angry redcoats attempting to intimidate him.  Warren refused to hold back, placing blame for Boston’s current situation solely in British hands.  He also claimed that if the appeals of the Continental Congress went unanswered, then, to quote, “the only way to safety is, thro’ fields of blood.”  Dr. Warren was finding himself a marked man among the British, although Samuel Adams and John Hancock were a tier above him as potential enemies of the state.  However, he made plans to send his family out of Boston for their own safety, while he remained to report on British movements and advance what was becoming known as “The Cause,” but also to continue his medical practice.

What happened next triggered the war that ultimately led to the United States of America.  General Gage knew that an arsenal of weapons and gunpowder were stored in the Massachusetts town of Concord, about 20 miles from Boston.  British regulars had been providing hints that they would soon be on the move, and for months leading up to that fateful April day in 1775, British patrols had been performing some not-so-subtle reconnaissance on rural towns west of Boston.  Patriots intelligence was so vast that the movements of the officers tasked with surveying the landscape were unable to maintain any manner of deception.  An incident in nearby Salem in late February nearly exploded into violence, but cooler heads carried that day. However, the dual dates of April 18 and 19 would produce no such calm; official dispatches from General Gage indicate that the express purpose of the march to Concord was to “seize and destroy all the Artillery, Ammunition, Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all the Military Stores.”  A spy on the American side also tipped Gage off to the presence of John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Concord, so it is widely believed that additional verbal instructions involved the capture of these so-called ”rabble rousers.”  Of course, due to the efficient communications system devised by Dr. Warren and others, the militia surrounding Lexington slowed the advance of the British light infantry and grenadiers at a cost of 8 immediately killed in action and 10 wounded.  Upon reaching Concord, the British found…nothing.  Nothing they were looking for, anyway.  Hancock and Adams were gone, and much of the supposed contraband had also disappeared.  They did find militia, angry that Concord buildings had burned to the ground in the search for these goods.  They fought the British at the Old North Bridge, and then fought them back to Charlestown, near Boston.  America’s casualty count: 95.  Britain’s: 273.

So what does this have to do with Dr Joseph Warren, who was back in Boston when the fighting broke out?  Keep in mind that Dr Warren was the Insider who helped conceive of a system of intelligence to inform the countryside if it ever happened that “the British were coming.”  He was the man who allegedly had a spy inside General Gage’s Inner Circle that tipped him off about British intentions at Lexington and concord, and Warren was the one who dispatched Messengers to warn colonial leaders and militia about the impending strikes. He sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn Adams and Hancock about Gage's plans. They also were supposed to prepare any and all Countryside militia for conflict, and Revere even took time to reach out to militia leaders that he knew en route to the safe house of the two leaders. With the commencing of his midnight riders, Warren spent the evening preparing for the worst, going so far as to destroy any documents that could reveal secret information or incriminate him. news reached Boston the next morning about lexington, and he even rode out and participated in the fighting that occurred prior to concord. He was part of the militia that helped drive the British back to Boston, or the Colonials would surround them. Boston, under a sort of British occupation, was now Under Siege as militia streamed in from the countryside, thanks to the planning and ferocity of Dr Warren.

Act IV: Martyr of Bunker Hill

So we find the British in Boston, surrounded by all of the militia who have more or less been training for this moment for quite some time. Procuring any supplies overland is tricky since the militia have the Boston Neck sealed up tight. The clash between British general Gage and Colonial forces at Bunker hill is still months away. So what went on during these two or so months? Well, the Continental Congress believed that Nova Scotia, informally the 14th colony, might attack New England from the north so they put measures in place to prevent this from happening, with an eager Benedict Arnold taking the lead in this mission. Dr Benjamin Franklin also returned from his prolonged time abroad in May 1775; we'll learn much more about these two later in season. But what about Dr Warren, seemingly the only leader of importance not in attendance at the Second Continental congress? After fighting the British Warren met with the Massachusetts Committee of safety, meetings which culminated in a letter he wrote to the Congress advising the creation of a powerful army, on the side of america. While waiting for a response, Warren resurrected his pen and bombarded the area with pamphlets blaming the overly aggressive Redcoats for the fatalities at Lexington and concord. He couldn't return to Boston, not after the events of Lexington and Concord, so he threw himself into what was becoming known as “the cause.” He was elected president of the second provincial Congress in Massachusetts, sought to procure supplies and alliances, and he even continued to fight.. much to the dismay of his contemporaries. Dr Warren also wrote to the second continental congress with news of the landing of British generals William howe, Henry clinton, and gentleman Johnny burgoyne.. proof that England really did want to teach the Americans a lesson. by mid june, each side was hurtling towards a clash.

As we know, June 17, 1775 Was to be the date of said clash, and it would also Mark the final day of Dr Joseph Warren's life. an attack on the colonial forces surrounding Boston had been agreed upon by the ranking British officers in boston, although general Gage was a bit hesitant to take immediate action. The Colonials have been fortifying their position on breeds hill, and Dr Warren spent the morning of June 17th convening with a war council and sifting through reports of British movements. At dawn, Britain's attack began with an artillery barrage designed to impose a little shock and awe on its recipients. There is considerable debate on whether breed's hill, closer geographically to boston, was supposed to be fortified as opposed to nearby bunker hill, but we're not going to address that issue, or get too in depth regarding battle tactics. What matters to us is what happened during the battle with regard to Dr Warren's role. Not content to be a politician who let others do the fighting in his stead, he had been appointed as a major general by the Massachusetts provincial congress. This meant that he outranked all but two members of the colonial forces present on June 17th, and although he didn't have to fight, he assumed a position along a line commanded by Colonel William prescott. He was part of the front line that was low on ammunition, so they followed the orders of their colonel, which were officially stated as, “ don't fire until you see the whites of their gaitors,”  but admittedly, “whites of their eyes” seems more memorable. The primary clash that made its way into the dominant narrative on this day centered on the three advances that the British troops made towards Warren's position. Warren explicitly instructed the best Sharpshooters to Target the officers during the first volley, but the final charge of the British required them to fix their bayonets and engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Warren drew his sword after he was wounded and engaged the enemy, rallying the troops to resist their oppressors. Dr Warren covered  the retreat of every single man and ensured that he would be the last to leave the battlefield, but unfortunately, he lingered for too long. He was shot in the face just under his left eye, and as his body lay on the field, an enraged British soldier bayoneted him. one of the best leaders of the Colonials was dead, a casualty of the Battle of Bunker hill, which would be the deadliest Battle of the entire revolution. 

The battle did much to convince both sides that there could be no turning back. King George III declared the American colonies to be in open rebellion and resolved to bring them to heal. New England Patriots had been ready for war for some time, and although the Declaration of Independence was over 1 year away, more Americans would embrace its inevitability.  Dr Warren's death certainly shocked both sides: General howe allegedly considered Warren to be the equivalent of 500 men and was aghast at the mere thought of a man of such importance taking the field and fighting. His corpse had been desecrated Beyond recognition, contrary to orders given by General gage, and releasing his body would only infuriate the enemy. There were even doubts as to whether he had died, but once given access to the battlefield, his brothers identified his remains based on two false teeth that had been secured with a gold wire. It's said to be the first instance in which dental records were used to identify a body, and this body was given the equivalent of a state funeral. keep in mind that the British didn't leave Boston until 9 months following bunker hill, so this funeral didn't occur until April 1776. it's certainly not as if Warren was forgotten by this time, but those Left Behind were starting to rise in prominence. For instance, Dr Warren died never knowing that the Second Continental Congress had accepted his proposal of creating a continental army with George Washington as its leader; the speculation is that Warren could have challenged for this role had he lived. politicians such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson receive more attention for their wartime activities.. who knows what Warren could have accomplished had he evacuated with more haste at the end of the battle. Obviously, playing what if leads a lot of different directions in history, but Dr Warren was a patriot with a capital p, and he made his thoughts known at an earlier date than others. Yet he cultivated personal and professional relationships with prominent loyalists, demonstrating the magnetism that this great leader possessed. a man remembered almost exclusively for his death, Dr Joseph Warren was present in some capacity at most of the crucial events of the pre-war era and helped shape Colonial attitudes and policy towards British rule. he absolutely stands alongside the greats as a hero of the American Revolution .

Next week, Independence is declared.. officially. and we focus on two individuals in that episode, both bearing the same last name And both contributing something a little bit different towards the independence movement. On our next episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, we look at John and Abigail Adams, America's original power couple.